Show #55 – Cycle Sound & Listeners Sound Off
Feb 7th, 2007 | By Fredcaster | Category: PodcastsListen now by clicking here:
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For The Week of February 5, 2007
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IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK:
• Results from the Tour of Qatar
• French Sports Minister Recommends Postponing Landis Hearing
• Paris-Nice is Next Battleground in UCI v. Grand Tours
• European Cycling Season Begins
• Unibet Team Barred from Races, Forced to Wear Generic Jerseys
• Tyler Hamilton Returns to Pro Racing
• 2007 Versus TV Schedule
• Eight Year Doping Ban Against American Cyclist
• Milram Team Signs-up With Garmin
• Cycling Ambassador Killed, Kids Pedal to Funeral
• Apple + Nike Sued Over Nike + iPod
• Watch Out for Bike Traps
IN THIS WEEK’S FEATURES:
• Enter to win an iPod Shuffle by Completing The FredCast Listener Survey
• Endurance Sports Awards
• Interview with Del Rusher of CycleSound
• More Listener Feedback on Mandatory Helmet Laws
• Review/Preview of Montreal to Portland AIDS Vaccine Bike Trek
PODSAFE CYCLING MUSIC:
• Ballad by Robert Walker
Show Notes: Available HERE
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- Listen to and/or Download the MP3
- Listen via Windows Media Player
- Listen via RealAudio
- Subscribe to the RSS feed with your pod catching client
It’s great that Darryl took the time to respond to the sounding offs of me and Tim Grahl over at The Spokesmen 12. Did I hear right, he’s a paramedic? I guess paramedics will have access to Medline, the medico’s archive of learned papers and stuff.
Darryl should do some searches on helmet papers. There’s evidence for both ‘camps’, there’s no scientific consensus on efficacy of helmets in the situations helmets were designed for (slow speed crashes on to kerbs from 1m, for example) never mind for the car v bike crashes he describes.
I wear a helmet when cycling but, as I said on the show, I don’t fall into the trap of thinking a lightweight polystyrene helmet, done up as tightly as it should be, will offer me much more than token protection in a typical car v bike smash.
Given the fact there’s scientific evidence both ways, legislatures should not enforce helmet use for cycling. The health benefits of regular cycling far, far outweigh the risks of head injury and anything that discourages newbies from taking up cycling shouldn’t be allowed on statute books.
There are better ways of protecting the lives of cyclists than mandatory helmet use but, hey, they’re expensive and motorists hate these methods so it’s far easier for politicians to do something that’s cheap, won’t impact on them and looks good to non-cyclists.
I’m a big fan of the show but I don’t think I will ever understand the acceptance and even encouragement of listening to music while riding. It is simply unsafe and irresponsible to portray the practice as acceptable. It is hazardous to not only the rider but also to anyone (or thing) that might encounter a cyclist with his ears and mind plugged up. Just don’t do it!
Greedydog,
Thanks for your comment, but one of the things I like so much about CycleSound is the fact that it takes the ear buds out of your ears and enables you to hear all of the sounds around you. I don’t think there is a safety issue with CycleSound at all.
As for listening via ear buds, I have tried to carefully point out that using them while on a bike can be extremely dangerous and that’s the reason why so many states require that if you listen while riding, you only put the ear bud in one ear.
Thanks for listening!
David