Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Now that I am armed with an MP3 player, what is the general consensus about listening to music on the road? Too distracting? Not a problem?

I perceived no real distraction this afternoon, but was wondering if, in general, it was not a good idea.

I'd stay off it in town. For a roadtrip I don't think it would be a problem. Make sure you hide the cords well if it's illegal in your state. The thing with towns is you can't afford unnecessary distractions in heavy traffic and you need to be able to hear. My friend had a truck back into her car in a parking lot, and it kept trying to back up because the kid driving couldn't hear her horn or the cruncing sound over his super bass stereo system. I know on a bike you'd notice if you're running over someone, but you get the idea.

What headphones do you use? I have those cheap $12 sony earbuds which are fine for everything except riding. Riding the wind noise drowns out all the music so I don't even bother.

Good for the highway, bad for around town. I splurged and spent $50 on a pair of Fontopia headphones. They're literally earplgus with built in speakers, so it blocks out the wind.

Those Sony fontopia earphones are the best ever. They manage to block out all external sounds to the point of when the music is not on you can hear your heartbeat.
My dog ate my last pair so I am yet to justify dropping another $70 on another set.

my advise is to keep that silly civilian junk out of your ears and listen to traffic sounds--however i imagine it would be cool to be buried with some of the more elegant styles in your ears.

some music would probably be nice for cruising down the super slab. Something to break the monotony. Heck they put radios on the goldwing and a few other tourers.

Would still want to be able to hear everything in town.

Yup, that's why I only ever wear 1 headphone and only on highway trips.

Buy a Goldwing, it comes with a sound system.

Personally I wouldn't even listen to music on the road. In a car, I tend to roll the windows down, turn off the radio and drive. Nothing feels better than hearing your engine peak at a certain gear and shifting up instead of looking at the tachometer waiting for the thing to hit 3,000 rpms. I'd have to imagine that its 10x much more exciting on a bike.

i ride with my IPOD every day in peak hour city traffic, i just dont have it cranked so as i cant hear the important stuff...call it background music.

On long trips you need music. Oh yes, being out on the open road is amazing, but when it's the same leg of 100 mile road that you ride twice a week or more to visit your girlfriend... you need something to break up the monotony. Around town would be nice if you had a way to turn the damned thing off easily. I generally stuff mine in my inner jacket pocket (riding with music is illegal in VA- there's some law about it being ok in one ear somewhere but cops don't care) and can't get to it to turn it off easily.

Then when you get off your bike in the bike line and some of the other guys start talking to you, it's hard to tell over the city sounds, music and your helmet. Then they think you're a aack jas