Who rides with music?

[aeroperf]

Who rides with music?  What set-up do you use?  What safety precautions do you take?

My situation is relatively unique.  I live on a paved rails-to-trails, and go out 10km and back 10km a few times a week mostly for exercise, and to prepare for annual bicycle touring trips.  I love the sights and smells, and, yes, sounds of the ride.

But sometimes I just want to get into a cadence.  And I know the right music to get into that cadence.
And while I have iPods, both wired and Bluetooth, I have not ridden with music.

So…any tips?  Do you still hear the cars coming with earbuds?  Or fit headphone speakers under your bike helmet?  Do you use a wired iPod in your shirt back pocket, or Bluetooth from your phone?  Safety?  I have six intersections to cross, some with signals and some without. 

[Bill Lindsay]

I never ever ride my bike with music but pretty much always run and walk with music.  I'm a big fan of my bone-transducer headphones, and would consider using them if I wanted to add music (or a podcast, or a baseball game) to my cycling.  I think having my ears open and not plugged up or covered by headphones is safer, but I don't have any data to back that up.  The bone transducer headphones are marketed on that idea.

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Patrick Moore]

The only time I wanted music (or, god-help-me, anything — NPR, sitcom reruns, along with heavily rhythmic music) was when doing highly structured and very agressive 1-hour workouts on a trainer. They were so boring that I looked for anything to alleviate the unutterable tedium.

When I ride in the real world I like to keep my attention free for other vehicles and to experience my surroundings.

A friend, who admittedly does rides longer than my 40-mile (to date; soon, hopefully, 50-mile) cutoffs listens to ebooks, and showed me his helmet-mounted bluetooth earphone system. But it seems to me that this does an injustice both to book and ride.

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[Eric Daume]

I almost always ride with Bluetooth (wireless) headphones, playing either a podcast or music.  I ride a lot of trails but also some roads. I don’t have an issue hearing cars coming up behind me. 

Eric

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[David P]

I have a wireless bluetooth speaker (JBL Go2) that I put in the rear pocket of my handlebar bag and play music stored on my iPhone.  Allows me to hear traffic while also enjoying tunes.  I also wear a mirror attached to my glasses.  I feel naked without it.

On Friday, October 17, 2025 at 5:01:05 PM UTC-7 Eric Daume wrote:

I almost always ride with Bluetooth (wireless) headphones, playing either a podcast or music.  I ride a lot of trails but also some roads. I don’t have an issue hearing cars coming up behind me. 

Eric

On Friday, October 17, 2025, 'aeroperf' via RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Who rides with music?  What set-up do you use?  What safety precautions do you take?

My situation is relatively unique.  I live on a paved rails-to-trails, and go out 10km and back 10km a few times a week mostly for exercise, and to prepare for annual bicycle touring trips.  I love the sights and smells, and, yes, sounds of the ride.

But sometimes I just want to get into a cadence.  And I know the right music to get into that cadence.
And while I have iPods, both wired and Bluetooth, I have not ridden with music.

So…any tips?  Do you still hear the cars coming with earbuds?  Or fit headphone speakers under your bike helmet?  Do you use a wired iPod in your shirt back pocket, or Bluetooth from your phone?  Safety?  I have six intersections to cross, some with signals and some without. 

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[Jonathan Carmack]

I use a anker soundcore mini, it conveniently fits snug in a bottle cage so I put in the seat tube mount.  Plenty loud too.

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[Ben Miller]

I also don't listen to music or podcasts whilst riding. I'd prefer to also not hear other cyclists music. In the city I'm fairly ambivalent about it due to all the other noises. But in quieter settings and especially in parks, trails, or wilderness I find loudspeakers particularly rude. Even if it's music that I regularly enjoy, I find the disruption jarring. But I also definitely have an auditory sensitivity, so there is that. (And none of this is to say I don't like music. I listen to it constantly at home and probably go to concerts 3-4 times a month..Last month was Nathaniel Rateliff, Iron & Wine/Band of Horses, Destroyer, and Modest Mouse/Flaming Lips)

[John Dewey]

When I’m not riding my guitar is nearby. 

Out on the road, I always have music playing in my head and sometimes I wish I could turn it off. 

Jock

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[Garth]

One's ability to hear their surroundings with earbuds(not the oft confused in-ear type) depends on the volume. In the past I've ridden countless miles with an FM Walkman and it's wired earbuds. It's more like background music, and I could hear my surrounding just fine. Where I live now in the boonies the FM reception of a Walkman isn't very good so I have not listened to it in years. Plus radio content, save QED in Pittsbught, is poor. I never had any desire to listen to anything that required my attention, like a mp3 player and surely not a smartpone. Those are way more distracting that the listening itself.

