Take out yer damn earbuds, buds!

People, you need to seriously reconsider this riding with headphones in your ears business. It is crazy dangerous. As an owner of earbud headphones, I’m fully aware of how completely oblivious the wearer is of the outside world. Unless you can taste a car coming from 50 feet behind you, hearing is the most important sense (next to vision, of course) that one employs whilst riding. I have seen so many riders doing completely stupid shit because they are zoned out listening to the jamz. If I listen to music while riding, it’s only through the crappy speaker that is built into my phone. It’s not the most sonically pristine way to enjoy my music, but it does the trick and I retain my ability to hear one of those squealing CT1’s that’s about to come within 6 inches of my left side.
If a diminutive speaker just doesn’t cut it for you, splurge on one of those water-bottle cage iPod speakers, or better yet build yourself a car battery-powered PA speaker setup on a trailer.
The crazy thing is, so many of the people I see riding with headphones are also wearing a helmet. Without inciting another tired helmet debate, you should see there is a fundamental contradiction here…
We get pissed (rightfully so) when drivers are texting and chatting while driving, don’t you think we should try to keep our wits about us while we ride?