For those of you who do wear earbuds, my problem is that when I wear them, I get this wind-whooshing sound coming around the earbuds that drowns out the music. If I could figure out how to get past that, I'd still wear them more often than not. I love music when I exercise, I really do.
I totally agree w/ lph's statement about sight trumping sound. I can't hear crap when I ride - headphones aside - pretty much all I can hear is wind (which I hate), so I rely completely on my sight. I cannot hear most cars coming up behind me... but I don't worry about cars to the rear anyway. The ones I worry about are the ones ripping out of their driveways/neighborhoods or at intersections, which I can see anyway. It's rare I encounter another bike, but recently I was overtaken and I didn't even notice the guy till he was alongside me. If he said something, I couldn't hear him over the stupid wind.
Anyhow, if anyone has advice on good earbuds that don't whoosh in my ears that would be awesome
