Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => On The Road => Topic started by: Nothereforafasttime on 29 November, 2018, 03:36:41 pm
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Listening to music through earbuds whilst cycling - who does it?
So far I've done 2 x 400km Audaxes on my own with no music and it's very boring so I was thinking of giving music a go to lighten the boredom.
So who else listens to music whilst cycling? (I'm assuming just the one earbud in so you can listen for traffic?)
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I don’t do it often but it actually helps in hearing the traffic behind you if it’s windy or the speed you’re going at generates a lot of wind noise. Just don’t have the volume too loud.
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Contentious subject, and contentious opinion follows:-
I do it some times, but most of the time I don't simply because my threshold for being bored on the bike is very high and I rarely cycle longer than that any more (I remember doing a 300km Audax mostly on my own where I used them a lot but that was years ago). When I do use them it's almost always both ears.
I can always still hear sirens and cars beeping, and often my music is low volume enough that I can hear people talking to me (although I can't always pick out the words they're saying as that gets jumbled with the music/lyrics). (This is the same when I'm not riding, I've always listened to things on a relatively low volume compared to others.)
I do it because I can't remember a time where my course of action would have been different because of something I've only heard (other than sirens/beeping/etc which I can still hear if I use headphones), or more importantly, didn't hear.
I rode a motorbike for years and was taught to do proper frequent observations (not just lifesavers before specific manoeuvres); you couldn't rely on hearing as it was muffled by a helmet and ear plugs (which I used pretty much every time I was riding). As a consequence I'm rarely surprised by close overtakes because I've been looking behind me, and hearing alone isn't good enough to tell you whether an impending overtake is going to be close or not.
I remember when someone looked at some helmet camera footage I had when I first got a helmet camera. They couldn't watch it for more than a minute as they were feeling sea-sick as my head was constantly moving around looking around.
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I sometimes ride with an earphone in my left ear. I don't use the right hand earpiece as I like to be able to hear traffic coming up from behind.
If I'm on a long solo ride, the radio helps relieve any boredom that might creep up.
Should I be out on a solo training ride , then I'll use my fast tempo playlist to encourage me to go faster.
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I use two earbuds sometimes. Not sure if I would in a town though but there again deaf people cycle and has been mentioned below a lot of motorcyclists wear ear plugs these days.
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You can get earbuds designed to let in more ambient sound. Though may not sound great if its windy.
Or some sort of bone conduction earbuds.
If you only use 1 earbud, probably best to convert your music to mono. Otherwise you would only hear half of it.
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I never use ear buds because I think cutting off one of my senses would impact on safety. I use a bone conduction headset (Trekz titanium) pretty much all the time. I find it to be a happy medium between a slightly diminished auditory awareness and the pleasure of riding to banging choons.
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I don't do it, but not for safety reasons (I just find them uncomfortably sweaty). Ambient sound is too unreliable/misleading to be a useful source of situational awareness on the road.
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I disagree. Even engine tone of a vehicle behind can tell me something about the driver's mentality and likely behaviour. It's nice to get early warning of speeding motorbikes on windy Welsh roads etc etc.
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I do, but only on long rides on empty country lanes, only one ear and only podcasts (i.e. spoken word).
I do sometimes play music out loud from the phone on my handlebars if there's no one else about, which is one of the pros of being lantern rouge.
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I disagree. Even engine tone of a vehicle behind can tell me something about the driver's mentality and likely behaviour.
I agree it can, but I've never had a situation where it has been absolutely necessary that I have that information. (I understand this may be an example of survivorship bias.)
Bone conducting headphones are a reasonable solution but the few pairs I've tried have never worked well with a cycling cap and glasses (both normal glasses or plastic cycling glasses, I can't wear contact lenses). I should get myself down to a shop that will let me try on a few different sets to see if there are some that don't create a pressure point on some part of the glasses arm(s) and therefore my skull.
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I disagree. Even engine tone of a vehicle behind can tell you something about the driver's mentality and likely behaviour.
It can also tell you completely the wrong thing. eg. It turns out that an ambulance on blue lights sounds exactly the same as any other diesel-engined van when it stops behind you while you wonder why the pedestrian at the zebra crossing you stopped for isn't moving.
