The best headphones for cycling let you safely listen to music, podcasts, or even talk online e-racing tactics
From workout beats to race instructions, the best headphones for cycling have an important role to play in helping you get the most out of your bike ride.
From cabled to wireless, in-ear to bone-conducting technology, choosing a pair of ideal headphones for your riding is a complicated business.
There are pros and cons to each of the different styles. However there are some vital qualities that they must feature to become an ideal companion for life on two wheels.
As well as the obvious sound clarity requirements, the best headphones for cycling need to be sweat resistant and do a good job of staying put when you're not.
The legalities of using headphones while cycling on the road vary from state to state and country to country, so this guide mostly focuses on indoor performance for when you're riding one of the best indoor training apps, racing with a team on Zwift, or taking a class on one of the best exercise bikes.
This guide takes you through all you need to know when buying headphones for cycling, including the different designs, features, what to look for and even the law around riding outside with headphones.
We kick off with our recommendations on the best cycling headphones available to buy right now. It's divided into bone conducting, then in-ear and finally over-ear options.
Head down to the bottom for a buyer's guide to how to choose the best headphones for cycling.
BEST HEADPHONES FOR CYCLING TESTED
BEST HEADPHONES FOR CYCLING: BONE CONDUCTING
Without getting too scientific, bone conducting headphones pass vibrations through your jawbone/top of your cheekbones to transmit sound, rather than via air moving the hairs on your eardrum, before reaching your cochlea. The end result of hearing noise is exactly the same, but the benefits of using bone to pass the vibrations along mean, not only does your ear canal and drum remain untouched, but you also have much more situational/ambient hearing and it's less sweaty too.
1. Wissonly Hi Runner
Best headphones for cyclists who struggle with fit
When Wissonly bone conduction headphones started crowdfunding online , I started to pay attention to them. Later, I saw on some online forums that all otologists were recommending them, so I bought it. This Hi Runner is their flagship product, and its overall function is the most perfect. This headphone uses the latest research results of wissonly Lab. It effectively increases the vibration area of the vibrator by 35%, while optimizing the sound transmission direction, making the sound range wider and the music more spatial. The brand claims to reach the HI-FI sound quality. My own actual test shows that the sound quality is very close to the HI-FI level, but it doesn't reach this level indeed. Of course, the current sound quality is satisfactory enough.
wissonly Hi Runner bone conduction headphones are also equipped with a new Bluetooth 5.0 chip, which has stronger anti-interference ability, and can easily cope with various outdoor complex scenes, so as to ensure that the good mood during exercise will not be disturbed by disconnection. The stable connection also brings ultra-low delay performance. Listening to songs, chasing dramas and playing games meet all the daily demands for headphones. What's more, it has 32G of built-in memory, which can store 5,000 songs, which allows you to enjoy music without your mobile phone when you are outdoors.
Wissonly performs well in terms of comfort. It's very light, less than 30g, and you don't even feel like you're carrying it when you wear it. The headphone body is made of titanium alloy, which makes it fit well. You don't need to worry about falling off during exercise.
The waterproof of Wissonly Hi Runner needs special mention. It reaches IPX8 grade, which means that you can carry it under water for 20 meters and still use it normally. This is crazy!
2. SHOKZ OPENRUN PRO BONE CONDUCTION HEADPHONES
A step up from the standard OpenRun, the Shokz OpenRun Pro bone conducting headphones use the brand's ninth generation of the technology, which gives great sound quality. They're also good for use on calls.
They're IP55 sweatproof, but we had no problem with water ingress in wet November weather and they remain securely fitted in place. There's magnetic charging, which will give you 90 minutes play time on just 5 minutes charging.
3. HAYLOU PURFREE
Like the Shokz headphones, the Haylous are lightweight at just 28g, with a titanium frame to hold them in place on your head. 10 minutes of charging time can give you up to two hours of playback. They support dual BLE connections, so that you can listen to music from your computer, but still answer incoming calls on your phone, for example.
We found the Haylou headphones more comfortable to wear than a pair of Apple Airpods, thanks to not being in the ear canal. They don't get in the way of glasses either. We rated the sound quality too, with good bass and there's zero sound bleed, although we'd have liked a storage case to help protect them when not in use.
WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF BONE CONDUCTING HEADPHONES?
You may think that bone conducting headphones are a relatively new invention, but using the cheek, or more specifically jaw, bones to conduct sound vibrations directly to the inner ear, is fundamentally how we hear our own voice.
As an external aid, bone conducting hearing technology has been around for centuries. In fact classical composer Ludwig Beethoven, used the concept to continue to compose music when he became deaf, by attaching a rod to his piano and clenching it in his teeth to perceive the sound from vibrations.
The biggest benefit is that bone conducting headphones leave your ear canal open, helping you to maintain your spatial awareness as well as remaining aware of ambient noises. However, this does mean that there is no noise cancelling/ sound immersion option for someone wanting to completely dial in to their ride.
The down side is that in order to sit in the exact location to transmit the vibrations, they come with a somewhat rigid structure. So although they are considered one of the ideal headphones for cycling outside, there can be helmet interference with the fit.