A memorable time I listened to external audio was back in the 80s while on a bike tour with a buddy, on our way to see a Rush(the band) concert in LaCrosse, WI. He brought his big/bulky cassette recorder/player with it's built-in speaker, the 70's type that took D size batteries ! He brought his brand new cassette from one BIlly Idol of "Hot in the City" and "White Wedding" fame. Imagine him holding the cassette player with it's retractable handle on top of and while riding drop bars ....... oh the wacky things we used to do. Hey the handle was made of steel, very stout steel .... ahahahahaahah ! 

Nowadays I prefer the sounds of rural enviroment and the wind, and laughing at all the wacky things that arise in thought -;) 

[Brian Turner]

I don’t like using earbuds while I’m out in an urban or outdoor environment… something about needing to hear the other ambience around me, I guess.

My favorite portable speaker for the bike is the Bose Soundlink Micro. It’s rugged, waterproof, small, and attaches to various points in various ways. Plus, it sounds incredible because well, it’s Bose.

Brian 

Lexington KY 

On Oct 18, 2025, at 5:50 AM, Garth <gart...@gmail.com> wrote:

One's ability to hear their surroundings with earbuds(not the oft confused in-ear type) depends on the volume. In the past I've ridden countless miles with an FM Walkman and it's wired earbuds. It's more like background music, and I could hear my surrounding just fine. Where I live now in the boonies the FM reception of a Walkman isn't very good so I have not listened to it in years. Plus radio content, save QED in Pittsbught, is poor. I never had any desire to listen to anything that required my attention, like a mp3 player and surely not a smartpone. Those are way more distracting that the listening itself.

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[Johnny Alien]

I have enough traffic that I don't like to cause any reduction in my senses even if its minor. But I am an overly cautious fellow

[Bernard Duhon]

I have not ridden with music for decades, 3 to be exact.

Newsflash, there are cars out there!  I have always had a rearview mirror, even as a licra lout.  I was roundly ridiculed.  However I always here that car coming from behind before I see it.

As a bonus we could all use a little quite.

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From: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Johnny Alien <johnny....@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2025 8:19 AM
To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [RBW] Who rides with music?

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[scott minor]

I nearly always have music on when riding, using wired earbuds, phone in pocket.  Mind you, it's music that does not demand attention, often medieval organ pieces, or classical/ambient, slow moving, either way.  Never 'songs', that's just my musical preference. I do the same when driving.   Also, in both cases I keep the volume pretty low so I don't block the sounds of my environment.  

Here's something a little different..  Being a sound recordist by trade, I've been out on a few rides packing a portable stereo sound-capture rig in order to make pristine field recordings out in the wild.  So will stop for a break and record a 10-15 minute chunk of my environment wherever I happen to be.  then jump back on my bike and ride, listening to the new recording at a loud enough volume that it does block out the surrounding ambient sound while riding (would never do this with traffic!  only on a trail).  It's wild because the recording is similar to what I would hear if I took off my earbuds, and actual tire/surface riding sounds come trough and blend w the recording to make it seem like everything is real, even though only part of it is real.  But the sound in the earbuds already happened and does not relate directly to my environment, like certain birds, insects, wind or a distant car on a road or airplane overhead, you think those things are there but they are not.  It's amazing how disorienting this can be when the mind wanders, forgetting that I'm listening to a recording of my surroundings 20 min ago.  A truly hallucinatory experience.   Not something I do often but a really insightful experiment on auditory perception in general.  I find it really interesting to play tricks like this on the brain.  It's also a great attention/focus exercise.  

[Tim Burke]

I ride with music pretty often but I stopped riding with headphones after too many close calls. 

I use a jbl clip speaker. I’ll hook it to a basket on most bikes. Bikes without baskets I clip it to my handlebar bag. 

[Jay Lonner]

I frequently ride with AirPods, usually listening to podcasts but sometimes music. Transparency Mode allows excellent transmission of ambient sounds. I dislike it when people broadcast their music in public spaces with portable speakers. 

Jay Lonner

Bellingham, WA

Sent from my Atari 400

On Oct 18, 2025, at 10:55 AM, Tim Burke <timothym...@gmail.com> wrote:

I ride with music pretty often but I stopped riding with headphones after too many close calls. 

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[Nick A.]