I agree that noisy exhaust or ludicrous subwoofer is a danger signal, but that gets through headphones, car windows, etc, just fine. But even if it didn't, there's generally little you'd change about your cycling behaviour knowing that the driver of vehicle behind is particularly likely to be impatient - as a rule of thumb I assume that all motorists will be. What is useful is knowing when it's something wider or slower than usual, or when it's indicating, which is where the Mk 1 eyeball (possibly via a mirror) comes in.
The absence of noise doesn't tell you anything of course, as anyone who's been startled by another cyclist in their blind spot[1] will know.
TBH I find the main safety benefit to being able to hear as a cyclist is knowing which oiks are the shouty ones who should be given a wide berth. Otherwise it's mostly about detecting mechanical problems with your bike, and EV-spotting.
[1] In That London, they're usually about to undertake you in order to jump the red lights.
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Perhaps you aren't as good as me at anticipating driver behaviour, proximity, speed etc based on audible cues.
Almost daily empirical experience demonstrates to me that many sounds are worth hearing.
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Perhaps you aren't as good as me at anticipating driver behaviour, proximity, speed etc based on audible cues.
Almost daily empirical experience demonstrates to me that many sounds are worth hearing.
Both Greenbank and Kim have given very extensive explanations of why, in their view, hearing every environmental detail isn't really of much help in a real-world situation which may result in being rear ended. I agree with them.
On the other hand you merely repeat your opinion.
It's actually on narrow country lanes that I would probably not feel happy with buds in, but for the sake of hearing cars behind that may be getting held up for long periods (engines running slow/quiet), so out of consideration rather than a fear for my own safety.
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Perhaps you aren't as good as me at anticipating driver behaviour, proximity, speed etc based on audible cues.
Almost daily empirical experience demonstrates to me that many sounds are worth hearing.
I tend to (but by no means exclusively) use cycles with mirrors, which is also likely to be a factor.
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I listen to podcasts via earbuds whilst on country lanes, but turn them off when in an urban area. I’d be nervous about listening to music because it’s a constant sound backdrop, whereas there’s as much silence as sound when listening to the spoken word.
Total respect for anyone whose ‘risk assessment’ differs from mine and chooses a different course.
However, to those who would seek to ban cyclists using earbuds (or headphones for that matter) I always ask them whether they think it should be illegal for a deaf person to ride a bike.
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I've just never felt the need - I've done 18, 20 hour stints in the saddle and never felt I would have gotten any better with music. Even in my daily 35 minute commute I find my tiny mind is filled with enough interesting stimulation.
My dad often gives me a bollocking for wearing all black on the safety front but then he's the one zipping around with an earbud in /o\
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Perhaps you aren't as good as me at anticipating driver behaviour, proximity, speed etc based on audible cues.
Almost daily empirical experience demonstrates to me that many sounds are worth hearing.
Both Greenbank and Kim have given very extensive explanations of why, in their view, hearing every environmental detail isn't really of much help in a real-world situation which may result in being rear ended. I agree with them.
On the other hand you merely repeat your opinion.
No. They have given their opinion. I've given examples of daily personal experience. If you look carefully, nearly everything I've said is about me. I'm not denying others experience, but equally I dont expect others to deny mine either.
Not sure what your post adds, other than having a stir with a rather rude manner.
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Perhaps you aren't as good as me at anticipating driver behaviour, proximity, speed etc based on audible cues.
Almost daily empirical experience demonstrates to me that many sounds are worth hearing.
I tend to (but by no means exclusively) use cycles with mirrors, which is also likely to be a factor.
Indeed. I've also noticed that I look behind me far more often than other riders.
Equally, I Ride with some people (audax and club) who are utterly oblivious to what is going on around them, sound or no sound.
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I listen to podcasts via earbuds whilst on country lanes, but turn them off when in an urban area. I’d be nervous about listening to music because it’s a constant sound backdrop, whereas there’s as much silence as sound when listening to the spoken word.
Total respect for anyone whose ‘risk assessment’ differs from mine and chooses a different course.
Whereas I find speech too distracting when I'm driving (I don't use headphones on the bike). Music much less so.
