Do people think headphones are okay when cycling?

always_tyred

biondino wrote:

cee wrote:

is the same true for car stereos?

Not at all, I'd say. Big difference - you are likely to be travelling at ambient speed, in primary position - so you're where other road users expect you to be. The whole road experience is designed around your needs. Secondly, you have multiple mirrors so although it's not the same as being able to hear through 360 degrees, you can instantly view about 350 degrees (assuming blind spots) without any trouble. Thirdly, if you DO have an accident you're a lot less vulnerable!

What's ambient speed? Is it the speed that a person who isn't hot headed drives at?

Brixtonbiker

Hearing is one of the 5 senses. Take away anyone of the senses and we you are more vunerable. Siimple as that.
Think about listening to music at home with the headphones on, Ever had someone creep up on you and you have know idea they are there.. Imagine that on the bike. Stupid..

Littigator

Surely it's my choice though eh? Just like I have an opinion on helmet wearing, doesn't mean I have to force it on anyone else.

coshgirl66

Headphones are fine while cycling. As long as you don't have them so loud that you can't hear anything else, I really don't see the problem. And I ride 140 miles a week in London and have done for the past 20 years wearing headphones, and happily helmet-free.

Anonymous

Nothing wrong with headphones in...

If anything I cycling better with them in, if I don't have anything to listing to I just usually go into some sort of daze and can end up been just been a risk.

I have a habit of always looking back and I do this on a regular basis and even with headphones in I always take care, I always stop at traffic lights I am always fully aware of my surroundings.

In my mind if someone is a risk with headphones in, then that person is going to be just as much risk with them out, ok.. some people really cannot concentrate with headphones in, but everyone is different and I find it perfectly easy to, besides on social rides I usually have them out and not much point having them in when up on the dales, get no signal anyway.

There is one time I don't wear headphones and that is the first couple of times I go through somewhere new, when I move to Manchester on Monday I plotted some routes I'll need to take, the first couple I will not have headphones in as I'm totally unused to the area and its risky with all the cars around. I might have em on, just extreamly silent, sometimes there is extra concentration needed when I don't want headphones in, but thats only for a first time route for me.

TiNuts

Perhaps this is the answer:

http://www.gizmag.com/cy-fi-bluetooth-w ... aker/9995/

Could this be even more annoying than people playing music through their tinny little mobile phone speakers.....?

always_tyred

I thought that species of moth was extinct.

Anonymous

TiNuts wrote:

Perhaps this is the answer:

http://www.gizmag.com/cy-fi-bluetooth-w ... aker/9995/

Could this be even more annoying than people playing music through their tinny little mobile phone speakers.....?

That would lower you down to the league of chavs that go walking the streets playing there crappy music on the loudspeaker of the mobile phone and tbh I'd be embarrassed to ride a bike with that think playing!

KitsuneAndy

I wear headphones when cycling, I can still hear traffic coming up behind me just as well as if I didn't have the music on as the earphones stop the wind whistling past my ears.

So it's just hte music replacing the wind noise.

Anonymous

KitsuneAndy wrote:

I wear headphones when cycling, I can still hear traffic coming up behind me just as well as if I didn't have the music on as the earphones stop the wind whistling past my ears.

So it's just hte music replacing the wind noise.

Do you have expensive headphones? I use sony ones that came with my mobile and when listning to music I still get heaps of wind in my ears

KitsuneAndy

willhub wrote:

KitsuneAndy wrote:

I wear headphones when cycling, I can still hear traffic coming up behind me just as well as if I didn't have the music on as the earphones stop the wind whistling past my ears.

So it's just hte music replacing the wind noise.

Do you have expensive headphones? I use sony ones that came with my mobile and when listning to music I still get heaps of wind in my ears

Actually, they're just £1.99 ones from Poundstretcher They're the cylinder type ones that push into your ears and I find them really good. The sound quality is obviously a bit crap, but I don't care on the commute.

Nick6891

most headphones you will still get sound of the wind but not as much as you would without, dont get headphones with holes on the outside cos that just makes it louder lol

Kieran_Burns

willhub wrote:

There is one time I don't wear headphones and that is the first couple of times I go through somewhere new, when I move to Manchester on Monday I plotted some routes I'll need to take, the first couple I will not have headphones in as I'm totally unused to the area and its risky with all the cars around. I might have em on, just extreamly silent, sometimes there is extra concentration needed when I don't want headphones in, but thats only for a first time route for me.

So, when you need to concentrate you don't wear them? So this is an admission that they interfere with concentration?

The same cars are around even if you are used to an area, so what is the difference here?

Anonymous

Kieran_Burns wrote:

willhub wrote:

There is one time I don't wear headphones and that is the first couple of times I go through somewhere new, when I move to Manchester on Monday I plotted some routes I'll need to take, the first couple I will not have headphones in as I'm totally unused to the area and its risky with all the cars around. I might have em on, just extreamly silent, sometimes there is extra concentration needed when I don't want headphones in, but thats only for a first time route for me.