Another audio engineer here, checking in. I don't ride with music unless I'm taking a long (40+mi) ride on the W&OD trail near me, in which case I'll sometimes use bone conduction headphones. Normally also something passive like the Trojan Records compilations.

Nick in Falls Church VA

[jaredwilson]

Usually always have a small JBL clip speaker attached to my basket playing some tunes, helps let people know you're approaching and you can easily hear what's going on around you. 

Wouldn't dare wear headphones/earbuds!

jared in Berkeley, CA

[Eric Marth]

On my grinding, boring, local rides I very often listen to music with one bluetooth earbud, in my right ear only, run wireless from my phone. Where I ride I'm almost always riding on the shoulder of a road, with the earbud facing away from traffic. I wouldn't wear earbuds riding in a city. I don't listen to music on my rides outside of town. 

I can certainly understand those who have decided that riding with earbuds or headphones is out of the question. Situational awareness is critical on the bike! I've seen road cyclists wearing double earbuds and figured they must be on their own personal highway to hell. 

[Jonathan Carmack]

> 

helps let people know you're approaching and you can easily hear what's going on around you

Exactly this, but for me my riding is in rural Shenandoah Valley and I like to give the deer a heads up, especially right now with rut being on

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[Toshi Takeuchi]

I use Shokz Aeropex bone conduction headphones. They don't cover the ear at all and sound gets transmitted through the bone. 

--The thing to note is that cars rumble and have a low frequency, and my music doesn't cover up that frequency range, so I hear cars perfectly fine. I may not hear human voice as well, especially higher pitches, as my music may be covering up that range. In general, the bone conduction headphones don't have great bass, so for me, cars are heard perfectly clearly (YMMV).

Toshi in Oakland

[Josh C]

I will do airpods on about 20% of rides. These are mostly rail trails and similarly car-free paths. I tend to like the silence/sound of the tires and bike while riding. Longer rides are a form of mental health repair for me, so I lean toward solo and music-free. 

[Joe Bernard]

I started riding with one earbud recently, playing music. I don't ride much these days and even the shorter jaunts were becoming boring for me, bordering on I might just quit altogether. A little music has rejuvenated me a bit. 

Joe "used to ride more" Bernard 

On Friday, October 17, 2025 at 3:43:12 PM UTC-7 aeroperf wrote:

[Patrick Moore]

Joe: I’m sorry you have lost the taste for cycling. Me, I’ve felt that way off and on over the decades but, in my case, at least, this is probably due to my incorrigible need to push hard when riding*, when, if I just started rides by “sauntering,” I’d end up (as I often have when I do this) actually making better times (because I warm up first) and certainly having a better time.

OTOH, I’m 70, and probably one day before too long just walk away from cycling, mostly to simplify my life psychologically as much as physiologically and materially, and take to walking for an hour a day instead (or, as on recent thread on iBoblist), perhaps do the military walk-jog-walk routine. Or, just walk briskly.

Meanwhile, cycling remains fun (thank God), tho’ just now on my bike path out-’n’-back, I started out by pushing myself too hard in the 75” instead of dropping to the 67" while feeling tired and ended up (or in NM English, “landed out”) over-exerting and feeling bad while nonetheless moving slowly. (15.29 and 15.63 mph out and back on flat paved path with modest side wind on gofast fixed gear.) I suppose one solution to this problem is to buy a Clem.

[Joe Bernard]

Patrick, 

I have a Clem which I love and realistically covers the riding I do now. I just joined a gym which seems to fit my life/job situation, I'm thinking about selling my custom to someone who'll actually ride it. We get older, things change, it may be time for me to accept the changes. 

[Patrick Moore]

Very true, and I think that a happy (and intelligent and dignified!) old age requires accepting this not only abstractly but concretely — so that I really have to learn to back off the effort and gear down.

Amateur British cycling legend Beryl Burton — who held almost innumerable records from the 1950s through the 1980s — died of heart failure on her bike in 1996 at age 58 while out on an errand ride, largely, I think because she refused to accept that age requires slowing down. A sad end to a glorious career. (She was a Yorkshire agricultural worker — picked rhubarb —mother, and housewife, who notoriously passed the men’s favorite in the 1967 12-hour time trial (as she passed him — she beat his also-record-breaking distance by a bit less than a mile — she offered him a liquorice allsort for energy; he replied, “Ta, luv”).

On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 3:14 PM Joe Bernard <joer...@gmail.com> wrote:

… We get older, things change, it may be time for me to accept the changes. 

