Bikes and iPods

[anonymous-user]

I've only been riding 12 months so still a fair novice.

I hae read a lot of threads with people either wearing ear plugs or iPods.

Now as a newish biker I guess my thoughts ould be..DANGER.. how can you hear anything like cars beeping to warn you etc.

Is this not the case... is the helmet so insulative (new word?) that it's not an issue.

Just interested

Thanks
Gary

[RemaL]

I use mine somnetimes and as long as you are careful and dont have it too loud your ok

[Hooli]

i didnt like earplugs when i tried it, but that was a comfort/felt isolated thing rather than what i could hear.

[Mad Dave]

I almost always ride with earplugs in - the wind noise can cause irrepairable damage to your ears.

I sometimes ride with a iPod playing, but it does block out a fair amount of sound, and I find my riding style/speed tends to be influenced by the music that's playing - if it shuffles to Dance/Trance/Prodigy then I tend to ride much faster, so I usually just stick to earplugs.

[Fats25]

Read this thread

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I use these - and you can still hear all the other traffic round you.

www.starcom1.com/plugphones.htm

[Robertjp]

Fats25 said:

Read this thread

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I use these - and you can still hear all the other traffic round you.

www.starcom1.com/plugphones.htm

The thread above talks about unlocking the volume on your Ipod? I have a 30gig old Ipod that is much quieter than my wifes 80gig 4th generation....

So is there a way of making it louder (its so quiet that in the gym the general music can be heard above th Ipod!) ? i was considering a new one to solve it...this would help?!

PS link on other thread doesnt work...

[dern]

Robertjp said:

So is there a way of making it louder (its so quiet that in the gym the general music can be heard above th Ipod!) ? i was considering a new one to solve it...this would help?!

Build or buy one of these...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Micro-Cmoy-headphone-amp-Opa...

I built one and it's very good.

I use shure e2c phones and they work like ear plugs as well as headphones so don't need my amp on the bike.

[mr_bizarre]

I have one headphone of my walkman phone thingy in. I can have one ear on the music and the other on the road, and if the phone rings then I can still answer and talk whilst on the move by simply pressing the button on the cord which is wound once round my neck. Oh and all the wires sit flush round my neck or tucked into a polo neck in case you were thinking it sounded dangerous

[tfm]

I may be sounding a bit like Mum here - but isn't this a recipe for deafness?

[andy tims]

tfm said:

I may be sounding a bit like Mum here - but isn't this a recipe for deafness?

Tend to agree - tried it once & in order to hear anything at speed the volume needed to be so high it was deafening - especially when I slowed down.

[mr_bizarre]

andy tims said:

tfm said:

I may be sounding a bit like Mum here - but isn't this a recipe for deafness?

Tend to agree - tried it once & in order to hear anything at speed the volume needed to be so high it was deafening - especially when I slowed down.

I have the volume about three quarters of the way up, but then again I've a large screen to deflect the worst the wind has to offer.

What I've done in the past (with no screen) is clip the headphone around the foam near the ear so it sits just outside the ear, the music quality does get a bit tinny and obviously quieter but you can still hear it for a bit of company on longer journeys.

[dern]

andy tims said:

tfm said:

I may be sounding a bit like Mum here - but isn't this a recipe for deafness?

Tend to agree - tried it once & in order to hear anything at speed the volume needed to be so high it was deafening - especially when I slowed down.

This is the point of the shure e2cs... they act as earplugs as well as earphones in that they cut out the wind noise so the music doesn't have to overcome it. That is the volume you'd listen to the music at 100mph would be the same as you'd listen to at stand still.

[The Pits]

I wouldn't dream of riding through town with either ear plugs or and ipod.

I'd never ride on the motorway without earplugs. But on a country road hoon I'd rather listen to the engine than music, which as pointed out would probably only encourage over-zealous riding.

I can only imagine using the ipod on a long boring motorway journey, in which case you wouldn't have to worry about traffic or junctions and the like. But I reckon it's a dumb idea for riding in a built up area.

[black-k1]

dern said:

andy tims said:

tfm said:

I may be sounding a bit like Mum here - but isn't this a recipe for deafness?

Tend to agree - tried it once & in order to hear anything at speed the volume needed to be so high it was deafening - especially when I slowed down.

This is the point of the shure e2cs... they act as earplugs as well as earphones in that they cut out the wind noise so the music doesn't have to overcome it. That is the volume you'd listen to the music at 100mph would be the same as you'd listen to at stand still.

