I bought a new phone only because I had to. It's the Walkman one so I can play MP3s on it. The best part is that I can answer my phone through my headphones.

Now when I ride on the road, I usually don't wear them or I have the headphones with music off and I can answer my phone hands free. The reason? Well there are people that worry about me riding my bike to work and it's easy for them to call and say "you okay" and a quick "yeah goodbye" makes them happy. I can't talk and ride for too long.

Now mtn biking I wear headphones and listen to music and the phone will ring through and I can answer the phone. Again the "are you ok" calls. For me this makes me not as hesitant to ride because someone can check on me. I hardly run into another person on most trails I ride on but the ones I do know there are other people, I take one headphone out and can easily hear.

Now wearing headphones and cranking it and not hearing traffic would not even be an option. I got the cheapy headphones where I can hear everything behind me. I saw a guy riding a bike (no helmet) with noise cancellation headphones. What is he thinking?