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Being a music fan with extremely eclectic tastes, just a short time after getting my bike I wanted to be able to enjoy listening to music when I rode on my daily commute. I had acquired an Apple IPod Nano a short time back which I had won in a contest at work and did not use very much. I had filled up the Nano’s four Gigs with great music including Oldies, Classic Country, Classic Rock, Contemporary Country, Blues, Disco and, Jazz genres. I have a hard time keeping just my top favorites on the Nano’s limited storage space, there are other music and genres I would like to include.

One of the things I did not like was those uncomfortable ear buds that came with the Nano. They are large, bulky and extremely uncomfortable. Since I ride with a half helmet I decided to look for some comfortable earphones so I could listen to music during my commute. I had heard of earphones with active noise cancelling and since I have Cobra exhaust I figured that feature would be helpful. I found some at Wal-Mart and they did have active noise canceling and required an AA battery to power.

I rode with them on to work and home one time before I gave them away to one of my teenaged sons. It was not that they did not work; it’s that they worked far too well. I cannot even remember what brand they were. The problem I had with them was that I could hardly hear anything. I couldn’t hear my exhaust or the sound of the vehicles on the freeway coming up along side me. My motorcycle, a V-Star 1100 Classic did not come with a tachometer and without the sound reference I had a hard time telling when to shift.

Some of the problem was at the time I was a fairly new rider. Not being able to hear the traffic around me really scared the crude out of me. It almost scared me as bad as the time on the way home late in the day on a two lane freeway, when a vehicle passed me on the left lane and its shadow followed it on my right. I happened to be passing an onramp on my right at the time. I was startled when I cought the shadow to the right in the onramp lane in my peripheral vision, overtaking me.

It’s been a year and a half now and I decided to try again with a pair of regular, non noise cancelling, ear buds. So, I picked up a pair of Skull Candy Ink’d Earphones locally. Here is the description with specs from their website:

Ink adds permanence. It forces the visual representation of an idea, concept, ideal or experience, and tangibly commemorates it. Like a tattoo, graffiti, or stretch marks. Until you’re really ready to commit, go with the INK’D ear buds. Big sound, little price, no visible scarring.
Speaker Diameter: 11mm
Magnet Type: NdFeB
Frequency range: 20 -20K Hz
Impedance: 16 ohms
Max Input Power: 100mw
Cable Length: 1.3m
Plug Type: 3.5mm Gold Plated

Accessories: 3 Silicon Gel Sizes

They came with three gel ear bud sizes and the mid size worked great for me. I had started off with the larger size but they kept the body of the speaker housing too far out and this distorted the sound and made the wind rush around them louder. The gel part of the ear bud makes cleaning the Ink’d earphones easy enough. Just hold the gel ear cup upside down, slightly squeeze and shake.

The sound quality is not too bad for MP3 files playing through tiny earphones. I did have to adjust the IPod’s bass boost setting, found in the EQ section. This helped with the trebly sound inherent in small speakers. Then I dialed in the sound level to the desired comfortable level. I have the level set to where I can enjoy the music and still hear the traffic and the Yamaha V-Twin purr.

I am pretty sure I would not want to ride a motorcycle with all the sound blocked out by ear plugs. I feel you need to use all your senses when guiding a motorcycle down the rode. Skull Candy did a great job with these Ink’d earphones. They are small and compact, very comfortable, size adjustable, and sound well. They also  come in numerous colors and are inexpensive. Torch gives the Skull Candy Ink’d Earphones a thumbs up.

Ride on,
Torch