However, to those who would seek to ban cyclists using earbuds (or headphones for that matter) I always ask them whether they think it should be illegal for a deaf person to ride a bike.
I don't think that's a reasonable comparison, not least because everyone's allowed to use a pedal cycle (even the completely blind) and banning any specific group would be legally difficult. But more relevantly, deaf people behave differently to hearing people with regard to visual observation habits[1], and there's some evidence that sign language users[2] make greater use of their peripheral vision than hearing people. It's a truism that the lemming pedestrian you just had to avoid isn't deaf - walking into roads without looking is (edge-cases like drunks and small children aside) a hearing people thing.
A hearing person with headphones hasn't necessarily developed the same observation skills as a deaf person. They're also giving their brain an additional stream of input to process.
I think a fairer comparison would be the legality of car radios/windows.
[1] eg. Deaf people tend to poll their environment visually to check they've not missed anything, in a way that triggers security people's suspicious-behaviour-dar.
[2] A small subset of people with hearing loss.
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always wear them in any ride and listen to a mixture of podcasts and music.
It is rubbish that impacts our riding as even if I have it up full volume I can still hear things around me etc ...
besides how many car drivers close their windows, blast out music etc ?
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Some twerp seemed to get irate at me last night because he couldn’t overtake me - it was a narrow road and there were cars coming the other way. Once the traffic cleared, he passed me but slowed down as he drew level so he could speak his branes at me
I say he ‘seemed’ to get irate but I can’t really be sure - I had David Bowie singing loudly in my ears so I didn’t hear a word he said (though I think one of them might have been “fucking”). I feel no worse off for being deprived of his pearls of wisdom.
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I think this is one of those questions that needs a huge dose of "it depends".
My personal experience is years of commuting in heavy London traffic listening to Radio 4 on headphones and never feeling at all unable to hear traffic. I generally didn't listen to music because the street noise was too loud for it to be enjoyable.
I suspect you'd have to turn up music volume to ear-bleeding levels to overwhelm that sort of traffic volume.
But people have very varied hearing ability and acuity and different tolerances and sensitivities for noise so it's probably something individuals have to experiment and decide for themselves.
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I do listen to music but with only one earbud. (Right one on the continent, left one in the UK).
For me that's the nice compromise. I can still listen to music (which keeps me awace and more concentrated) while I can still hear the traffic sounds from the direction where it matters.
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everyday, 1 in the left, music on, no dramas
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Those who use an earbud in one ear only... you do understand that hearing is stereo, right? If you want to get an idea of the direction sound is coming from, you need both ears in play. (At least, sound localisation is more accurate when using both ears.)
Not that human hearing is hugely reliable in this respect anyway, which is one of the reasons I never trust my hearing to give me accurate information about my environment when cycling, regardless of whether or not I’m listening to music.
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On an audax I'll use headphones as a bit of a treat on longer quiet solo stretches or where a bit of morale is needed.
I've always listened to the radio whilst commuting. My colleagues take a dim view of this. Every single accident I have had in the last 20 years has involved somebody or thing stepping out in front of me. Being able to hear them would make no difference.
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Often. Verge side ear in. Just podcasts/audiobooks.
Sometimes, I'll put both ears in if i'm battling a headwind as it vastly reduces the windnoise over my earholes and enables me to detect vehicles approaching from behind.
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OOI, do we have any sodcasters?
Obviously this is de rigueur for Christmas-themed rides, but more generally it tends to be a teenagers-on-BSOs thing. Nevertheless I do occasionally come across a proper cyclist with tinny tunes (or, more commonly, some sort of sports commentary) emanating from their bike luggage.
Potential antisocialness (if you're riding solo away from other people, it's a non-problem) and horrendous audio quality aside, it seems like a good way to reduce the impact on your hearing and avoid the faff of earphones.
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Those who use an earbud in one ear only... you do understand that hearing is stereo, right? If you want to get an idea of the direction sound is coming from
In the country lane scenario, if you hear car engine noise and you can't you see it in front of you, there's not a lot of possibilities left.
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Those who use an earbud in one ear only... you do understand that hearing is stereo, right? If you want to get an idea of the direction sound is coming from
In the country lane scenario, if you hear car engine noise and you can't you see it in front of you, there's not a lot of possibilities left.
