What the musical issue then

[BentMikey]

I think that's a fairly clear indication that you should really be looking more on the bike. Your hearing only works sometimes, it's an unreliable detector of danger, which is why I don't like to rely on mine.

 

[Maylian]

Personally like some other cyclists I will happily use my iPod and get upset if I can't listen to my music. I will only have a piece in my left ear so the roadside ear is free to hear other things going on around me and my peripheral senses are extremely good combined with regular shoulder checks etc.

Plus if I don't listen to my iPod how am I going to be able to sing along and entertain other people?

 

[Boris Bajic]

This topic draws inconclusive and no amount of statistics will justify it. Individual difference applied here as much as it is to other stuff like helmets hi viz and x y z. It works for some and not others. I'm sure we have all heard of the person who crashed because they was fiddling with the sound controls in the car, hence why they started using volume controls on the steering wheel.

Like many of the 'advances' in car design over the past few decades, I am not convinced that this was safety-driven.

There were other factors too, not least sales and the difficulty of fitting non-OE parts.

I agree with the first part of your post.... It works for some and not for others.

Have a look at drivers... Many people don't use them. The last five cars we've owned have had audio controls on the wheel... initially volume, but now multi-fuction for changing station, levels, getting into and out of CD, MP3, radio et al... And these are not super-posho cars.

Do we use them? Maybe the volume occasionally, but not the others. We lean down and use the buttons on the stereo. So do very many middle-aged drivers.

It looks cool in the showroom. I do not think it was just a safety-related decision to fit these things.

 

[BentMikey]

[QUOTE 1817590, member: 45"]Again, no-one is talking about relying on any one sense. It's a combination of all that you need. You appear to be dismissing the value of hearing by suggesting that it should not be relied on, and that's unhelpful.
[/quote]

Wrong - what is unhelpful is relying on a sense that is unreliable. If you don't look, and you're expecting to hear a car, then not hearing an electric car is potentially a huge fail. I'm not saying you shouldn't use your hearing, but you SHOULD NEVER RELY ON IT. Always look.

 

[david1701]

not much, in a car you can't hear the outside world, above 15 miles an hour I for one can't hear a dam thing over the wind noise

 

[gb155]

It seems to me, that the "musical Issue" tends to be one used, in the main, to prove how reckless cyclists are.

 

[jowwy]

each to their own i say - riding a 20+mph the only thing i hear is the wind howling in my ears........

so that must be just as bad as listening to music - you still need to look around and do checks with or without - so lets stop the childish bickering over ipods, car stereo's, sat navs, hi viz and helmets and lets enjoy the cycilng.

end of.

 

[mumbo jumbo]

It's not the ton of metal or the side-impact bars that allow me safely to listen to music in my car. Safety and security in a car seem to me to be less a function of one's aural awareness of the environment than it is on a bicycle.

Like BB, I don't know why this is - but it is absolutely spot on in my experience.

 

[hotfuzzrj]

I regularly cycle whilst wearing my ipod, however I keep the volume low enough that I can hear most vehicles (maybe not other bikes or electric cars) behind me; I can normally hear pedestrians' conversations so I know it's quiet enough.
However in my car, perhaps because of the feeling of safety, I mostly have loud music or radio, not super-blare-volume but noisy.
When I'm at work using my nee-naws I get very frustrated at drivers who cannot hear the sirens until I'm sat behind them stationary, pointing and shouting, then they mime 'oh sorry I couldn't hear you...' I feel drivers shouldn't have music or radio so loud that they can't hear emergency sirens.

 

[8mile]

I always listen to a personal radio whilst cycling, I don't think I would cycle half as much without this added pleasure! Like most people I keep the volume to a reasonable level and am aware of traffic behind me, not that I can do much about it. I am also certain that I can hear emergency veichle sirens much earlier on the bike than I can see them in the mirrors or hear them in my car whether I am playing music or not.

 

[gb155]

I always listen to a personal radio whilst cycling, I don't think I would cycle half as much without this added pleasure! Like most people I keep the volume to a reasonable level and am aware of traffic behind me, not that I can do much about it. I am also certain that I can hear emergency veichle sirens much earlier on the bike than I can see them in the mirrors or hear them in my car whether I am playing music or not.

Nail on the head for the reason there. It really does make it so much more enjoyable for me with music

Cycling and music equals win

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jowwy]

Nail on the head for the reason there. It really does make it so much more enjoyable for me with music

Cycling and music equals win

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Watch out for the cycling music police gb155 - they are out there.

 

[gb155]

Watch out for the cycling music police gb155 - they are out there.

Am sure that they are

 

[marafi]

Both ways you lose concentration. Even when im walking i have one ear with music and the other without. You never know ninjas might creep up beside you. lol

 

[thefollen]

Definitely an 'each to their own' kinda topic.

I quite like the idea of wiring up a speaker to the front of bike then fixing it so the speed the music corresponds to the RPM of the pedals; the challenge being to cycle at the correct RPM consistently for the song. It would sound truly atrocious but quite good fun. A fixie doing a track stand would achieve a 'scratch' effect.