Rock and roll ain’t noise pollution, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson informed us back in 1980. Except when you’re riding a bike, apparently.
While fact-adjacent drivers on Twitter struggle with the concept of bike tyres, and the Telegraph forces the intern to spend hours by the roadside counting cyclists, a massive row has broken out on a Facebook cycling group concerning the etiquette of cycling with a Bluetooth speaker playing.
Yes, really.
The, ahem, discussion, which is currently taking place on the Roadbike Cycling page and which has amassed over 800 comments so far, began after Simon Charnley and Sean Camm realised a Juice Boom Pro Bluetooth speaker (available on eBay for £25) fits perfectly inside their bottle cage.
“Finally I’ve actually found a Bluetooth speaker to fit in my water bottle cage,” Simon wrote on the page, alongside photos of his new purchase and the sleek-looking Giant that will now double as a two-wheeled turntable.
“It’s very light and very loud and does the job brilliantly, now can have tunes to spin to, best £20 I’ve spent for ages.”
Probably anticipating the reaction his new accessory would cause, Simon added: “Let me add, this is for when I’m riding alone up the mountain hills and nobody around and not upsetting anyone, so you guys saying don’t be that guy, I’m not. I don’t like earbuds and this is safer used correctly. Only weighing in at 320g, bike only 7.2kg, so won’t notice it. Sweet.”
Believe it or not, Simon’s fairly innocuous post about wanting to play some music as he rides in the hills – and a follow-up from Sean Camm, who originally recommended the speakers to his fellow Giant enthusiast – kicked off quite the debate in the group.
And it’s fair to say things have got a touch heated.
First off, in the ‘you’re ruining my day by cycling past with your speakers playing music’ corner…
“Get some bone conductor earphones. This is just noise pollution to others,” said Rosen.
“How do you know who can hear your music?” asked Mark. “Depending on topology, the sound may carry further than you think. So, someone up the road headed in the same direction that you can’t see may be subjected to your music. Just put on headphones, bro. Be cool.”
Meanwhile, Joshua described the two speaker-using cyclists as “rude and entitled”, while Gabriel declared that “people who listen to Bluetooth speakers on bikes deserve a special place in Hell.”
Bit strong there, Gabriel.
“Personally, I find listening to another cyclist’s music annoying,” said a much-more relaxed Carol. “I assume this was a joke post. With bone conducting headphones, why would someone choose to blast his playlist?”
“No matter what you play on that, your music sucks. Now everyone around you hates your guts,” said Tom, while Mike added: “Looks like people are gonna be listening to Nickelback whether they want to or not.”
Poor Nickelback, always catching some strays.
Meanwhile, Matthew asked: “Why are you giving non-cycling road users a reason to dislike cyclists even more?”
And finally, on the ‘no speaker’ side, Steve turned to the very important issue of water bottle space.
“I’d much rather have music playing for the world than hydration,” he sarcastically noted.
> When cycling meets rock 'n' roll: legendary musicians, bands and songs that celebrate all things bike
However, not everyone jumped on the anti-speaker bandwagon.
“I seriously don’t get why this triggers so many people,” wrote a baffled Kurtis. “Having a 2000-watt stereo system in your car is fine, but 12 watts on a bicycle is breaking the very laws of nature.”
And speaker owner Sean added: “A guy got ran over near me recently on a bike. Pretty bad accident. The cause was headphones, those ones that are meant to be open ear so you can hear stuff. Well, he didn’t hear the car next to him and swerved into it full on. Hospital. Very bad.
“I also use a speaker like this. It’s much safer as you can hear everything around you and it creates awareness like a bell would so people know you’re there too. With regards to people’s feelings about it – don’t care.”
“I stopped wearing ear buds years ago, because I would just get a headache later on, as I needed them at 100 per cent volume to hear the music (I guess not great fitting buds),” said Tommy.
“Then years without music. The other week I got a new bike bag, and tried having just my phone playing music in the mesh on top of the bag. And it's actually great. People hear you coming (no different to a car engine) And you’re not making yourself deaf to your surroundings. So, Bike speakers should definitely be a thing.”
Meanwhile, Stu weighed up the balancing act between safety and forcing a pedestrian to listen to a few bars of Kylie Minogue’s ‘All the Lovers’ (your song choice may vary) as you pass by.
People say use headphones, but as long as you’re not blasting music, I think the safety of hearing your surroundings is more important than inconveniencing people with sound for like six seconds,” he said.
“Everyone is getting so triggered,” added Azer. “How is this any different from a car passing you by? You all make it sound like you’re riding somewhere in outer space with zero noise around you, and then one cyclist passes by, and suddenly, you hear some music.”
