Chris, it's legal to ride a bicycle in CA with one ear free (earbud in one ear). https://bayareabicyclelaw.com/safety-laws/headphones/ However, if you have bone conduction headphones, then I would go for that!
Toshi in Oakland On Tue, Oct 28, 2025 at 7:55 AM Chris Fly <[email protected]> wrote: > certainly lots of opinions on this topic, always has been.. so I'll add > mine! ;) > > I almost always ride with music.. I use bone conduction headphones as > mentioned earlier and have no issues hearing any sounds around me.. prior > to that I used an earbud in my right ear (non-traffic side) only.. > > My reason is I ride as a means of mental health therapy (unofficially) and > listening to music while I do is very therapeutic to me I feel.. I work > with some pretty heavy stuff in my day job (sexual assault victims) and > also have some PTSD from 30 yrs of active duty military, so riding is one > of my ways to calm down and reset and music helps me do that.. > > as far as California (where I'm at) or any other state that may have a law > about headphones.. well, I'm willing to take that chance based on the lack > of enforcement of all the other stuff (can't tell you how many times a car > will pass with pot smoke wafting out..). I also use a Varia rear radar, so, > while I do hear cars coming up, I see them way before I would hear them, > headphones or not.. after 30 yrs of military, it's not like my high freq > hearing is that great anyway.. ;^) > > Chris > Rocking out in Sonoma County, CA > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAGB59xx_kqE8Di5aytJ0zHqHDp7_fCudw_T3fHNizuC%2BpLj-zQ%40mail.gmail.com.
