Listening to music while riding

[Old Steve]

I listen to music every ride I take,

The beat of the vee twin
The whistle of the wind
The hum of the tires on the road

Can't beat that.

[Voltaire]

I wear earplugs and listen to the mosquitos in my head from a misspent youth at too many concerts.....and preserve whats left....
I would have thought the wind noise would be too much to listen to music anyway....I've got an Ipod but only use it as a hard drive to plug into things with speakers.....not a fan of being plugged into music.

[sootie]

Not sure what everyone is actually discussing here. If you ride without earplugs & with your head clear of any windscreen at speeds of around 100 kph for more than an hour or two every week, it will probably permanently damage your hearing after a few years. (It is not possible to be precise here, but this is the short form of the best medical info currently available.)

If you play music at a level you can hear above this, hearing damage becomes even more likely. These levels of any noise or music are also very tiring to a person with normal hearing.

On the open road, I personally use earplugs to reduce all helmet sound levels by 30 to 40dB. My music is piped in at a volume that can be heard clearly above the residual noise level. I can assure anyone, that the result is far less tiring, safer & less distracting than helmet wind noise alone on unprotected ears.

For those who fear that muting outside sound levels reduces safety, I say that you must never then drive a car with the windows closed again. The effect is a similar level of disconnect from outside sounds. As far as I know, there is also no licencing authority in the world that requires some minimum level of hearing to meet a driving standard.

By the way, I think music is for long distances on the open road. I don't bother around town.

[MystikEagle]

Not sure what everyone is actually discussing here. If you ride without earplugs & with your head clear of any windscreen at speeds of around 100 kph for more than an hour or two every week, it will probably permanently damage your hearing after a few years. (It is not possible to be precise here, but this is the short form of the best medical info currently available.)

If you play music at a level you can hear above this, hearing damage becomes even more likely. These levels of any noise or music are also very tiring to a person with normal hearing.

On the open road, I personally use earplugs to reduce all helmet sound levels by 30 to 40dB. My music is piped in at a volume that can be heard clearly above the residual noise level. I can assure anyone, that the result is far less tiring, safer & less distracting than helmet wind noise alone on unprotected ears.

For those who fear that muting outside sound levels reduces safety, I say that you must never then drive a car with the windows closed again. The effect is a similar level of disconnect from outside sounds. As far as I know, there is also no licencing authority in the world that requires some minimum level of hearing to meet a driving standard.

By the way, I think music is for long distances on the open road. I don't bother around town.

All very good points

[Akzle]

Not sure...

another f*ing aucklander. north shore aucklander. the second worst kind.

SI'DDOWN AN' SHADDARP!

[sootie]

another f*ing aucklander. north shore aucklander. the second worst kind.

SI'DDOWN AN' SHADDARP!

I think that is what I like best about KB - the friendly, far sighted & constructive comments ....

PS: Only second worst??

[caseye]

Yeah he hates us Sarfie Dorklanders even more.
OK, my 2 cents worth.
Any idiot that plays music in their helmet while riding a motorbike is just that.
An idiot.
When you lot going to wake up.
You have 5 basic senses, taking out your second best one by listening to music is stupid beyond all belief.
This is just my humble opinion, feel free to tell me what you really think, I'm sure I'll survive the pain and the suffering from all the tongue lashings.
But please, if because you can't hear that trucks HUGE AIR HORN Blasting out because of your personal music, don't go blaming anyone but yourself for the resulting mess, K.
Yes I do play loud music in my car, sometimes, usually though I can see more, I'm better protected and I'm certainly more able to monitor my entire surroundings with my mirrors and a much better field of view than if I was on a bike, so I feel it's not as important as when riding a bike.

[PrincessBandit]

You have 5 basic senses, taking out your second best one by listening to music is stupid beyond all belief.
..................
But please, if because you can't hear that trucks HUGE AIR HORN Blasting out because of your personal music, don't go blaming anyone but yourself for the resulting mess, K.
Yes I do play loud music in my car, sometimes, usually though I can see more, I'm better protected and I'm certainly more able to monitor my entire surroundings with my mirrors and a much better field of view than if I was on a bike, so I feel it's not as important as when riding a bike.

Gotta spread more green ...

