Bone Conduction Headphones: Music On, Ears Open

Music on the bike, ears still open

If you want audio on a ride, open-ear bone conduction headphones are the way we do it. Your ear canals stay open, so you still hear the car coming up behind you. Keep the volume sensible, and they sit there so quietly you forget you have them on.

Plenty of us like a podcast or a playlist on a long solo ride. The problem with earbuds is that they plug your ears, and on a bike your ears do real work. Bone conduction is a different way of getting sound to you, and once you understand how it works, the reason we ride with it makes sense.

How sound gets in without your ear canal

Put your fingers in your ears and hum, and you still hear yourself loud and clear. That sound reached you through the bones of your head, not through the air.

Bone conduction headphones use the same path. Shokz explains that a small transducer rests against your cheekbone and turns audio into small vibrations. Those vibrations travel through the bones near your cheek to your inner ear, the cochlea, bypassing the ear canal and eardrum. Your inner ear hears it like any other sound, and nothing has to sit in or over your ear, which is the whole point.

Open ears, not quiet ones.Shokz is clear that the vibrations still reach your cochlea, which can be damaged by long exposure to loud sound. Safe volume still matters.

Why we ride with them

1. You can still hear the roadShokz says the main safety advantage is situational awareness. Whether it is a car behind you, a rider calling out, or someone yelling "on your left," your ears are open for all of it.
2. Nothing in your ears for hoursThe band wraps behind your head and the pads sit just in front of your ears. On a long day, that is a lot more comfortable than earbuds.
3. They handle sweat and rainShokz rates the OpenRun Pro 2 at IP55, which covers sweat and rain, and that matters around here.
4. They are just as good off the bikeUse them to walk the dog with an audiobook or run errands with a podcast on. The Dialed Podcast is a good place to start, if we do say so ourselves.

One note on the road: rules about riding with headphones vary by state and city, so check where you ride.

The Shokz we carry

We stock the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, in standard and Mini. According to Shokz, the Pro 2 runs DualPitch, which pairs bone conduction for mids and highs with a separate air conduction speaker for bass. It weighs 30.3g, Shokz rates the battery at up to 12 hours, and it charges in about an hour.

Sizing depends on your head, not your preference. Shokz says to measure from the center of one ear, around the back of your head, to the center of the other. If that measurement is under 9.25 inches (23.5 cm), go with the Mini, and if it is over, go with the standard size.

The honest downsides

Bone conduction is not perfect, and we would rather you know before you buy.

1. Sound quality: they sound good, but a good pair of in-ear headphones goes deeper and fuller, especially in the bass, and that is the trade for open ears. The Pro 2's air conduction bass speaker is how Shokz is working on it.
2. Wind: at speed, wind noise competes with your audio. Shokz offers a Volume Boost mode in its app for noisy places, but on a fast descent, we just accept missing a few words.
3. Buzz: bone conduction works by vibration, and on some pairs you can feel it at higher volume. Shokz says the Pro 2 has reduced vibrations, and turning it down a notch helps on any pair.
4. No noise blocking: open ears mean you hear everything around you, which is great on the bike and less great on a loud bus.

They keep your ears open, but they do not make loud music safe for your ears.

Keep the volume down and your ears open, and enjoy the ride.

Common questions

Are bone conduction headphones safe for cycling?

They are the way we ride with audio, because your ear canals stay open and you can still hear the car coming up behind you. Keep the volume low enough to hear what is around you, and check the rules where you ride, because laws on riding with headphones vary by state and city.

Are bone conduction headphones good for urban cycling?

Yes. In traffic, open ears matter most, since you still hear cars, other riders and someone calling out on your left. The trade is wind noise at speed, and they do not block out a loud street the way earbuds do.

Do bone conduction headphones sound as good as earbuds?

They sound good, but a good pair of in-ear headphones goes deeper and fuller, especially in the bass. That is the trade for keeping your ears open. Shokz pairs bone conduction with a separate air conduction bass speaker in the OpenRun Pro 2 to close some of that gap.

Which size Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 do I need?

Shokz says to measure from the center of one ear, around the back of your head, to the center of the other. Under 9.25 inches (23.5 cm), go with the Mini. Over that, go with the standard size.

Now if they could just do something about the headwind.