Bone conductor headphones

I have to admit it, I like them as a concept but I have had a mixed bag of results with them so far.

With the England Athletics ban on headphones in races that are not of this type, bone conductor headphones are becoming a necessity if you wish to listen to any tunage in races they sanction, so here’s my experiences with them so far.

The first pair I had were Aftershokz Sportz M3’s which were one of the early models and corded... I initially bought them thinking they would be just ‘plug and play’ like normal headphones, however after purchasing these still need to be charged to drive the speakers inside them with a charge lasting an advertised 8 hours… Which would make them able to last a marathon for me, however not really suitable for an all-day ultra (or anything beyond more than 35 miles) or on a long bike ride.

Aftershokz Sportz M3

Soundwise the reproduction was great for running and when out cycling in still weather. Once I got over the slightly weird sensation of being able to hear what I was listening to as well as the ambient noise all sound me, I enjoyed wearing them. They also always remained in place without slipping no matter how hot and sweaty I was getting.

I did notice though that the sound level was limited to a point where whatever you are listening to is drowned-out when cycling by wind over about 10mph or when in a slip-stream at speed downhill, unless you use ear plugs, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of using them in the first place!

Learning to work within their limitations, for a while all was good, however after about 6 months they developed a fault that lead to one ear intermediately crackling, which progressed from just the intermediate until eventually dying a couple of weeks later.

I looked-up the warranty and Aftershokz sent me a replacement pair, their at the time equivalent model in production: the Titanium Sportz.

Aftershokz Titanium Sportz

Sonically they performed almost the same as the M3’s, however they had changed the design relocating the battery pack and button control to near the headphone jack from its previous position that could clip to the neck of a top or a lapel.

When I say near to the jack, we are talking around 10cm, so the larger battery pack had to sit next to your phone and would continually bang against it with natural movement, or if worn on your arm in a pouch, would continually slap against you due to its size, a design issue which made it unwieldy and cumbersome... A size that would lead to the destruction of my pair. The long and the short of it was the box had flapped its way out of my pocket and was swinging freely, then got caught on the arm of an office chair and snapped the 10cm cable from the box to the jack clean off: ruined in an instant.

I contacted Aftershokz again for a warranty replacement, but they refused to give me a new pair as the date of my request was 3 days beyond a year from my purchase of the original pair, with the replacement pair not having any separate warranty on them.

2 pairs of headphones, both trashed within 6 months of very light use: only when running, cycling or a walk to the pub one evening a week! Not good when you are paying £30-£50 for a pair of headphones; you suspect them to be far more robust than that, so I made the conscious decision to abandon the brand and the paid premium associated with it.

Around a year after I decided to take the plunge again when I noticed knock-offs of the M3’s were retailing for around £25 as it must have been the old design and the tech within had been licensed to 3rd parties for manufacture. Again though as with the original M3's, the headphones lasted a similar amount of time before the crackling returned and one ear died!

Something that also had not really bothered me before when wearing them but did the second time around was the cable… I was wearing the cable underneath my shirt to avoid it flapping around and potentially getting snagged and damaged whilst active, however it kept slipping down my back and pulling the headphones down a little, which necessitated pulling the cable back out of the shirt every 5 minutes. Also the clip for the battery box did not grip that tight so it would work its way off the net of the shirt and bounce around under your shirt as it worked its way down, which was doing my head in after a while!

Safe to say I was fed-up with the wired ones and their inherent issues after three pairs biting the dust in short time with light use. As a consequence I decided to abandon them although I am still sold on the concept of the headphones, more for running than cycling due to the sound levels in the wind, so I had a look at the marketplace for a pair of bluetooth ones having heard good things from people in my club about their performance.

I soon found a pair of R9’s on eBay retailing new for the same price I had paid for the knock-off M3’s, so at that price it was sensible to give them a go.

R9's

Battery life is promising 6 hours - which was not too much short of the 8 Aftershokz promised, so again suiting me for use in a run up to a marathon in length on a charge, although in longer activities I will still be using ordinary old-fashioned cabled headphones on my iPod Classic (no bluetooth there anyway!) to preserve the battery life on my phone.

