I have been looking for headphones for cycling in traffic. Unfortunately, almost all earbuds feature “noise cancellation” which is exact opposite of what I need.

Ever since weather became pleasant enough to ride a bike, biking became my primary form of commute for distances less than 7 km. It has many benefits over driving. Fortunately, the city I live in encourages biking a fair bit. There are bike racks in front of buses for example, So, public transport is an option even when I have my bike with me.

But in many other ways, biking is similar to driving. I have to go on bike lane where it is present and drive in car lane and become part of motor traffic where bike lane is missing. I also heavily rely on navigation apps to find my way around the city. This introduces a dangerous problem for bike commuters such as myself, needing to get our eyes off traffic to look at our phones for navigation. Especially in days when phone’s not so bright screen has to fight the sunny sky, reading screen requires too much attention. Spare attention is one thing I don’t have enough of in traffic. Only solution I see is using headphones, so that I can listen to navigation without dividing my attention.

What I want

1. Hear navigation instructions from my phone to avoid keep looking at my phone while in traffic.
2. Be able to hear traffic even when I have headphones on. If I can’t hear traffic, I won’t realize when I need to ring my bell to inform others of my presence until it is too late.
3. Not to have a loose cable between me and the phone. I don’t want anything in the way of my hands as I require them to not tangle when I need to give signals.
4. Not to be tethered to my phone. My head should be able to turn freely to shoulder check incoming traffic.
5. Not to worry about dropping and losing headphones. Again, I have all my attention at something else.

What I need

1. Wireless (Bluetooth) headphones.
2. Not truly wireless headphones because I cannot afford to divide my attention to worry about losing them.
3. No noise isolating headphones. Something with always on “transparency mode” would do fine.
4. No headphone with a part that sticks out of my ear. Helmet’s strap could catch it and pull it out. But part extending to hang on ear is fine as it will be hidden behind my ear.
5. Something within my budget, 50 to 75 CAD.

There are some earbuds that feature “transparency mode” which add back the noise from outside. So, rather than ruling out all earbuds since they cancel outside noise, I tried few which are owned by family members. Transparency is a common feature in earbuds nowadays, so if I can find a brand or tip I am happy with, rest should be easy. This story had to end here. I was supposed to find an earbud with effectively little to no noise isolation that I would be happy with using while biking in traffic. Unfortunately, I discovered a painful truth instead.

Earbuds are either pushed out by my ears within a minute, or cause my ears to ache if they manage to stay on. I am talking about an excruciating pain within 10 minutes. I tried different tips with different sizes, but all had one of either issues. Maybe the problem was me, maybe I was the one putting them in wrong. I asked the help of others to teach me how to put in-ear earbuds on, to no avail. My ears are shaped in such a way that the only tips that would stay on are custom-fit ear tips. Unfortunately, custom-fit ear tips cost more than earbuds themselves. Even if I used a cheap kit from Amazon, they would end up sealing my ear canals better than universal tips, thus making them more isolating. They are also bulkier, thus pushing earbuds out of my ears.

In a world where earbuds are racing to eliminate all outside noise, my quest to find headphones that I can wear with a helmet just got harder. There are some open-ear headphones which allow all outside noise to reach ear canals. But they are outside my budget. Best option I could find so far is Shokz’s OpenMove headphones that tick most boxes, but cost 100 CAD on Best Buy. There are knock off bone conducting headphones in 50-75 CAD range, but reviews suggest discomfort due to hard plastic.

At this moment I started to think whether I could turn a wired earbud into a Bluetooth enabled headphone. Such solution would eliminate the dangling tether between the phone and me. Turns out there are Bluetooth receivers with audio jacks to do exactly that. But I am not sold on them just yet, because all wired earbuds I could find are sealing my ears more than I would like. They are best suited for adding Bluetooth capability to older cars.

Side note

It turns out I am not the only one with incompatible ear shape for earbuds. Reviews for both Shockz’s items on Amazon and Bluetooth receivers with audio jacks are filled with people sharing how they are happy to find something that doesn’t go into their ear canals and hurt them. I seem to be more extremely affected than most because many people mention getting discomfort after half to one hour of use. I am one of those who get unbearable pain within 15 minutes at best.

Conclusion

After further digging I was able to find Shockz OpenMove for 80 CAD. It is slightly pushing my budget, but I would rather buy quality than buy twice. Soon, I will find out whether those bone conducting headphones are as effective as they are advertised. But as far as initial research go, OpenMove seems to be the best option for me.

Do you have experience with Shockz’s products?
Do you have a better solution in ± 10 CAD range?
If so, please share your findings and opinions with me.

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