Riding with music

I will agree with you on the phone, the music however actually helps me focus as another poster mentioned; it gives my ADD something to focus on and stops my mind from wandering out to lala land. I am much more focused on the ride with the background music, the phone providing the music is in the tankbag so there is no temptation to mess with it while riding.

You are correct about our brain "tuning distractions out" when our riding requires 100% focus. At least that's the way it's supposed to work. If you allow your brain to "go to la-la land", then you can expect delayed reaction times and/or marginal skills displayed during a situation that requires faster reaction times and/or better skills. Even if a rider has those superior skills, they may not appear when called upon.
So, again, riders do not ride better with distractions.

I fall asleep without a distraction. Car, bike, whatever.

Suspect it is ADD related. Worst is if I am riding aggressive on the ktm300 and then load up to drive home. My brain is all keyed up and the lack of stimulus shuts me down. I've had to pull over for multiple "get out of the car and wake up" sessions on the 45 minute drive back home. Music or audiobook helps.

So does driving/riding recklessly, but I'm getting older/more responsible...

I'm new to Bluetooth comms and I'm also not very tech savvy in general. I didn't know if I'd really like a BT setup in the long run, so I was on the fence about dropping a couple hundred bucks on something.

I ended up getting one of those El Cheapo BT jobbies off eBay for around $30, just as a test run. It's great. You'll only need earbuds if you can't hear the speakers. I'm sure the speakers on my setup are not premium, but I have no problem hearing my music at 80mph on a naked bike. Phone calls and gps directions seem to come through louder than the music, so I usually have to turn the volume down for those. Max volume on the music hurts my ears. On the highway I usually run about 60-70% volume with music, 40-50% on phone calls. In town I keep everything about 25-30%. I don't see a need for earbuds personally.

Mind sharing which one you went with? I'm in the same boat as you and while a Sena 20 seems pretty cool, it's also a few bucks. Granted I could probably do a catch-and-release sale here but I want to dip my toes into the Bluetooth pond in this route.

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So I suppose you're just as conscientious as this when operating a lawn mower, car, truck, horse, whatever...



I don't doubt the motorcycle riding public -in general- disagrees with that statement of yours; I don't.

It's up to the individual rider to make the determination of just how much distraction -and when- is over the line in any given riding situation.

That's the tough part.

The music helps keep my mind from going to lala land, without it I find myself easily distracted and my mind wandering easily, with the music in the background it gives the idle part of my mind something to do and I am better focused on the ride. As another poster mentioned I think it is ADD related.

I have helmets with Bluetooth built in. I listen to Pandora/Spotify/Google, GPS, and phone. My helmets are pretty quiet and my DR650s don't cause a lot of turbulent air for me, so I can keep the volume pretty low. I can hear the engine, emergency vehicles, and even people talking nearby when I'm stopped.

Sure thing, man. I'm afraid to share a link since I got flamed for that beforeb so just search for "BT-S2 motorcycle" and it'll pop up. I just looked and the cheapest I saw $37 obo. I'm on the east coast and mine showed up in about a week. I can't comment on how they work when connected to other riders for chatting, but for everything it has been flawless. It came fully charged and a charge has been lasting about 16-18hrs for me.

Thanks, I appreciate that and understand the link thing. Not interested in connecting to other riders right now so this could fit the bill without shelling out a lot of bills.

I've got this one (think it's the one)

https://m.gearbest.com/motorcycle-p...8ksvEcrRHnimYVDTq3tFOzq7K3lW5dxhoC8JoQAvD_BwE


Works fine (great!) for music as long as you position the speakers well, which is a big concern no matter what unit.

I have mine linked to two others for comms. Works but can be finicky with pairing if you want to change it later. Can only hook to two others, and can only speak/hear with one at a time. But I think they were less than $30 when we got them, so absolutely awesome for the price.

No music. Using ear plugs. The only sound coming out of the Sena is GSP routing info and the occasional "whup whup" from my bluetooth-connected Uniden R3

For the first time ever, I listened to music while riding to/from Alaska. Most of the time it was off but on the long, dull sections it made a change from the wind noise. Did not distract me from riding but then I rarely listen to music closely, it's background noise. I still wanted it off when concentrating on the road. The radio in my old truck broke probably 18-20 years ago and I never bothered to fix it so that's how important it is to me. I know some people who SLEEP with earbuds in and music playing. Don't get it.

I tried it but didn't like it. I didn't find it distracting, but it did seem to make me feel more isolated from my environment. The ability to hear on a bike is limited, but it does help with my situational awareness.

Still laugh in my helmet every time I recall this post.

I recall a research project from the early days of cell phones (pre-texting) in which drivers had to navigate a course lined with cones while listening/talking on cell phones. While simply listening, everyone could do fine, but when answering questions asked through the phones, cones went aflying. I can, and often do, listen to music while on my 2 wheel commute, but I will not do the phone thing.

Not sure if this is the place, but i'm still on the lookout for some noise cancelling headphones/earbuds. I love listening to music when riding but I also like riding with earplugs do drown out the wind noise, now I just need to do both! My ears are super sensitive so the earphones have to be flush...Thanks

The newer Sena (and presumably other brands) speakers are very slim. I have no issues using earplugs while chatting or listening to music with the Sena 10S. My previous SMH-10 was fine as well but the 10S is better.

I've been riding since 1968, and I've waited a LOOOONG time to have music on
my bike. The technology didn't exist years ago.
I now ride a Goldwing with a small MP3 player wired into the onboard
stereo system and I LOVE IT!!
I've got 1500 songs on the thing and with random play engaged, I
rarely hear the same song twice.

I might be repeating myself, so apologies if I am... but I have had really good luck with filtering earplugs. Wind noise is decreased a lot and eardrum buffeting completely eliminated, but I can hear the music on my speakers perfectly at a reasonable volume (and people talking to me, and the engines of nearby cars). I don't know how it works, but it's been great for me.