Mad Catz's Airdrives sit outside your canal and let ambient sound in
This next sentence is going to drive some of you crazy: bike friendly headphones. But before you scroll past the rest of this post and start writing angry comments about road safety and how listening to music means cyclists deserve to die (whilst forgetting that you regularly balance a hot cup of Starbucks on your paunch while texting and driving), read a little longer.
The Airdrives are from Mad Catz, and they don?t block your ears at all. Unlike earbuds or over-ear designs, the Airdrives sit on that little cartilaginous nodule at the front of your ear-hole. The speaker is held there by the cord, which hooks over your ear and cinches tight. This also helps keep them in place, which is essential when doing sporting activities.
Because the sound is sent in from the outside, it?s no different from listening to the radio in your car. You can still hear ambient sounds, and identify the direction they come from. The design also combats listening fatigue, letting your ear shape and process the sound from the ?buds as it would any other external sound.
I?m interested to try these out. Too-loud music will of course still be too loud, and drivers will still hate you for wearing them, but for podcasts they may just be ideal. The Airdrives also have inline controls and will answer your compatible phone. This last is probably a terrible idea, though. It?s one thing distracting yourself with a phone-call when you?re in a two-ton cage and can only kill others. When you?re on a bike, you can only kill yourself.
Still want to write a nasty comment? Go ahead. Just don?t say I deserve to die because I don?t use the same environmentally destructive form of transport as you do. From $15. Pictured model $50.
Airdrives product page [Mad Catz via London Cyclist]
Airdrives on Amazon [Amazon]
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