Meanwhile, Francisco was all for the vibes: “In my previous group there was a buddy with the same setup, it was about four hours of varied music for everyone. I don’t see anything to complain. Enjoy and mix good music!”
What do you think, Bluetooth speakers while cycling – yay or nay? Or, like me, are you wondering why this is even a debate?
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38 comments
Cyclists with music are a heck of a lot less irritating than peds on their phones with the speakers turned on, I'd say. As I was out for a walk one warm evening last summer, I had an old codger pass me, very slowly, on a bakfiets thing with a sound system driven by what looked like a large car battery, blasting out techno. It was wonderful.
Re, using bluetooth/loud speakers whilst cycling.
From one of the I Bike London rides.
I don't think this seriously bothered anyone...
https://youtu.be/VVB_MTpMP3Q
Never mind the social niceties of the music, given the amount of dings, spray, and other insults my bottles suffer, I don't think I'd want to be putting speakers in there - even relatively cheap ones.
re the speakers: I'm firmly in the 'stay in your lane' camp, no one is entitled to solitude in a public space.
Does that mean you're for 'em or agin 'em? I thought originally you meant nobody has a right to expect not to be bothered by others in a public space (for 'em) but then you could mean nobody has a right to act in a public space as if nobody else is around (agin 'em).
Bluetooth speakers while cycling
An abomination, and thankfully, against the local bye law in the Forest of Dean. and I've had words with pedestrians who think that blasting out their favourite noise is acceptable. People go to quiet places to enjoy the peace, to get away from the relentless muzak and noise of modern society, not to have other people's choice of music inflicted on them.
The majority of cars where I live are parked on pavements, they must levitate if the Telegraph is correct.
Emitting noise without necessity is rude.
Reving a little engine, accerating hard from the traffic lights, starting a Porsch engine, driving an AMG V8 - that's all rude and unnecessary - and sign of little class. It's the same for riding/walking with bluetooth speakers or, in the 80ies, a boom-box.
Driving normally, in a sensible car, is much less noisy and often hard to avoid - so that's mostly acceptable.
Using normal headphones is not acceptable - these zombies are a danger to themselves and others. Try overtaking one of them - they'll never hear a bell.
For cycling, the solution seem to be bone-conducting headphones - leaving the ears free while still providing some - albeit LoFi - entertainment.
I'm sorry but I'm with Gabriel on this one.
The 'special hell' is now reserved for child molesters, people who talk in the theatre, and 'people who choose to use a Bluetooth speaker in public instead of headphones'
Firstly, with the number of people who seem to think this is OK now it's not "like six seconds", on some busy London cycleways it's one damned person after another either passing or being passed with music blaring. Secondly, it's not either headphones or speaker, it's not compulsory to listen to music at all. I'm passionate about music both as a player and a listener and have it on almost constantly at home, but I can do without for half an hour's commuting, and I certainly don't want it on (nor to hear other people's) when I'm out in the wonder of the countryside where the quiet and the birdsong are one of the greatest pleasures of a rural ride. Finally, and I'm sure this will upset some people, in my opinion nobody who really loves music would bother listening to it from a tinny speaker as you ride along with wind noise in your ears, traffic noise etc. It seems to me 90% at least of people using these speakers are a lot less interested in the music per se than they are in projecting an image of look at me, I'm so cool and devoted to music I can't be without it for a second, aren't I great? [/rant]
NB To preempt whataboutery, I hate loud music blasting from cars just as much and have had a number of lively discussions with midlife crisis bellends broadcasting their horrible AOR tastes from their roof-down Porsches and BMWs.
Don't get mad, get even.
Now I shall spend far too long wondering what a unicyclist wears under the kilt - if they stick to the fine traditions of your homeland it could be somewhat painful...
I can't say that I've tried unicycling like that, but it's common to not need padding as you're mostly not riding a long way (MTBuni riders might want proper cycling shorts though). It shouldn't be any more painful than riding a bike without underwear though descending kerbs can be problematic if you don't raise yourself off the saddle in preparation and use your legs to absorb the bump.
I'm sure that's a challenge for some! Not myself though, I hail from the south so am excusing myself pleading "nesh".
Also I'm more a fan of the smaller pipes, valuing my hearing. But combining that with e.g. the "Drum and bass on a bike" idea I'd be delighted to be passed by someone DJing e.g. the work of the late great Martyn Bennett (the "techno piper"). The following is bike-themed and quite acceptable (Edinburgh video there) - seems to be a feature of Critical Mass rides.
