listening to music whilst cycling???

[Jezston]

[QUOTE 1377605"]
Headphones aren't a mic windshield. Look at what they're made from. Headphones reduce all incoming noise. Sound waves don't travel well through plastic and rubber. They do through foam.
[/quote]

1. Sound waves travel very easily through a layer of plastic a fraction of a milimeter thick.

2. I have been unable to find detailed statistics on my particular headphones, and cant be arsed to do a proper test, but from a quick casual on/off test the attenuation of external noise from having my headphones on or off is pretty much unnoticable. I might speculate a figure of somewhere around 0.25dB that these headphones are reducing external noise by. Ok?

And you've forgotten that as well as blocking out noise, headphones also introduce another sound source.

This I can't argue with, but at sensible levels and with attentive riding I'd say it's of little consequence in the grand scheme of things

As with my first post on this thread, if you want to wear them then go ahead. But trying to argue that they help you hear better on the road is bonkers.

It isn't bonkers, it's correct. Please try to actually accept some of the points I'm making a great deal of effort into making because right now I feel like a cyclist arguing with a motorist about stuff like road tax.

 

[4F]

It isn't bonkers, it's correct. Please try to actually accept some of the points I'm making a great deal of effort into making because right now I feel like a cyclist arguing with a motorist about stuff like road tax.

I have considred all of your points, given them a great deal of thought and my valued opinion is that you are talking out of the part of the body that makes contact with your seat and agree with Mr P (aka Theo Steggers) that you are bonkers.
However I have to commend and applaud your valiant but misguided stand

 

[Jezston]

User - my headphones act as a fairly effective windshield. They do. It's as simple as that. Not bonkers.

4F - clearly no matter what facts I present to you, you will deflect it with derision and I won't bother trying to convince the stubbornly ignorant. Try not to fall off the edge of the world on your next ride.

 

[Jezston]

Oh leave it out. You know what I've said. Every time I refute your points with some form of evidence (even if admittedly much of it is anecdotal) you say it's something *else* in my claim that is 'daft' or 'bonkers'.

Seriously I work in this area. Do I really have to spend my time looking up info as to the absorptive and attenuating properties at different frequencies of various materials at different thicknesses and densities - or could you accept the points I've made or at the very least refute them which facts rather than derision?

Again, from a basic listening test I would speculate my headphones attenuate approx 0.25dB of content above around, say 2kHz - maybe sloping down to a max of 1-2dB above 16kHz.

Not enough to be considered any kind of hinderance to safe riding.

 

[Pisquee]

Personally, for me, it is about attention and concentration. I work as a sound engineer, and so, if I am listening to music, then that is what I am doing. When I am cycling I am concentrating on my riding, and the road/traffic/people around me. If I put headphones on, even open backed ones, I may still have the audio information available to me for the traffic around me, but I would still be concentrating more on the music. I can't do both. I am not saying this to say other people aren't capable of doing both, just it isn't for me.

 

[Jezston]

[QUOTE 1377614"]
Some earbuds are even marketed as noise cancelling. This isn't a design feature, but a recognition that blocking your earhole with a bunch of metal, plastic and rubber is going to impair your environmental hearing.
[/quote]
Hence me not advising the use of noise cancellation headphones at the beginning of this thread, and me attempting to point out that the impairment affects are being overstated.

Some headphones are designed to let some noise through as a safety measure, but none of them have ever claimed to make your hearing better, because that claim would be bonkers.

I'm not claiming they are designed to do this, I'm just saying that the wind shielding is a convenient side effect.

Look, I realise I'm getting a bit worked up over something fairly inconsequential and I should probably step back. No hard feelings everyone.

 

[Sittingduck]

Hurrah! Thread ends...

 

[ianrauk]

Hurrah! Thread ends...

Sorry SD, what was that? Couldn't hear you.. was listening to a bit of music through my headphones.

 

[4F]

Hurrah! Thread ends...

Shame, I still thought it had another 4 or 5 pages to go.

 

[kaiser]

i'm sorry i asked now... look what i've started..

 

[Bicycle]

So.... What about the really important follow-on question:

What music do people listen to when either listening or not listening through headphones they are either wearing or not wearing?

Or, indeed, what music (specifically) do people not listen to because they believe that music would represent an unacceptably raised risk level?

I think the people need to know.

(I write this as a man who just subjected his 12-year-old son to 30 minutes of Kosovo-Albanian folk in the car - prompting him to ask what on Earth the point of folk music is. I was unable to answer the question but gloried in his displeasure).

 

[david k]

I find it somehow sad we all seem to need to live in our own little cocoon of electronic noise when there is plenty of sound in nature to enjoy, especially at this time of year. Granted the sound of the peacocks in Corsham is maybe not so pleasant (except perhaps to a pea-hen in the right mood)!

agreed, so i downloaded natures sound to play on my ipod whilst cycling

 

[adam23]

i use headphones when i ride a lot of times if its windy i use them to cut road and wind noise down as the wind gives me
shooting pains in my ears thats really painfull.
i will use a bit of music on hilly rides to help me get up them as well.
i am very aware on my bike checking my everymove over my shoulders etc that mostly down to racing motocross
where its manic.
personaly i think its down to the individual what they do some people like it some dont but i dont think either party
could say its right or wrong

 

[Arch]

So.... What about the really important follow-on question:

What music do people listen to when either listening or not listening through headphones they are either wearing or not wearing?

When I first got an mp3 player to listen to when out riding, I selected mostly tunes with a fairly upbeat tempo, to keep me going. Gradually I changed the list around until now I have a fairly eclectic range of stuff, some more relaxed.

One of the reasons I don't tend to listen so much in town is that it's too easy to get carried away by the beat, and be tempted to ride too fast for traffic conditions. But I'm pretty good at 'zoning out' the music once I get to the edge of town, another reason why I feel ok listening at all, I can ignore it when I need to, just as I can ignore the telly in the background when I'm on the phone (as long as it's not too loud).

One good reason for me to listen to music is that otherwise I might be tempted to keep myself going by singing aloud, and that's bad for everyone else!

(On the last 20 miles of my longest ride ever, 128 miles, I didn't have company, and hadn't brought the MP3. I had to sing to myself, and the only songs I could remember a decent chunk of words to were Christmas carols...)

 

[VamP]

So.... What about the really important follow-on question:

What music do people listen to when either listening or not listening through headphones they are either wearing or not wearing?

Or, indeed, what music (specifically) do people not listen to because they believe that music would represent an unacceptably raised risk level?

I think the people need to know.

(I write this as a man who just subjected his 12-year-old son to 30 minutes of Kosovo-Albanian folk in the car - prompting him to ask what on Earth the point of folk music is. I was unable to answer the question but gloried in his displeasure).

That's a great Follow On Question!

Personally I specifically do not listen to any Chemical Brothers or Prodigy (showing my age here) while not wearing my headphones, while not listening to my ipod while cycling.

If I were to try ipod listening while cycling, I would be sure to steer towards calming gentle sounds that would be unlikely to induce either road-rage, or sense of adrenaline fuelled immortality. Fleet Foxes perhaps.

As to your penchant for Balkan Folk - an Emir Kusturica fan perhaps? In any case well done for being able to derive satisfaction from winding up a twelve year old, I know that I couldn't survive 30 minutes of my son's withering contempt