Question about road biking safety - iphone/ipod

dsivie

Hi, I'm somewhat of a new road biker.

crankycrank

Do whatever works for you so that you can hear if someone is coming up from behind you for your own safety and mine. I've come up on many a cyclist/jogger/walker with earpieces on and had to yell just so they could hear me and move their a*se out of the way. I've seen road cyclists with the bud in just the left ear which might be a solution but it seems to me best to just not use them at all. Too many distracted drivers and riders on the road as it is including the woman yakking on her cell phone who made a right turn in front of my 83yr old mother yesterday which sent dear old mom into a light pole and wrecked her car. Fortunately the cars airbags prevented any injury. :evil:

nferrar

There's no right answer really, just what you're comfortable with. Some people seem to think you'll die instantly if you so much as sit on a bike whilst wearing earphones, others do it daily. Personally I often wear earphones on the road bike if on my own, though that's in low traffic country lanes, I wouldn't do it if I were commuting through a city with cars coming at you from all directions but wouldn't think someone foolish if they did. For your situation I guess it depends on how stable a cyclist you are (i.e. can you hold a line and will you wobble if another cyclist suddenly passes you if you didn't hear them), if you don't weave all over the place then sounds fine to me...

mattward1979

As with most things like this, There are 2 schools of thought...

A: You are removing one of your senses that will give you warning of potential dangers coming from sides/behind.

B: Not relying on your hearing forces you to look behind much more often, which is a better habit than relying on your ears to see behind you.


Both have merit, and both are true to an extent, so it is a case of what feels right for you.. I tried cycling with music going, but found it to be a distraction as Im a musician and tend to focus on picking out structures from guitar solo's rather than worrying about cars!

Another thing to note is that road cycling is a sport that is encouraged by Deaf assosciations as a safe sport for people that are completely bereft of hearing.

alfablue

I don't usually ride with headphones (if I do, its the radio, and not music), however, I wonder what difference it would make if I hear a vehicle behind - I hear them all the time and I don't dive out of the way; they don't sound different if they are going to hit me; I don't look around at every vehicle I hear; I always look behind if pulling out/overtaking/making a right turn etc. I just ride defensively (i.e. assertively) all the time.

bobtbuilder

If I'm riding on my own I always have my Ipod on. I only use the left earbud, and find that this doesn't compromise my ability to hear cars approaching from behind.

That said, I also find that i look back more often, which as Mattward said, is no bad thing.

dgstewart

mattward1979 wrote:

As with most things like this, There are 2 schools of thought...

A: You are removing one of your senses that will give you warning of potential dangers coming from sides/behind.

B: Not relying on your hearing forces you to look behind much more often, which is a better habit than relying on your ears to see behind you.


Both have merit, and both are true to an extent, so it is a case of what feels right for you.. I tried cycling with music going, but found it to be a distraction as Im a musician and tend to focus on picking out structures from guitar solo's rather than worrying about cars!

Another thing to note is that road cycling is a sport that is encouraged by Deaf assosciations as a safe sport for people that are completely bereft of hearing.

I'll go for (a) above, and think it's absolute f@%king lunacy to intentionally remove one of your senses and increase your risk on the roads. As for (b), you can always listen and look behind often. That's generally what I do.

Headhuunter

I wouldn't but then car drivers effectively have their hearing sealed off by the body of the car itself and by the stereo and they manage. Also some motorbike helmets (I've heard) have mini speakers in them and some motorcyclists listen to iphones as they ride anyway - a guy at work told me it's fairly common.

bikeboff

I find the cy-fi bike speaker to be a good answer. It lets me listen to music on long rides (not usually in an urban setting), but I can also pick up all ambient sounds and listen for cars as well.

father_jack

Not safe at all, unless you want to win the darwin award. Using a speaker on the bar though is better, as you can still hear noises.

secretsqizz

I claim the Darwin award, but sadly I go so fast the windrush noise drowns out Metallica.

Pokerface

I always ride with my iPod, even on clubruns. But if with other people or in heavy traffic, just with one earphone in.

Hearing cars and such isn't going to help you much to be honest if you're a considerate rider - and I can still hear a car horn if it comes to that.


The added benefit of wearing earphones is that I don't have to listen to abuse being shouted at me by random children at the side of the road or chavs driving by.

ipitythefool

+1 left ear bud

jim453

dsivie wrote:

Hi, I'm somewhat of a new road biker. I've been road and mountain biking since I was a child (I'm 33 now) but always informally for exercise. I've never tried to do some serious training until now. I now bike on a 40 mile road biking trail that's pretty flat. I always wear my helmet of course, but I'm starting to wonder if it's safe for me to listen to music while riding? I've always listened to my iphone/ipod when biking in the past (never on roads though) but this new trail has lots of pretty serious riders. I'm starting to worry that not being able to hear someone passing on my left can cause an accident. Plus, I don't see anyone else with the iphone earbuds on while riding. Is riding with both ears listening to music dangerous? This is a pure biking trail - no cars - and I always make sure to look behind me when passing another cyclist. Is this considered a real no-no among road cyclists? If so, is there a solution - perhaps a single earbud? Any thoughts??

This has to be an amusing troll.

Don't bother with in ear buds. A full set of closed, over the head cans is what you need. This will interfere with your helmet though so don't bother wearing one. There's no proof that they work anyway.


Seriously though, if you want to listen to your music then get on it. I do. Always have. Appetite for destruction'll get you up most things.

Warwickshire Whizzer

It's all about whatever you feel safe with really.