Exactly. There are some strange views here concerning the alledged 'inaccuracy' of hearing. I'll take inaccurate hearing over no hearing ;)
I can't speak for other people and in particular how efficient their branes are at processing road sounds into meaningful information. Maybe I have a very adept brane but I find no difference between my expectations based on hearing and what transpires moments later. 35 years of experience may be a factor.
I do accept that in busy urban situations, it is harder to link sound to actuality...but then I mostly avoid busy urban scenarios. For rural roads, I am 100% correct in my estimation of the value of hearing to me.
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I often have radio on. But I quite like information about places I am going through - to which end I have been working on an android app that receives location updates and reads out information about nearby places from wikipedia. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=georadio.bjt.com.georadio . I have put a small price on it but I think you can get a refund if you uninstall it (not sure).
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I do accept that in busy urban situations, it is harder to link sound to actuality...but then I mostly avoid busy urban scenarios.
Ah!
I've been mostly thinking of urban situations. >95% of my riding on quiet country lanes is done on bikes with mirrors, where I usually see the vehicle approaching from behind long before I hear it. Hearing is mostly useful for junctions on blind bends, and occasionally for detecting that there's a horse round the corner in front.
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In the country lane scenario, if you hear car engine noise and you can't you see it in front of you, there's not a lot of possibilities left.
...and equally limited options available to do anything useful with the information.
Whereas I find speech too distracting when I'm driving (I don't use headphones on the bike). Music much less so.
Yes, this is something that has always puzzled me about people who rate listening to radio/podcasts as being safer than listening to music. Speech requires attention, music can be treated as background noise - especially if it's music you're already familiar with.
Comedy podcasts are the worst - there have been occasions when I've had to stop by the side of the road because I was laughing too much to stay upright on the bike.
A hearing person with headphones hasn't necessarily developed the same observation skills as a deaf person. They're also giving their brain an additional stream of input to process.
That's all about experience. A deaf person is experienced at dealing with daily life without auditory inputs, but an experienced cyclist might equally have developed the ability to compensate for sensory deficiencies/extra input streams (and will also understand the limitations of human hearing when cycling).
Based on my experience, I have come to the conclusion that being able to hear is very low down on the list of safety requirements.
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@Kim Well that explains our respective positions! I had an incident this week that required me to take evasive action (swinging to left to avoid driver overtaking near a traffic island). I didn't expect the driver to do it as it was such an unbelievably stupid thing to do. It was only when I heard the car accelerate that I realised what the driver was about to do. If I hadn't swerved into the kerb I would have been hit, no question.
In rural settings the concern is drivers accelerating fast round long blind corners. Again, many times I've had to dive for the curb because I know what is coming.
Clearly, in urban settings it is probably traffic ahead of you, at junctions etc, which poses most risk, in which case hearing is unlikely to be of much use.
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Maybe I have a very adept brane
Or maybe you are a bat?
I think it is impossible to make any meaningful claims about accuracy of hearing without some kind of controlled test, and I have a hunch that many cyclists (not least ones with 35 years experience) may not be getting as much or as accurate information from their hearing as they imagine - instead their experience is enabling them to build a picture based on a complex set of stimuli, of which auditory cues may be but a small part.
Personally, I don't trust my hearing as far as I can throw it, but I appreciate that my hearing is far from perfect and YMMV.
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Humans do have other senses. Are you suggesting hearing impaired people shouldn't ride bikes? If I'm on my own I often plug in, crank the volume to max and get down to some hard rock. I always go faster when doing so :P I've never had a problem not noticing a car from behind....
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I can tell you that when a car overtakes me (with the exception of very high or low speed) I know exactly where that car will be on the road, laterally.
That has proved to be useful information.
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Very often I ride with one ear bud in and spotify on. I would prefer if there was a way to alter the balance on Android without a root'ed phone so I could improve battery life of my headphones, at the moment I have to make do with setting the accessibility to mono audio and putting it through both headphones...