But realistically it's probably going to be kids with the latest pop or slightly older folks with "shouting music". At least if played from a bike you get a brief snatch and gone, either way...
Concerning speakers on bikes - I'm not a huge fan as there's enough environmental noise around the place as it is, but unfortunately that bird has flown as outside of another lockdown, we're not going to be able to hear birdsong in cities.
I'd be a bit annoyed if I was enjoying a peaceful countryside ride and then have to encounter a noisy bicycle, but to be honest a bit of music is not nearly as bad as the near constant engine and tyre noise of motor vehicles.
It now seems pretty normal here in NL to see a group of kids on their transport bikes with one playing music from a speaker in the beer crate on the front. It's a lot less annoying than the dickheads with super loud exhausts that like to drag race their Golf GTI from every red light. And the buses that seem to be completely free of a silencer on the exhaust. They're really loud.
Despite the annoyance, I try to take the charitable view that the young'uns are sharing music that they like and think that others will like.
I've become a lot more aware of traffic noise since Mrs HawkinsPeter started suffering a lot from noise anxiety (she often avoids walking along main roads just because of the constant and intrusive noise). Usually it's something that I just block out, but once m attention is drawn to it, then it does become really annoying. However, I do seem to suffer from Central Auditory Processing Disorder (or is it Sensory Processing Disorder?) which means that I have difficulty focussing on voices/conversation when there's a high level of background noise - it's terrible in pubs as I can hardly ever hear the person next to me if it's noisy.
I don't know which it is, but I have the same thing. I hear every conversation around me at the pub and struggle to follow a conversation sometimes.
I'm OK with the kids playing music from their speaker on the bike. They might not be playing something I like, but they're having fun, and they're on bikes! Not in 2000kg of metal, plastic and glass, and driving like an arsehole.
Bloody cyclists riding around blasting their sounds...
That's different as it's an event/party.
Bizarrely, I do enjoy driving around Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 with the radio turned up louder than the engine noise. Discovered a great Miles Davis track from that game.
Just thinking about today : two red light jumping cars, one balaclava wearing off-road motorbike riding youth on the public path, three cars in the yellow crosshatch, and zero cycles seen. You are not advised to cycle in the Bradford Met.
I've already posted some thoughts on the Torygraph cycle-baiting piece in the forum (https://road.cc/content/forum/telegraph-news-item-310117), but another way to look at it is that if there's a huge number of cyclists ignoring red lights, but the number of collisions is negligible, then that means that most cyclists can be trusted to go through reds safely.
Conversely, according to the Torygraph, no cars go through red lights (that they saw, anyway), but the number of KSIs caused by drivers going through reds is non-negligible. This means that there is most definitely a need for traffic lights to be fitted with RLJ capturing cameras and severe penalties for drivers that do so.
Their "article" is actually promoting RLJing cyclists and making a strong case for better enforcement against RLJing drivers.
If none of the car drivers were committing offences, but they still managed to kill people, doesn't that mean that they're just irremediably dangerous regardless of the rules/enforcement, and we should just ban them?
I like the idea, but it's a bit of a stretch to think that they weren't committing offences just because the police either weren't looking, didn't want to bother with the paperwork if they did look or didn't think it was an offence because they're not that familiar with the road laws.
But but but... the Telegraph and it's esteemed commenters said they weren't, so they musnt've been.
It should be remembered that almost all motorists seem to think that putting your foot down when you see an amber light isn't jumping the light
I wonder whether the Torygraph intern knows what the rules actually are?
One of my favourite excuses from a driver I challenged on this issue a couple of years ago:
Him: "The Highway Code says the orange light means stop if it's safe to do so."
Me: "Yes but you didn't, you accelerated when it changed from green."
Him: "Yes so when I got to the light it wasn't safe to stop."
I fear this is not dissimilar to the logic I employ in a different situation:
Me: the Highway Code says you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning.
Them: but you weren't crossing as I approached, you were on the pavement and then you just carried on walking across the road.
Me: but if I had stopped, then I would have been waiting, so you should have given way either way.
The cyclist on the mini-roundabout is no angel either.
Highway Code, Rule 188
Mini-roundabouts. Approach these in the same way as normal roundabouts. **All vehicles MUST pass round the central markings except large vehicles which are physically incapable of doing so.** Remember, there is less space to manoeuvre and less time to signal. Avoid making U-turns at mini-roundabouts. Beware of others doing this.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD schedule 9 parts 7 and 8
Given the rut where he might otherwise be riding, he gets the benefit of the doubt. The clown driving on the wrong side of the roundabout and traffic island doesn't.
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