[Mike Packard]

I recently got a little speaker called a Noxgear 39g. It is about the size of a mini candy bar and has a clip to attach to the collar of my shirt. (It also has a magnet attachment.) It is loud enough to hear while I'm riding but quiet enough to not be blasting others around me. I usually listen to podcasts. It has a nice physical volume up/down and pause buttons that are easy to use while in motion. It's my favorite gadget of the last couple years. It's really unobtrusive to wear around. 

https://www.noxgear.com/39g

mike

[Brian Turner]

That little Noxgear speaker looks pretty cool!

Despite my plug for the Bose Soundlink speaker, I should also say that I typically enjoy my rides sans music or any other distraction. I much prefer to hear the sounds of my tires on the surface and the natural environment around me. I only use my Bluetooth speaker when I'm riding rail trails with my wife, because she's the one who really enjoys the music along the ride. Even when I use a GPS device on longer or unfamiliar rides, I have the screen set to sleep after a few seconds so I'm not tempted to constantly look at distance traveled, speed, etc.

Brian

Lexington KY

[Arvi]

I really appreciate having music for longer brevets (400, 600, and 1200k). I don't generally ride with music, but on the super long ones, playing peppy music is my emergency measure for reviving motivation. I've been using the same little Noxgear 39g mentioned above, clipped to my rando bag. Works great. Doesn't have the volume or battery life of some larger speakers, but it's perfectly audible and you can't beat it for ease of carry.

-Arvi

Oakland, CA

[Guy Jett]

I see here the initial talk is about using speakers for music.  I appreciate that the discussion mentions listening at lower volumes.  

I don't ride with music as I find it distracting and it interferes with hearing what's going on around me -- like traffic approaching from behind.  For those tempted to wear a headset or earbuds remember that in some states, like California, it is illegal to ride or drive anything with anything blocking your ears. 

<rant>I recently completed the Mount Diablo Challenge in the S.F. Bay Area.  The rules specifically prohibit headphones / earbuds.  To get around this a pair of cyclists riding together passed me with a speaker at a fairly high volume -- it could be heard from over 100 yards away!  I'm afraid I view people like them as selfish and inconsiderate because they destroy the natural ambiance of the ride in that peaceful location.</rant>

GAJett

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[Brent Eastman]

Oontz Angle Solo is plenty loud and the triangle shape makes it super easy to strap to bars with a Voile Strap. I listen to music in the city, not in the woods. 

[Chris Fly]

certainly lots of opinions on this topic, always has been.. so I'll add mine! ;) 

I almost always ride with music.. I use bone conduction headphones as mentioned earlier and have no issues hearing any sounds around me.. prior to that I used an earbud in my right ear (non-traffic side) only.. 

My reason is I ride as a means of mental health therapy (unofficially) and listening to music while I do is very therapeutic to me I feel.. I work with some pretty heavy stuff in my day job (sexual assault victims) and also have some PTSD from 30 yrs of active duty military, so riding is one of my ways to calm down and reset and music helps me do that.. 

as far as California (where I'm at) or any other state that may have a law about headphones.. well, I'm willing to take that chance based on the lack of enforcement of all the other stuff (can't tell you how many times a car will pass with pot smoke wafting out..). I also use a Varia rear radar, so, while I do hear cars coming up, I see them way before I would hear them, headphones or not.. after 30 yrs of military, it's not like my high freq hearing is that great anyway.. ;^) 

Chris

Rocking out in Sonoma County, CA 

[Toshi Takeuchi]

Chris, it's legal to ride a bicycle in CA with one ear free (earbud in one ear). https://bayareabicyclelaw.com/safety-laws/headphones/

However, if you have bone conduction headphones, then I would go for that!

Toshi in Oakland

[Guy Jett]

Hi Toshi,

Thanks for the update on the wearing of headphones in California.  A much more nuanced account that I gave earlier.  I yield my earlier statement in favor of your.

GAJett

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[Joseph Farruggia]

Hey All!

Most of my rides are solo rides here in Northern Colorado. 

I am always listening to music on my solo rides, whether it is bluetooth earbuds, phone speakers(not loud at all), or if its a long Brevet style ride I bring a cabled headset. 

Most of my rides start on the local town path and reach gravel or dirt roads on the front range.

Sadly most people who ride out here never acknowledge that they are passing you. maybe 1 out 10 will say something or ding their bell. 

Especially the senior E-bikers!

Usually only one ear is music, especially on the single track out here. I need to worry more about the wildlife than the humans out here when it comes to music in the ears haha! 

Anyone out here want to ride? All bikes are welcome to ride! 

Bike what you Like!

Cheers

Joseph 

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