Google had an app to do this sometime ago, I liked it at first until I was in London a lot and it never shut up and churned through the phone battery... I think it might have been called "Google Places"
I often have radio on. But I quite like information about places I am going through - to which end I have been working on an android app that receives location updates and reads out information about nearby places from wikipedia. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=georadio.bjt.com.georadio . I have put a small price on it but I think you can get a refund if you uninstall it (not sure).
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Never tried it, even on long Audaxes. Have toyed with the idea of having a small bluetooth speaker clipped to the bars or some such but it just seems like too much hassle and another thing to worry about charging.
Most of the time there is more than enough happening in my head to keep me occupied and stave off boredom.
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I've never tried it either and wouldn't want to, simply because I wouldn't enjoy it. I don't think it's necessarily a safety issue and to the extent that it is, it's probably more about distraction and mood than hearing per se. Deaf people are allowed to drive, aren't they?
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Deaf people are allowed to drive, aren't they?
Yes. (Although I think some US states put "must use hearing aid" restrictions on their licences). I vaguely recall that they have slightly fewer collisions than hearing people.
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I do. I've developed a 2/3-hour-a-day podcast addiction which (not coincidentally) matches my commuting time. I find the spoken word less distracting than music for reasons I don't understand. I never used them on Audaxes because I was usually riding with others, or there was a strong chance of being spoken to and didn't want to be rude. Though I may have regretted that once on the stretch between Llandovery and Bwlch on a lovely/lonely Spring night. I used Aftershokz for a while, but they're not waterproof and became just one more thing that needed charging - oh and somehow I managed to bend one of the ends and the sound quality plummeted - and unlike HF's experience I couldn't notice much difference between the earbuds and Aftershokz wrt to 'outside' noise. Maybe I just have crap earbuds. Also...
I do it because I can't remember a time where my course of action would have been different because of something I've only heard (other than sirens/beeping/etc which I can still hear if I use headphones), or more importantly, didn't hear.
I just haven't had the experience of having had to avoid a collision from behind by diving off to the left. Maybe that's to come...
One thing I can't hear so well with earbuds in is the full glory of a dawn chorus, so on some early summer mornings I might let the podcast backlog grow a little.
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Listening to music through earbuds whilst cycling - who does it?
So far I've done 2 x 400km Audaxes on my own with no music and it's very boring so I was thinking of giving music a go to lighten the boredom.
So who else listens to music whilst cycling? (I'm assuming just the one earbud in so you can listen for traffic?)
I cycle thousands of kilometers per year with headphones on. I prefer the over the ear neckband style. Tho google suggests this design is going out of style... I can still hear traffic just fine, even while listening to music/podcasts.
All arguments about listening for traffic are IMHO, bollocks.
J
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One thing I can't hear so well with earbuds in is the full glory of a dawn chorus
In a similar vein, I sometimes like listening to the owls when riding at night.
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I just haven't had the experience of having had to avoid a collision from behind by diving off to the left. Maybe that's to come...
That's what I was wondering. Sure, you check behind before coming to a stop, but if you're just trundling along then either:
a) They have plenty of room for a sensible overtake, so it doesn't matter whether you know they're there
b) They haven't seen you / don't care about your life or their paintwork, and are going to drive into you unless you get out of the way first
c) They don't have room to overtake, so have to wait behind you, with varying degrees of impatience
d) There's room for a dangerous overtake, which you might hope to convert into scenario (a) or (c) by changing your road position
So far I've never experienced (b). I'd argue that scenario (d) can be preempted into (c) by riding in a sufficiently assertive position, unless you're required to keep left by the presence of debris, potholes, etc.
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...and equally limited options available to do anything useful with the information.
When there are no cars around I tend to use the full width of the road (or at least not stick to the gutter). When I know there's a car behind me I try to keep left if it's safe to do so and it leaves a sensible width for overtaking.
Who *doesn't* do this?
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Deaf people are allowed to drive, aren't they?
Yes. (Although I think some US states put "must use hearing aid" restrictions on their licences). I vaguely recall that they have slightly fewer collisions than hearing people.
It was a rhetorical question. Which doesn't necessarily mean it's not worth answering.
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When there are no cars around I tend to use the full width of the road (or at least not stick to the gutter). When I know there's a car behind me I try to keep left if it's safe to do so and it leaves a sensible width for overtaking.
Who *doesn't* do this?
Me.
