Music while Biking?

Personally, I think it's a bad bad bad idea. If you are on the roads, you need all your senses with you to be able to react to situations around you. If you are on a multi-use trail, you won't hear people preparing to pass you. This weekend 2 bikers and 2 rollerbladers cut right in front of me because they didn't hear my "on you left" announcement. I noticed they all had headphones on.

Besides, training without music is good mental training. 

If you listen to music while you're biking, you're liable to be listening to sirens while you're being sped to the hospital.  Or harps.

While riding along the foothills today, I had an 18-wheeler run me off the road.  I'm thankful that I 1) heard him before he got close behind me, and 2) had an 'out' to my right.  Either he didn't realize the length of his trailer, or my speed, but that back bumper was only 6 inches or so from my face when I went off the road...

I have riden my bike with and without music. Down where I ride when I go to school there are some very umm how can I say bare areas that I rarely get passed by a single car.  Also considering the fact a lot of my riding is on the weekends and especially on Sundays (NASCAR is big down here) barely anyone drives at all.  I listen to my music at a very low volume and with only one ear bud in (the right one) so I can still hear cars from behind me and still can have some tunes too.  

But when I ride at home there are too many cars and too much of changing conditions to listen to music and ride. 

On the roads that I ride, tires on sand/gravel make a distinctly different sound than tires on pavement.  If YOU can't tell the difference in a car directly behind you, and 4 feet to the left, maybe you should have a hearing test.  Or, maybe I'm just a lucky person that can tell the approximate location of anything that makes noise, even if I can't see it.  Either way, since we can't trust the drivers to see/avoid us, it's up to each of us to care about our own safety.

Or, how about this argument for listening: deaf prey gets culled from the herd far more often than prey that can HEAR the predator coming up behind them.

So what do we do with deaf cyclists, tell them they can't ride? 

I challenge anyone to prove that they can tell the difference between a car approaching from the rear that is on a collision course with you versus a car approaching from the rear that will safely pass by, 4 feet to your left...and do it without looking.  I doubt that it makes any difference in accidents caused by rear approaching vehicles whether you are wearing headphones or not.

After saying all that, I don't ride with headphones, for the simple reason that I enjoy looking around as I ride and using the mental concentration to monitor my workout.  Have you ever been in your car and tried to follow directions to a specific place while in heavy traffic, and found yourself turning off the radio because you could concentrate on the task more easily?

I've encountered similar weak arguments against running with headphones, some disingenuous wag actually suggested that, because I run on isolated country roads, that I should be worried about drunk drivers. Not sure what the connection is there, certainly don't know how a drunk driver sounds different.

I choose not to ride with headphones, however, because the margin for error is much smaller. Compared to running, on a bike:

• You are going much faster
• you are riding with traffic, not watching it come to you
• the wind noise is greater, muffling the sound of traffic
• hitting the shoulder at 20+mph is not that great an option

That said, I have no problem with anyone choosing to ride with headphones. The way I see it, we're all adults and are each capable of assessing the risk and making choices.

I was all set to come in with a logical, reasonable post and then saw that the bear decided to use this thread to put up his one for the quarter.

I choose not to use headphones on the bike because I am a spaz. A spaz going 20+ mph in aerobars (hey, it happens on the downhills) is bad enough. A spaz going 20+ mph in aerobars while rocking out to a live version of The Temples of Syrinx is just waving cash money in trouble's face and inviting it in the front door.

I'm sure you meant "for the quarter hour."

On occasion, yes I do turn to look at the vehicle.  I want to make sure that, if nothing else, I see him. 

No, I don't ask my riding partners not to talk, they're usually too far behind me to hear them, or we're all suffering on the same hill and won't be talking anyway.

And as for point #6, not ALL roads have a lot of space.  As for my near-miss today, had I been an farther left, that semi would have hit me.

OTR drivers are paid to deliver cargo, not watch for bicyclists.  With alarming regularity, there are posts here (and other tri/biking sites) about another biker being killed by a driver.  One gentleman in Denver was killed because the driver (17) was text messaging on his cell phone, and drifted to the right. 

Try this: have someone stand behind you about 10 feet and say your name.  Then have them move to one side or the other and repeat your name.  Can you tell the difference?  Most people can.

I'm not sure I'm capabile of riding or running for that matter without tunes.  I get too bored, music keeps me pumped.  I even carved out a spot in my helmet to hold my MP3 player (for mountain bikeing mostly, since I crash a lot an want my MP3 player safe), no wires flopping around.

I have a hard timeing  the sneaky freaking cars/pickuptrucks that idle up behind me and than blast past.   I have the wind whistling through my ears, my hearts pumping, and my own idle thoughts going through my head.

Do I need music.    Only if I want to meet my maker.

 Unless I'm on the Velodrome by myself, music is ok.