Looking for some input and was curious as to how the experienced riders view it!
Do you wear headphones to listen to music when out riding?

 

Depends on what I'm doing. I have listened to music on long, uneventful commutes before, but that's the only time I do. It helps to cover the monotonous road noise. When I'm out pleasure riding in the canyons, I prefer to listen to the motor, exhaust, and the world around me. I don't want to cut out one of my senses that is a valuable input tool to better my riding. I like the sound of my bike....

If you are going to listen to music, make sure you pick music with a pace the matches the ride and your abilities. The faster the beat, the faster you will tend to ride and more agitated with the slow cars you will be. Slower music will relax you. It's hard to get into a nice turning rhythm when the music and the road don't match.

 

Music makes me zone out sometimes, and I also play my music loud enough for others to hear while its in my ears...basically I cant hear **** when I got headphones in so I wouldnt ride with them in. I cannot stand when people wear headphones when they ride their bike or drive, just one of my many pet peeves

 

I ride with them once in a while. I don't actually keep the earbuds in my ears tho. I'll put them on at a volume I can hear and let them fall out of my ears when I put my helmet on. That way I can still hear the bike and other cars etc and the music is more of a background noise. I wouldn't ride around with some Beats by Dre headphones blasting or anything like that.

 

Hi,

I have a helmet intercom so I play music through those on long straight trips. I can still here what is around. No way would I wear earphones, too isolating IMO.

Rich

 

Yeah, it helps me ride smoother and it keeps me in "rhythm" and ear buds like Skullcandies which have only moderate sound isolation material will keep the wind noise out. I used to use the Shure 300 series earbuds which blocked out the world, but found that not only was it too much sound isolation, but at around $400 a pop it wasn't cheap as all headphones inevitably short when you keep your mp3 in your pocket. I've also got a set of custom ear plugs because they banned me from using earbuds on the track.

I get a lot of **** for wearing ear buds while riding (or at least I used to), but at the end of the day I've been doing it since day one and I think it's much more dangerous for people to ride without any kind of ear plugs/ear buds at anything above 30 mph because you can't hear anything over the wind noise anyways. Besides, I also use my phone as GPS and don't feel like mounting it to my handlebars so I just listen to the turn by turn directions.

 

I tried wearing headphones and I find that they isolate too much and I felt it was too dangerous. I don't ever wear them anymore. I don't know about a legal standpoint, but when I was growing up in Michigan I knew it was illegal to wear them while driving a car...

 

You think its more dangerous for people to ride without music playing in their ears...?

 

tried earphones once, tried earplugs once,
if the exhaust is too loud, put the baffles in,
if the wind is too noisy, get a better lid.

 

I've owned all different helmets, wind noise is wind noise. When Web Bike World reviewers test their helmets they use ear plugs. Most racers use ear plugs on the track. Look up what kinds of decibel levels you're exposing yourself to when you ride without ear plugs. So yeah, I think if you're riding without anything in your ears it's more dangerous.. not only are you damaging your sense of hearing for the long haul, but you're also hearing a lot less while you're actually riding.