I take primary position regardless. If there's a car there, & it's not safe for it to over take if I am in primary, it's not safe for it to over take if I'min the gutter. If there is no car, it doesn't matter. I have as much right to be on the road as any other vehicle. I'll take the lane and defend it.
J
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Which works really well
...until the day that it doesn't.
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...and equally limited options available to do anything useful with the information.
When there are no cars around I tend to use the full width of the road (or at least not stick to the gutter). When I know there's a car behind me I try to keep left if it's safe to do so and it leaves a sensible width for overtaking.
Who *doesn't* do this?
Pretty much what I do, but my position to the left varies according to the road I'm on. On rural roads I find people very courteous if I make some sort of visible display of awareness of them. Sticking close to the left on narrow roads is asking for trouble, but I find taking primary then moving over often quite far to the left elicits courteous and considerate overtakes. As with much in life it's give and take. Ploughing on regardless with no awareness of what is going on behind makes a cyclist as much of a cock as the driver's he/she criticises.
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d) There's room for a dangerous overtake, which you might hope to convert into scenario (a) or (c) by changing your road position
I aim to anticipate such scenarios by positioning myself appropriately before they arise. This is what happened in the incident I described upthread - it didn’t matter whether or not I heard the car behind me because I was already riding defensively.
If you wait until you hear a car approaching before adjusting your road position, it’s probably already too late and you may well find yourself having to dive off to the left. In the aforementioned incident, there would have been nowhere for me to dive off to anyway - the road is lined with thick hedges on that side.
I ride along that road most days and despite the idiotic driving I regularly encounter (eg overtaking on a blind bend with double white lines), I’m not dead yet. I don’t believe that whether or not I’m listening to music has any bearing on the matter.
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If you wait until you hear a car approaching before adjusting your road position, it’s probably already too late and you may well find yourself having to dive off to the left.
Are you advocating riding in the gutter full time?! Interesting contrast to quixotic geek's answer!
The point of listening out for cars isn't to get out of the way, it's so you know when there's one there and can (if you so wish) move over to let them pass only at a place that's wide enough for them to do so safely.
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Headphones are great on the tandem. He loves me singing along.
Words are for boring bits, music makes me go faster.
I tend not to wear them in urban areas where I'm not familiar with traffic patterns- on my commute I know where the knobbers lurk, but somewhere new, I want to pay more attention and it can be distracting. I'd probably turn the radio off in a car for the same reason.
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I've got no problem moving over when it's safe to do so to give a car a bit more room to make a safer pass, but I'll take primary ideally every time. At night I have 1-2 static LED lights, with built in reflectors, 1 flashing or static LED light with built in reflector. Red reflector tape on the chain stays, and orange tape on the cranks. At night, anyone who claims they didn't see me, is too dangerous or incompetent to be at the wheel. By day, my black on black colour scheme should stand out quite nicely, so again, no excuses.
There's an awful lot of drivers who drive round like the road is theirs, and then act surprised when they go round a corner too fast and find something slower in the road. The world would be a bit safer if fewer drivers acted like that.
I listen to a selection of interesting podcasts, audiobooks, and occasionally music while riding along, I find it helps me concentrate on the world around me. Without the audio, my mind tends to drift of. In the dead of night, when I've been awake 24 hours, and I've still got 50km to go, sticking on some dire straits, or similar, and singing along as I ride really helps push through.
J
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Oh, the headphone ban coupled with the stupid hivi requirement are why I don't like cycling in France...
That and Pavé...
J
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Are you advocating riding in the gutter full time?!
No, the exact opposite. Riding defensively means adopting a road position that discourages dangerous overtaking.
If it’s safe to overtake, my road position won’t be an issue. If there’s no car behind me, my road position won’t be an issue. Whether I’ve heard them or not is irrelevant.
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I find cars leave a wider gap when overtaking if I stick out 70-100cm. If I sit in the gutter they will shave past me. However I have had a few instances when cars have tried to drive through me.
We can all stamp our feet and shout about our rights, but the reality is there are drivers out there who sometimes drive incompetantly, inconsiderately, distractedly, aggressively, partially-sighted, and drunkenly.
I'm in no hurry to end up as a victim of one of these people, and I'll take any advantage I can.
