Helmets and Headphones

[martint235]

Well that's quite strange. Being the cynic that I am, I was actually expecting the "Helmet and Headphones" vote to be higher, I certainly wasn't expecting it to be 0

 

[Dan B]

I wear an airbag instead of a helmet. Over my eyes. Sure, it voluntarily removes one of my senses but at least it's not messing my hair up.

 

[andyfraser]

It would be ideal if they could however the design of a modern car precludes this and takes it out of the drivers' control. A cyclist with headphones is voluntarily removing a sense. Note the voluntarily as another argument is "But deaf people can cycle" which they can and should do but they don't voluntarily remove the sense and would probably find it laughable that someone would wish to do so.

You're assuming that headphones completely remove the ability to hear. When I'm cycling I only listen to podcasts or audiobooks and at a low volume. I can still hear cars behind me. I can still hear the sirens of emergency vehicles. I've found listening to something actually helps dampen the sound of a car horn behind me. I can still hear it but I'm not startled by it. In fact headphones help dampen a lot of noise that's further away and not relevant anyway and sudden noises in general are less likely to startle me.. Because there is some hearing lose when using headphones I find I'm more likely to look properly to double check what I'm hearing when making a manoeuvre.

When I'm not wearing headphones I've found I can't hear much anyway above 20 mph due to wind noise. I can't always tell where a vehicle is just by sound anyway. A louder engine may seem closer. Some modern cars are very quiet, especially when there's wind noise too. Sound can bounce around if there are buildings or walls close to the road making it harder to tell where a vehicle is.

Overall, in my experience, headphones make no difference to safety to me the way I use them.

I only wear a helmet because the OH wants me to and it's somewhere to mount my camera.

 

[Drago]

Indeed. The OP is Making an assumption, and we all know that an assumption is the mother of all f*** ups.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I choose to wear a lid, and not to wear headphones.

 

[coffeejo]

I choose to wear what the hell I like and anyone who doesn't like it or tries to tell me what to do will be ignored.

 

[Drago]

How do pilots get away with headphones if they're the nun slaughtering puppy murdering works of Satan that the OP believes them to be?

 

[mickle]

Helmet never. Headphones always. It's the only time I get to listen to bangin' hardcore.

 

[mjr]

Helmet never. Headphones always. It's the only time I get to listen to bangin' hardcore.

You meanie! Put it on a speaker and share!

 

[Saluki]

I wear a helmet most of the time, unless I am just pootling up to the cake cafe and back, then I don't as it's along the Marriotts Way.
Headphones, yes. I do have them and use them regularly. I have Aftershokz Bluez bone conduction headphones that sit in front of my ears, on those bones that are there. I can hear whatever I'm listening too, I can hear the traffic and I can hear my wheels on the tarmac too. I can even hear that irritating click that comes and goes from somewhere around my BB (Must get that looked at by the chap in the LBS around the corner).
I don't have earbuds, nor do I wear those big proper headphones that I see people wearing whilst walking and cycling. I do wear big proper headphones when I'm practicing guitar at 2am though.

 

[benb]

I wear headphones, but they are the bone conducting ones, so don't block my ear at all.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I wear a helmet sometimes (pretty much always for commuting) I wear headphones pretty much always (unless I'm tootling along with friends and trying to chat).
I am currently wearing Audio-Technica ATH-CKP500 in-ear headphones which have a ribbed option for the earbud which allows quite a lot of sound past the bud (rather than it making a blockage) and I have the volume set so the loudest music likely to come out of them is quiet enough for me to hear beyond (meaning sometimes I can't hear the quieter music).
I've been snuck up on by stuff when not wearing headphones (or there is just silence) and I can hear stuff while wearing headphones so I also don't see that they make enough of a difference to be an issue worth bothering about. I can hear sirens over the music and get out of the way, I can hold conversations at traffic lights. Again as I've probably mentioned before, some of my ride parallels the A20 and 'even with headphones on' I've been startled by a particularly loud lorry or motorbike on the road the other side of the fence.

Without the addition of the music, I find riding at a good pace harder. I like having it there to stop me thinking about the hill I'm crawling up. I like seeing how the ground whizzes by as the songs tick through. How far I've got during this 4 minute song, how far now after another 4 minutes and onwards. I feel a bit anti-social pinging a bell at people, I'd not want to be playing music through a speaker like a spotty 15 year old while I was riding along (but, you know, each to their own.).