dont ride with your headphones on!

[Neil G]

Bad to hear about the crash, hope he makes a good recovery.

I have ridden with headphones on but TBH it just didn't feel right not being able to hear what was going on around me.

 

[MAXTHEROTTI]

So at the age of 17, you were perfect out on your bike?

:roll:

children dont normally play on busy roads.

Headphones, lack of concentration, whatever, it was still a nasty accident that could happen to anybody.

what?????
so as a ex taxi driver you never see kids playing near a busy road then run in to get there ball ????????????
find that hard to belive

and no of course i wasnt perfect at 17 but i wasnt stupid enough to use a busy road as my own racetrack with utter disregard to anything going on around me (there is a time and a place and a busy road is not it)

dont get me wrong i dont wish harm on anyone here and hope he recovers well with no ill effects but he has to accept this is the result of his own silly actions.

 

[BertR00t]

I rode in the back of a 4WD a few years back at speed by looking over my shoulder too late and when I turned back my face was all over the spare wheel. Smashed my prescription sunglasses all over my nose and had to have the bits removed at hospital. Bled a lot and the car owner came out of her house and threw up on the pavement at the site of all the blood.

The top and diwntubes of my purple Zaskar now have bulges in too.

 

[The Ken]

I used to have a walkman in my pocket with speakers mounted to my handlebars blaring out all manner of music when I commuted to college.

Hope he makes a good recovery, lessons learned, we all make mistakes.

 

[djoptix]

@ Highlandsflyer - be fair to Khane, he probably is doing something right to have gone so long without an accident. He's not just lucky. However...

@ Khane, you are partly lucky, and regardless of whether you're extra-observant or not, it's a fact that riding with headphones on makes you personally more likely to have an accident than you personally would be without them on. So I'm afraid it's still a bad idea and neither big nor clever.

I used to wear my earphones on my commute to work (10 miles each way) to listen to Radio 4. I found this not too distracting because speech gets in the way of hearing things a lot less than your average ear-bleedingly compressed music station (Radio 1 being a particularly shocking example). Also, I've realised that that commute was pretty safe compared to yer average city riding. I would never wear earphones in Bristol.

I still sometimes wear them without anything playing through them, though, because it stops me getting earache when I'm out for a while on a cold day!

 

[highlandsflyer]

He's not just lucky.

I know what you are saying but it is not really my point.

If my daughter opened the car door and got whacked by a rider wearing headphones, it may well cloud my judgement as to whether or not the rider was at fault.

There is one scenario where you are bimbling along an empty trail with Mozart bending your ear.

The other is where you are endangering yourself and other road/pavement users.

I am not saying it is more dangerous than a lot of other things people do.

That is no argument for doing it though.

Of course a driver with his stereo up full blast is being dangerous too.

Someone mentioned how quickly accidents develop.

We are already the ones most likely to come off worst in most accidents. The statistics give the lie to the high profile campaign against cyclists going on right now.

I wonder if this government are thinking of legislative control over cyclists.

Some idiots in the press are already calling for mandatory insurance.

Next thing it will be road tax.

What we in the biking community need to do is raise awareness ourselves of the bad practise within our fraternity.

Manage ourselves from inside or be managed from outside.

The headphone thing is a personal choice at the moment.

All it takes are one or two high profile cases, and everyone will lose that choice.

 

[velomaniac]

As an aside and with The Kens comments in mind at the Single Speed Championships in Aviemore in 2004 I think, an Ozzie gent had a great bike mounted sound system. He raced around the technical tough circuit with two speakers attached to his fork legs with Dub Reggae blasting out. He was very focussed and seriously good

 

[makster]

You're all missing the obvious lesson here......only ride off-road

Seriously though, I've ridden with and without music for years and, in my opinion, its all about concentration.
If you cycle full-bore and dont look where you're going then you will crash!

As concenration training, all cyclists should have to ride along Bournemouth seafront on a hot bank holiday weekend without crashing.
If the kids, dogs or diagonal walking pensioners dont get you, then you'll be distracted by the sheer volume of attractive young ladies in bikini's and be sure to hit something
Its ninja traing for cyclists, I tell thee!

 

[FMJ]

Sounds like the boardwalk/fitness path along the lake here. Following rollerblade chics in spandex/jog-bras can be hazardous to your health.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Just try riding in Asia.