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I'm in no hurry to end up as a victim of one of these people, and I'll take any advantage I can.
The only point on which we disagree is the usefulness of hearing in this regard. For me, it’s very low down the list (along with magic hats).
It may well be that your hearing is more useful to you than mine is to me, but I’m generally sceptical on the matter and need more convincing.
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I can only speak for myself. How can I possibly comment on other people's hearing? It would be as utterly fucking cretinous as denouncing other people's experience as "bollocks"
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Exactly, I don't have a fold out 'lollipop' reflector on my bike either, and I don't wear a lightweight spine protector (like many skiiers do), etc.
Both of which would certainly be an advantage, but they're beyond where I've drawn my personal line on safety equipment.
Similarly, needing to hear everything all the time is also a safety requirement too far (IN MY OPINION, others can do as they like) although on some types of riding, or during some sections, I will prefer to be able to hear things, but that's easily achieved by hitting the pause button on the headphone control.
Having to dive off the road frequently sounds awful. I'd hate to be cycling somewhere where that's needed so often. I've never experienced it once in tends of thousands of miles of cycling (including plenty of rural roads on Audaxes all round the country).
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In truth, the majority of serious accidents aren't as a result of shit overtakes...but it does happen (I believe Mike H was hit from behind). My understanding is that most accidents occur at junctions. Nevertheless, I will still take minority probabilities into consideration. As Alex says, it's a matter of personal choice.
I've just remembered another fairly recent incident. I was at the front of a pack of 4 signalling right on an A road. Just before I turned I looked back to check nothing was overtaking, however my view was blocked by other riders.
It was probably just as well I heard a car approaching at high speed. It overtook us, despite the 4 of us signalling. If I'd turned, I would have been hit full on.
This has never happened to me before, but I've added it to my repertoire of possibilities and adjust my riding tactics accordingly. This is the nature of accidents...they are unusual.
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Very often I ride with one ear bud in and spotify on. I would prefer if there was a way to alter the balance on Android without a root'ed phone so I could improve battery life of my headphones, at the moment I have to make do with setting the accessibility to mono audio and putting it through both headphones...
You can get a single earbud that takes the stereo signal and puts it all through that one speaker. Would that help? [I suspect they/it were wired, not wireless, otheerwise I would never even have considered buying them! Like everything else, they may ALSO be available wireless.]
MarcusJB put me onto them.
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Very often I ride with one ear bud in and spotify on. I would prefer if there was a way to alter the balance on Android without a root'ed phone so I could improve battery life of my headphones, at the moment I have to make do with setting the accessibility to mono audio and putting it through both headphones...
You can get a single earbud that takes the stereo signal and puts it all through that one speaker. Would that help? [I suspect they/it were wired, not wireless, otheerwise I would never even have considered buying them! Like everything else, they may ALSO be available wireless.]
MarcusJB put me onto them.
The headphones I use are Bluetooth, and a battery is in was earplug so can't just chop off one end! Lol
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Headphones are great on the tandem. He loves me signing along.
... and sitting in front of you on the tandem, signing is a rubbish lyric prompt.
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Very often I ride with one ear bud in and spotify on. I would prefer if there was a way to alter the balance on Android without a root'ed phone so I could improve battery life of my headphones, at the moment I have to make do with setting the accessibility to mono audio and putting it through both headphones...
You can get a single earbud that takes the stereo signal and puts it all through that one speaker. Would that help? [I suspect they/it were wired, not wireless, otheerwise I would never even have considered buying them! Like everything else, they may ALSO be available wireless.]
MarcusJB put me onto them.
You get edit tracks in audacity to make them all left or all right. Not sure it's worth it though just to save a few micro Watts of power...
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Very often I ride with one ear bud in and spotify on. I would prefer if there was a way to alter the balance on Android without a root'ed phone so I could improve battery life of my headphones, at the moment I have to make do with setting the accessibility to mono audio and putting it through both headphones...
You can get a single earbud that takes the stereo signal and puts it all through that one speaker. Would that help? [I suspect they/it were wired, not wireless, otheerwise I would never even have considered buying them! Like everything else, they may ALSO be available wireless.]