So, when you need to concentrate you don't wear them? So this is an admission that they interfere with concentration?

The same cars are around even if you are used to an area, so what is the difference here?

Anywhere I go at the moment, I will wear headphones.

When I go to Manchester, first couple of runs I wont, its new to me, these super busy citys, after a couple of rides I'll be wearing headphones.

I never said when I need to concentrate I don't wear them don't put words onto my keyboard.

gabriel959

I think we could probably establish a trend of people that don't wear helmets and use headphones.

Nick6891

I wear a helmet and headphones

AndyManc

TiNuts wrote:

Perhaps this is the answer:

http://www.gizmag.com/cy-fi-bluetooth-w ... aker/9995/

Could this be even more annoying than people playing music through their tinny little mobile phone speakers.....?

Or this ..............

http://www.ihomeaudio.com/products.asp?product_id=10186&dept_id=1007#

I want one

toshmund

It has got to be a personal choice. The concentration level of one person, with headphones maybe considerably better than someone without. Are you going to ban the non-wearer, for having a poor level of concentration/spatial awareness? Commonsense - all it takes, not a nanny state of do's and don'ts. Educate the muppets, preferably face to face. Not by venting your spleen on the forum afterwards "Oooh someone cut me up...what should I have done!?" Oh give me strength...

singlespeedexplosif

A simple analogy would be to walk directly up behind someone without trying to hide your approach.

If they are wearing headphones and you grab their shoulder, we're talking new underwear time.

Do so without and there is no surprise.

that's a terrible analogy. The person in question obviously has the music on too loud, and isn't aware of their surroundings from either their hearing or their other senses.
Sure, if you cycle with very loud music and don't know what is going on around you, you might get a shock if someone deliberately drives into you from directly behind (to equate to your original analogy).

GregP

No. No no no.

GregP

No. No no no.

Clever Pun

GregP wrote:

No. No no no.

there's no limits

singlespeedexplosif

[applauds]

always_tyred

Here's something I'd love someone from the anti-helmet lobby to do:

- I wear headphones whilst cycling. Even though I take safety seriously (I have a total of about £400's worth of lighting on my bike at the moment, for example) I listen to talk radio, but not music.

- I know it reduces my awareness slightly and I know I am a little less safe than when I'm not wearing headphones.

- I wear headphones because I like to listen to the radio on my way in to work. I wear headphones because it makes longer rides more interesting.

- I do not seek to compose tortuous arguments explaining why wearing headphones somehow make no difference at all to my safety, I am simply willing, on the basis of my experience, to take the small additional risk.

Clever Pun

singlespeedexplosif wrote:

[applauds]

couldn't help it...

I agree with you about the rubbish analogy above fwiw

if you're expecting a touch on the shoulder then it's not going to scare you, is it

toontra

I did a solo Land's End - John o'Groats in May in 6 days, almost entirely on A roads, much of which were dual carriageways. I had headphones (loud music) on for almost the entire time. I found the music to be both motivational and inspiring. Without it I would have been very bored very quickly, with nothing to listen to but the constant roar of heavy traffic. I never once felt less safe because the phones.

I feel different about using them when commuting in London - the traffic flow is more dynamic and less predictable, so I generally (but not always) travel sans music.

I cycle many thousands of miles every year, both for work and leisure, and I reckon the health benefits far outway the small increased risk of injury or death, and if I can make my cycling time more pleasurable then I will make a decision based on the estimated risk.

BTW, for the same reason I rarely wear a helmet (if that helps certain posters here tick a box ).

Greg T

They tried to make me go to rehab but I said

GregP wrote:

No. No no no.

This is the problem with listening to music when you ride.

O Fortuna appears on your classical play list and suddenly you are the avenging angel of death in your head - but a middle manager on a bike in reality.

Queue traffic bike interface drama....

GregP

They tried to make me go to rehab but I said

slmp 8)

moonio

Not if you are the girl cycling over Blackfriars bridge this evening, she had her ipod phones on a cigarrette in one hand and was swerving her handle bars in time to the music with the other hand.

Mettan

biondino wrote:

Desperately bad idea. I use my ears SO much when I'm cycling (though not to the detriment of looking round etc.) and would feel utterly vulnerable without them. Think of it this way - our eyes see well under half of what's around us but our ears work through 360 degrees, all the time. And it's very much not just big, loud, obvious noises that give you clues - it's the smaller, subconscious noises - and often absence of noise - that helps you correctly orientate yourself.

Ultimately, we're vulnerable enough as we are, and to purposely denude ourselves of a key sense is way worse than not wearing a helmet - it also could potentially harm others, unlike the helmet issue.

Fully agree with this.