One of many most vital senses we have now as bike riders is our listening to. Whether or not you are in a bunch journey, the place different riders are calling out highway and site visitors hazards, or alone, to maintain ears out for automobiles or different rides coming from our rear, our ears are practically as important as our eyes.
Bone-conduction headphones—which sit outdoors the ears and ship sound via vibration—have been round for a while. However Irvine, California-based Sena has constantly raised the bar on bicycling helmets with built-in audio system. Their latest providing, the S1, blends Sena’s audio know-how with the aerodynamic benefits craved by so many highway cyclists.
Wind Resistance
{Photograph}: Michael Venutolo-Mantovani
With a easy outer shell, the Sena S1 appears to be like, matches, and feels each bit the aero highway helmet that has boomed in recognition over the past decade. It’s modern, with a quintet of front-facing vents and a pair out the again to maintain your head cool throughout scorching rides. Its combination of flat and gloss finishes offers the helmet a contemporary contrasting model that might have a look at house within the Tour de France peloton.
It’s gentle, weighing simply 360 grams, and at $229, it’s priced like a higher-end aero helmet, even if it’s outfitted with a pair of over-ear audio system and a microphone, Bluetooth connectivity, a built-in taillight, and Sena’s proprietary Mesh Intercom system, which lets you talk with different riders sporting any number of Sena helmets.
I examined the Sena S1 on one of many stupidest rides I’ve achieved in a very long time: that’s, once I got down to journey 100 miles round a quarter-mile asphalt monitor close to my house. (I’m not completely insane. I swear I used to be doing it for one more story.) For a journey as boring and monotonous because the ¼-mile century I used to be set to undertake, I wanted a little bit of distraction. Fortunately, I had a Sena S1 sitting in my workplace.
I’ve by no means actually messed with any form of headphones whereas on my bike for just a few causes. Initially, security. I like to listen to what’s taking place round me, particularly when using on the highway. Second, so far as I’m involved, listening to the wind in my ears, the birds chirp above my head, my tires cruising easily over the pavement or crunching the grime beneath my wheels, is as a lot part of the bike-riding expertise as turning my pedals. Third, we reside in an age through which we’re all topic to a relentless onslaught of content material. The bike is my sanctuary from all that, a spot the place no Instagram Reel or scorching tackle a podcast can discover me.
{Photograph}: Michael Venutolo-Mantovani
