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@mikec
I personally would never listen to music whilst cycling
DJ. I would counter your arguments with the following.
When driving, you do not rely on your ears for traffic coming behind you as you have mirrors, so having a radio on doesn't matter.
As I am not hard of hearing or partially deaf I cannot speak for them. But, for someone who has good hearing and who always has, I have never had to learn to live with not having my hearing as one of my senses. if I get on my bike and blast music into my ears. I am cutting off one of the senses that I rely on everday and have never learned to live without. I use my ears when cycling to tell me when a motorcyle is flying up behind me, or if a car is creeping along in my blind area. Yes you should always look first, but as everyone here knows. Bikes are so manouverable and quick that sometimes you just zip from left to right or out of a junction without fully looking. I do this very often, and I rely 100% on my ears when making these moves.
As a pretty experienced London rider, I have no doubt that if I was to ride listening to music, I would have an accident pretty quickly.
This is my view. Feel free to shoot it down.
Regardless of any of this. Its a terrible tragedy and thanks to Murphy for giving us a view from the other side of the debate