I personally don't use my ipod whilst cycling, as I have a tendency to throw the volume up so loud I wouldn't hear a thing, and feel safer with some kind of sense of what might be happening.

I never run without it, but then I'm going a lot slower as I trundle down footpaths.

Go with whateveryou feel safe with, just make sure your music is tasteful.

MattC59

Now that that can of worms is open, you can hand back the can opener

Do what you're comfortable with. I use an ipod with head phones, but I have th volume set so that I can hear traffic. At high speeds, this means that wind noise drowns out the music, but at lower speeds, I don't have an issue with hearing traffic.

dsivie

Thanks for all the opinions guys. I appreciated seeing your thoughts. I actually would never listen to music while on an actual "road" with any amount of traffic. My question pertained to riding on a dedicated road biking trail. I was concerned because this trail is heavily used by very serious road bikers - some going at very high speeds. Even this concerns me because some groups of riders have come up behind me without me hearing their warning while I'm trying to change lanes (I always look behind though).

Anyway, the whole question arose because I have yet to see any of the other "serious" riders listening to anything and I was wondering if I was violating any "protocols." I have been riding solo so far and for some reason I get looks from other passing riders that don't seem very "friendly" and I was wondering if the earbuds made me stand out in a negative way. -Thanks

Bozman

I can't see what difference it makes. i ride motorbikes and roadbikes, you don't need to know what's coming from behind unless you're going to move over and then you look! Most motorcyclists wear ear plugs and at this time of year how many of us have our ears covered! In one of last months cycling magazines it encouraged you to use music while you train and they weren't talking indoors on a turbo.
I don't use either but i had my ears covered with a hat when i was out this morning

acidstrato

why would you get passed on the left? and how would that be any different to getting passed on your right on a trail. accidents happen either way.

dsivie

Well, I live in the US

acidstrato

ahhh i see, you drive on the wrong side of the road in your country

bakerstreet

Bozman wrote:

I can't see what difference it makes. i ride motorbikes and roadbikes, you don't need to know what's coming from behind unless you're going to move over and then you look! Most motorcyclists wear ear plugs and at this time of year how many of us have our ears covered!

Also motorcycles at motoprway speeds can be pretty loud. Especially if you have a naked bike. It never helped that I didn't have a legal exhasut on any of my bikes

Been commuting for three weeks now and I am getting very tempted with the iPod thing. I think it would help my speed and as an ex motorcyclist, I always check over my shoulder before I move out. I don't see every cyclist do that...

Last cycle commute of the week tomorrow. May give the ipod thing a go and see what its like.

cougie

The analogy with motorbikes and cars doesn't work well. They both have mirrors. Also they'd both be taking up a whole lane - and don't often get overtaken - mways and dual carriageways excepted. Bikes get overtaken a hell of a lot more.
And what's with the ipod on a club run ? That's just ignorant - its hard to chat anyway at speed with wind and cars going past - so to have music on at the same time ? Really can't see that going down well in my club. If your music is so precious - ride alone.

Soni

I would never use an IPOD on the road for obvious reasons.

Likewise, on trails, you possibly won't have any cars to worry about, however i have often heard the sound of a scrambler/off road motorcycle come flying around the corner head on to me, and if i had the IPOD in my ears at the time, think of the consequences.....

I wouldn't bother, or if you want some music, put it on speakerphone mode.....

singlespeedexplosif

The analogy with motorbikes and cars doesn't work well. They both have mirrors.

Indeed. And, equally irrelevantly, bikes have a saddle, and cars don't. Neither of these statements makes the slightest bit of difference to whether it is safe to ride with music or not.

Gingerflash

Of course it does., This is all about awareness of other traffic behind. In a car it's easy to see behind every few seconds by glancing in the mirrors. Cyclists (generally) have no rear view mirror so have to either rely on hearing or physically turn their head round, which isn't really practical or safe to do every few seconds.

The only time I ride with musci is in solo 24 mountain bike races, just because I tend to go a bit nuts otherwise, especially in the night. Even then, it's only one ear and fairly quiet. I can easily hear other riders behind. I wouldn't use headphones on the road.

Rushie

I used to commute with music and then lost interest when the player died. Last week I managed to resurrect the player and so have been riding in central London with music for the last week or so. If you're a confident rider I think you'll be fine. One point to note though - keep the volume low. On my first day back with music I had the volume loud, and took a few seconds longer than I should have done to move out of the way for a police car with blues & twos on - I simply hadn't heard it. Lesson learned - will continue riding with music but at a low level.

Flambes

So, you cyclists who don't listen to music while out riding, and you hear a car behind, what do you do?

Pull over?
Cheery wave?
An impressive mime act?

I've ridden both with and without many times, in the few times I've had an accident, in no way was the Ipod or lack of it an issue.

Bozman

When you do a trackday on a motobike, you take your mirrors off to stop you using them and to make sure that you keep your mind on the track ahead. Its the same when you ride your bike, you just don't need to know what's behind you unless you're going to move over. Would a deaf person ride a bike alone? Would a blind person ride alone?

Butterd2

If I'm riding up a big slow climb (say 2 hours up Tourmalet) then I will listen to music to take away the pain but I would not ride on normal roads with headphones on, partially from a safety perspective partly because I feel I should be enjoying the great outdoors.

cougie

Not ridden a track day - but I'd have thought that they probably don't have too many potholes to avoid or pedestrians liable to step out in front of you ?

Seems silly to cut out your sense of hearing for what ? The chance to listen to the latest X Factor song ?