[sootie]

You have 5 basic senses, taking out your second best one by listening to music is stupid beyond all belief.

I think you mistake "hearing louder" with "hearing better". The sound levels inside any rider's helmet at 100 kph are so high that even after 30 dB of attenuation everything to be heard is still very loud. Soft sounds will of course still be masked by loud ones, but ratios are not changed. No problem hearing a siren, airhorn or similar with or without earplugs & music. It is actually pretty unusual to find anywhere in a riding environment quiet enough for the earplugs to make a lot of difference on what may be actually heard by normal hearing.

I don't recommend listening to music at very high levels while riding or driving.

Thought: Seen lots of headlines about inattention, riders & speeding, riders & drugs, riders & alcohol leading to death, but can't recall any suggesting a rider being killed by listening to music which impaired his/her hearing.

Fatigue on the other hand can be a fatal factor & loud noise hastens this onset. ???

There seem to be bigger issues than music to worry about in connection with motorcycle safety.
An itchy mosquito bite is probably more of a hazard.

[Drew]

Not sure what everyone is actually discussing here. If you ride without earplugs & with your head clear of any windscreen at speeds of around 100 kph for more than an hour or two every week, it will probably permanently damage your hearing after a few years. (It is not possible to be precise here, but this is the short form of the best medical info currently available.)

If you play music at a level you can hear above this, hearing damage becomes even more likely. These levels of any noise or music are also very tiring to a person with normal hearing.

On the open road, I personally use earplugs to reduce all helmet sound levels by 30 to 40dB. My music is piped in at a volume that can be heard clearly above the residual noise level. I can assure anyone, that the result is far less tiring, safer & less distracting than helmet wind noise alone on unprotected ears.

For those who fear that muting outside sound levels reduces safety, I say that you must never then drive a car with the windows closed again. The effect is a similar level of disconnect from outside sounds. As far as I know, there is also no licencing authority in the world that requires some minimum level of hearing to meet a driving standard.

By the way, I think music is for long distances on the open road. I don't bother around town.

My headphones are noise canceling. So having them in and music soft is all good for my ears.

[Voltaire]

My headphones are noise canceling. So having them in and music soft is all good for my ears.

How does noise cancelling work?
Is that like when the neighbours have a party and I start up the Norton?

[Drew]

How does noise cancelling work?
Is that like when the neighbours have a party and I start up the Norton?

Yip, exactly the same.

[oneofsix]

How does noise cancelling work?
Is that like when the neighbours have a party and I start up the Norton?

nope that would be more noise. Noise cancelling for a neighbour's party might work better like this

To cancel noise apply equal but opposite noise resulting in zero noise. Same as to stop a ball rolling down a hill apply the same force up the hill as gravity is applying down. Therefore Drew's headphones have to actively monitor outside, unwanted noise and generate the opposite to cancel it before it reaches his ears.

[sootie]

My headphones are noise canceling. So having them in and music soft is all good for my ears.

How does noise cancelling work?
Is that like when the neighbours have a party and I start up the Norton?

Noise cancelling works by adding an anti-phase noise signal into each ear transducer (as stated by oneofsix). Trouble is, it is not easy to get an exact antiphase signal at exactly the right level over a range of frequencies. It becomes even more difficult within the confines of a riding helmet space.

I have tested a high grade aviation noise cancelling headset in open air. Noise cancelling greatly reduced the low frequency sound, and good padding heavily attenuated the high pitched noise. The results were spectacular! If I ever have to fly a lot in light aircraft I am having a set of these & to hell with the cost!

I have briefly tried noise cancelling ideas with cheap earbud units inside a riding helmet. Pretty useless, but I did not persevere very long with the gear which was on loan. Please try setting your noise cancelling headset up inside a riding helmet as you would use it. With no music, try switching the noise cancelling on & off & tell me how well it works at blocking traffic noise. I am genuinely interested. The idea has the potential to make riding with music even more enjoyable, I have just not had much success to date.

(I am not sure which neighbour I would dislike the most, the one who had all the parties, or the one with the Norton!)

[Akzle]

my noise cancelling is by way of little rubber bits. also makes for heaps bass. (which isn't as destructive to your cochlea as high frequency sound) direct into my ear-hole.
"epic drum and bass win", as the kids would say.