De(a)f Jam

If getting splattered by a semi wasn't cause for concern, there's that whole "deaf at 30" thing to consider. Bummer, no?

Most of us have already been appropriately warned of the potential hazards of cycling with headphones by mothers, grandmothers and significant others. But the typical scare tactics normally don’t extend much beyond, “You can’t hear your surroundings. What if traffic is honking or an ambulance is coming or a cougar roars or another rider calls out from the other side of a blind corner?”

In reality, cars honk just to be assholes on the roadway and you can hear honking or sirens over music, anyway. Wearing headphones on tight singletrack littered with blind corners really isn’t a great idea, but that’s beside the point. The point of this rant is, I just read some eye-opening statistics about ear-damage in the latest issue of Rolling Stone (the one with Madonna on the cover).

As far as Rolling Stone is concerned, cyclists don’t exist, so there’s no direct mention of actually riding with headphones. But, among scary quotes from near-deaf rock stars advocating earplugs at concerts, the story warns the current “iPod generation” of potential hearing hazards that go with regular headphone use.

I can’t speak for the typical bikemag.com user, but I enjoy riding with music. And when I’m on the road bike, on the crowded streets of southern California, I have to crank the tunes pretty loud just so they’re audible over the traffic and wind. Obviously, that’s hard on the ears, but apparently I’m doing a lot more long-term damage then I ever imagined.

According to Rolling Stone, the safe allowance for most earbud/MP3 combinations at 60-percent volume is a meager 30-minutes per day. They also mention one of the main problems is people crank the volume way beyond the safe limit to drown out ambient sound (like traffic or wind, in our case). Long-term side effects include the constant ringing in the ears called tinnitus, and general ‘ole deafness.

I still advocate the rockin’ of tunes while riding, but I’m going to start turning them down. I suggest you do the same, because when I yell out on a blind corner, I want you to hear me, headphones on or not.