Worth Every Penny!

Picture this: you’re cruising down a scenic bike path, the wind is blowing in your helmet, and your favourite playlist is playing in the background. A fitting soundtrack can transform an ordinary bike ride into an exciting adventure.

But here’s the thing, wearing your earbuds whilst cycling can actually be quite dangerous, especially if they don’t have decent transparency mode. That’s where air-conduction headphones come in handy!

So you’re probably wondering how air-conduction headphones differ from standard earbuds. The key difference is that they don’t actually go into your ears, instead, they sit on top of your ears leaving your ear canal clear.

They simply work by firing sound straight into the ear canal from the speaker, it’s that simple and after testing quite a few models on my YouTube channel, I can honestly recommend them for any outdoor activity!

Best of all, they don’t have to cost much as you can usually find some pretty good deals online, such as the Soundpeats RunFree Light which you can usually pick up for below £50!

There are many other advantages to air-conducting headphones when cycling, let’s discuss these…

The Main Advantage: Safety

First and foremost, when it comes to cycling, safety should be your number one priority. Traditional earbuds or headphones can have a massive impact on your safety, especially when cycling on busy roads or listening to loud music.

The key disadvantage of traditional earbuds or headphones is that they block out the sounds around you, these sounds could be vehicles approaching you, pedestrians, other cyclists and animals. It takes seconds for something to go wrong so why risk it?

On the other hand, air-conduction headphones are designed to keep your ears open, now this doesn’t mean that you should use that as an excuse to listen to loud music, but it’s still safer than having your ears blocked.

With that being said, when using air-conduction headphones, I still don’t recommend listening to loud music as it’s easy to get distracted and, well the louder the music the less you hear around you, so bear that in mind. 

These headphones are only designed to allow you to stay in tune with your surroundings, which will make it easier to hear sound around you. Loud music can still partially block the sounds around you.

Comfort and Convenience

When going on long cycling trips, comfort matters! Especially when cycling the more depending routes. 

Traditional earbuds or headphones can easily become uncomfortable to wear for extended periods, especially when sweat starts to build up. This is where earbuds can become bad as some can start to slide out causing you to stress about losing them or worse, you can actually lose them!

Air-conducting headphones such as the Soundpeats FunFree I recently tested on my YouTube channel are extremely comfortable to wear on long cycling trips as they are light and sit on top of your ears. Best of all, they tend to sit very securely!

We all know that Mother Nature can be unpredictable, especially if you live in the United Kingdom. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I got caught up in the rain!

Most air-conduction headphones tend to have some form of weather resistance, after all, they were designed with outdoor activities in mind. However, I would still double, even triple-check whether your headphones have some form of weather resistance, especially when it comes to water!

Cycling can usually be a lot of fun, but it’s even better when you’re with a group of friends! In these situations as well as a handful of others, staying connected is important, this is another area where air-concuction headphones can prove to be very useful.

Conclusion

When it comes to cycling or any other outdoor activity such as running safety, comfort and convenience are all important aspects. 

As someone who’s been using both air-conducting and bone-conducting headphones for a long time for cycling, I can honestly say that they’re worth investing in! 

They seriously make the ride more enjoyable, and it doesn’t stop there!

You don’t have to listen to music, you can listen to an audiobook instead! Something that I tend to do very frequently. I would even go as far as saying that Audible changed my life!

But as a whole, they have been an integral part of my cycling trips, especially the long ones! So, before you head out on your next cycling trip, consider investing in air-conduction headphones and head over to my YouTube channel where I recently uploaded a video of the Truefree 01 and others!