MarcusJB put me onto them.
You get edit tracks in audacity to make them all left or all right. Not sure it's worth it though just to save a few micro Watts of power...
Edit one track in audacity, play it on loop to see what difference it makes to the run-time of your battery, then decide not to waste further time on it...
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What arguably IS worth the approx minute or two it took in audacity however is this (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtNSfl0sxZVl9liicK5Vhi8Mbuaz) ;D
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I've just remembered another fairly recent incident. I was at the front of a pack of 4 signalling right on an A road. Just before I turned I looked back to check nothing was overtaking, however my view was blocked by other riders.
It was probably just as well I heard a car approaching at high speed. It overtook us, despite the 4 of us signalling. If I'd turned, I would have been hit full on.
This has never happened to me before, but I've added it to my repertoire of possibilities and adjust my riding tactics accordingly. This is the nature of accidents...they are unusual.
Can't put this any other way and can't really ignore it...
Sure, if you don't perform adequate visual checks prior to a manoeuvre like that then you might need to have to rely on your hearing to save the day, but the underlying problem is the lack of an adequate visual check in the run up to the manoeuvre.
Mirror signal mirror[1] manoeuvre.
I hope you're glad that the overtaking car wasn't a near silent Prius or a Tesla, or another cyclist, etc.
1. Motorbike riders are generally taught the extra "mirror" as the "lifesaver" observation immediately prior to actually performing a manoeuvre. This is because, due to the fact they (motorbikes) aren't as wide as a car or truck, they generally experience extra special silly behaviour (such as being overtaken despite signalling) that generally doesn't happen to car drivers which are mostly taught "mirror signal manoeuvre".
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I always perform a lifesaver, but as I said my view was blocked. I didn't continue the turn regardless but edged out slightly to get a look. I suspect many riders wouldn't have looked and would have been hit due to the driver's error....but we are getting close to victim blaming here, which as you know is the moral equivalent of being a Nazi.
Yes, I am glad the car wasn't silent. Most cars aren't silent, even silent ones, which is why hearing is a useful addition to vision.
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Yes, I am glad the car wasn't silent. Most cars aren't silent, even silent ones, which is why hearing is a useful addition to vision.
I actually find that EVs (and hybrids running on electrons) stand out against the urban soundscape. I expect this effect to tail off rapidly, both as they become more common, and as I lose the relevant high-frequency hearing due to age.
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Oh, the headphone ban coupled with the stupid hivi requirement are why I don't like cycling in France...
The authorities don't really care though do they? Just a few months ago I was cycling in France in the dark, with head phones on and no Hi-Viz and not one cop car (of which many passed me) gave a shit.
Same as Spain and their odd helm*t laws. I didn't bother with one and I was never stopped despite technically breaking the law (riding without one outside an urban area)
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Oh, the headphone ban coupled with the stupid hivi requirement are why I don't like cycling in France...
The authorities don't really care though do they? Just a few months ago I was cycling in France in the dark, with head phones on and no Hi-Viz and not one cop car (of which many passed me) gave a shit.
Same as Spain and their odd helm*t laws. I didn't bother with one and I was never stopped despite technically breaking the law (riding without one outside an urban area)
I've also cycled in France without hi-vis (I'd query how it's supposed to work, given the seat blocking the view, but that way lies pedal reflectors). I suspect the problem comes when you enter an organised cycling event, and the organisers require you to comply with these laws, even if the police don't.
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Ah, fair point. I took QG's comment to mean just cycling in France in general rather than in some sort of event. I've certainly had my gilet inspected at a certain French event to make sure it was compliant and I've also had to put on a hat in the UK, particularly for MTB events....
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Oh, the headphone ban coupled with the stupid hivi requirement are why I don't like cycling in France...
The authorities don't really care though do they? Just a few months ago I was cycling in France in the dark, with head phones on and no Hi-Viz and not one cop car (of which many passed me) gave a shit.
Same as Spain and their odd helm*t laws. I didn't bother with one and I was never stopped despite technically breaking the law (riding without one outside an urban area)
I was fined by the guardia civil last month. It's the same fine as for riding a motorbike without one: not cheap.
They were adamant the same law applied in the UK, and the rest of Europe.