I was reminded this morning about a recent post on lovingthebike.com about riding with headphones. I don’t ride with headphones. One reason is that I believe that it’s too dangerous; Chicago streets are challenging enough without drowning out my surroundings with music. But more important for me is that I love the sound of riding in the city, and I would miss that.
I wouldn’t hear the clink of a dog’s collar on the first walk of the morning. The wind as it swirls in my ear. An approaching car or start of a car engine just up ahead. And of course, the sound of my own breathing.
Or the sounds of my bike that I love: the click of locking into a pedal…the tick tick tick of a freewheel…the soft whooshing as rubber floats along pavement.
And I know that riding without headphones makes me more aware of my surroundings, and that’s usually how I find many of my ride pics. This morning, a single word caught my eye: breathe. I stopped, snapped a pic, and uploaded it.
As I was pulling away, I noticed a tattered poster above it that I hadn’t seen before. It read, “All you need is love.” I pulled away quietly singing that line from the song that probably comes to mind for all of us.
That song played in my head for my entire ride. So much so that I did something that I rarely, if ever, do: I backtracked my route to grab a pic of it.
So no, I don’t ride with headphones. But I certainly have the music of my ride with me the whole time.