I read a report (I think in either Ride or Bike magazine) recently that found that a large amount of the noise experienced by motorcyclists did not get into the auditory system down the ear canal but by vibrations in the skull/jaw. This means that the noise would still be heard (and would still be quite loud) even if the ear canal was totally blocked to all sound.

Any music being played via headphones will still have to overcome a fair amount of background noise regardless how good the noise cancelling speakers are and as such, I expect would still have to be louder than normal.

As I have already suffered hearing damage due to riding motorcycles without ear protection, I for one will not be adding to the amount of noise getting to my ears but will be sticking with ear plugs and as quiet a helmet as I can find.

[dern]

black-k1 said:

I read a report (I think in either Ride or Bike magazine) recently that found that a large amount of the noise experienced by motorcyclists did not get into the auditory system down the ear canal but by vibrations in the skull/jaw. This means that the noise would still be heard (and would still be quite loud) even if the ear canal was totally blocked to all sound.

Any music being played via headphones will still have to overcome a fair amount of background noise regardless how good the noise cancelling speakers are and as such, I expect would still have to be louder than normal.

As I have already suffered hearing damage due to riding motorcycles without ear protection, I for one will not be adding to the amount of noise getting to my ears but will be sticking with ear plugs and as quiet a helmet as I can find.

Interesting point but if you set the volume to a comfortable level and it's still audible at cruising speed then you're ok aren't you? If you have to jack the volume up when cruising at high speeds then you could be in trouble admitedly but I don't have to do that with mine unless I'm going very quickly on the motorway in which case I turn the music off. I don't think that playing two sounds at once at the same volume produces a total volume any higher than each source would generate individually unless they happened to be syncronised frquency wise.

[m3psm]

I’ve never used the iPod on the bike before, but following this and other recent threads I thought I’d give it a go.

The standard earphones definitely have to go as they pull slightly out when the lid goes on, so I’ve ordered some flat in helmet ones.

Somebody mentioned how the type of music affected their riding and I must confess to noticing the same thing. I put my car driving mix on and whenever I looked at my speedo I was doing 10mph faster than normal, plus I got to work 5 minutes faster than usual today.

Getting the volume right for slow city and fast motorway riding is going to be a compromise unless I can get some sort of external volume control too.

Until I get suitable headphones I can’t really assess what I think, but I’m not convinced it’s a great idea to have music while I ride.

[Chilli]

I could never do it...I need to be able to hear what the engine's doing to ascertain exactly what the hell is going on.....wouldn't last 5 minutes otherwise!

[m3psm]

I've now fitted the the flat "intercom type" speakers into the helmet and tried the iPod again.

This time I felt much more comfortable with the music as it wasn't being pumped straight into my ear drum. This allowed more background noise to filter through allowing me to hear the white transit van calling me a wer and beeping his horn This gave ample warning allowing me time to retort and aim for his wing

Getting the volume right for city and motorway is impossible, so I'll just keep it down for city use and do without at high speed music.

In the summer (as the headphones come with their own in-line volume control) I can adjust the volume as I go, but in the winter everything is securely hidden from the rain.

In summary, I'm a convert and have already loaded up the iPod with calm biking music to sooth the winter commute

Edit: These are the headphones I'm using. Found them via another PH post on this topic

Edited by m3psm on Wednesday 21st November 14:08

Edited by m3psm on Wednesday 21st November 14:09

[duckspeed8]

Hi , i tried a couple of different things with my ipod for longer journeys ,
have the little flat panel speakers in helmet now and they are ok but even better using a 3.5mm male to male extension cable rather than the thin volume control lead that came with them , that was just rubbish and had no real volume , very low even on high setting.
Also tried a set of koss in ear earphones , they are small, cheap and have foam on them just like ear plugs , sqeeze it up and pop it in your ear , great sound too and can be had for under a tenner.
http://www.headphoneworld.com/p/Koss_%27The_Plug%2...

[veetwin]

Sennheiser in-ear CX300, proven up to 185mph to give outstanding clarity in all areas of listening.

I rode down to the Pyrenees last year wearing my Ipod and I will agree with Mad Dave, most of my music taste lies in Progressive House/ Drum and Bass or Hard Rock Music (Pearl Jam and similar) and all I can say is that when a choice track started playing, all hell broke loose and ground was covered in a lot less time. I noticed that the music helped lift the front wheel off the tarmac a lot during said period.

Would I recommend it? yes indeed!!

I have never worn it on track though. A few of my friends do and I see it as wrong towards the organisers.

The alternative is wearing EAR ear plugs, soft, squidgy, yellow. Take two twice daily during the summer and you will feel much better.