Weight-wise they feel no heavier than the previous models, however without the pull of the cable they feel much better, forgetting they are on you - again they do not shift from where they rest where you place them in front of your ears, so all round so far so much better than the cabled varieties - also something I have noticed is the drain on the phone battery using bluetooth is actually less than listening through cabled headphones believe it or not!

So there you have it, if you’re looking at bone conductor headphones for your running, take a look at the bluetooth, forget about the cabled ones!

Eat pies.
Drink beer.

Run far.

Inov8 Trailroc v More Mile Cheviot Pace

This is a review of 2 halves - my new(ish) daps from the extremes of the market: Inov8 at the top, and More Mile Cheviot Pace at the bottom. Both trainers are supposed to serve the same function of hard packed trails, the tread on the lugs for both is intermediate.

Inov8 Trailroc 285

A good friend of mine has had to give-up running on the advice of his quack after having his knee rebuilt - unfortunately for him he had recently bought a pair of Inov8 Trailrocs and they now sat there with only about 50 miles on them mugging him off in his hallway, so he wanted shot of them and asked what size I was… Fortunately for me, the same as him!

Being a tight-arse I never tend to go above £30 for a pair of trainers, with the most I’ve ever spaffed on a pair being £45, so Inov8 have never really been an option for me with their retail mark being £50 if you’re very lucky in the sales up to around £120, with this pair sitting at £70-£130 in the market place depending on where you shop.

I’ve been out and about in them for a few months now over various distances from 5 miles to 50k and have found them to be very comfortable and absolutely ideal for hard-packed trails. With the reinforced toe-box they seem to be the perfect shoe for those hard-packed mountainous lake-district trails… Just a shame to think I won’t be able to get up there to try them out.

They compare quite well to my Scarpa Neutron 2’s which are designed for the same purpose, however I find the Scarpas to be a bit more comfortable and the grip to be better all round.

While effusing over their ability on hard packed trails, the first time I took them out for a spin it was for the last of the Southern Cross Country League races where we had a mix of trails - on the hard packed and mettled sections they were great, but when the slightest bit of mud came into play, dear god they were shite! I was all over the place like Bambi on ice. The shallow lugs offered 4/5 of fuck all in traction at the merest hint of mud, to the point running was impossible and even walking in anything slightly muddy was sketchy in the extreme!

I’m up to 225 miles in them now and to be truthful they are showing wear and tear on the upper of the right foot - though strangely not on the left! Also on the soles, the lugs are now rapidly scrubbing down to nothing on the outstep of the heels, a product of the way I run and the trails being like concrete at present with us having had fuck-all rain since I’ve had them! Looking at how the upper will eventually fail, hopefully it will not be a structural issue and allow for more wear and hopefully get me up to around the 350 miles marker - as a comparison I’m over 400 miles into the Scarpas and the only wear and damage on those are from falls.

More Mile Cheviot Pace

Around the same time I had my stroke of luck with the Trailrocs, I had decided to take a punt on a pair of More Mile ‘Cheviot Pace’. The original Cheviot trainers have been my go-to for winter running where grip has been needed and at £30 a pair the fact they only go for 200 to 300 miles on average has not really been an issue as they have seen me through each winter season and the £/mile ratio has been superior to what other people get out of premium brands in the same conditions.

When I saw that More Mile had brought out an intermediate tread trail trainer which was essentially the same as their Cheviot but with far less of a lug to them I had been intrigued. Normally I run in Karrimor trainers for intermediate trails, which have till now been priced around the £30 mark, however they seem to have upped their starting price to £40 and coupled with the fact they are made by Sports Direct, the ethically problematic retailer with how it treats its staff, the time to give the Cheviot Pace a try had arrived.

Most of my recent running has been in the Trailrocs, however I have managed to rack-up to 80 miles in them so enough to give them a review - and as you’d expect they are not showing damage at present.

Grip-wise these are like chalk & cheese to the Trailrocs, behaving as you would hope in the mud, providing enough traction but nowhere near as much as their bigger brothers’ do - which is completely understandable. Fit wise they are roomy for me, even with my flippers for feet, however they do fall-down in one regard: comfort.

As with the other Cheviots, they are a bit spartan in the cushioning department. That has never been too much of an issue when out on the soft winter trails as the terrain itself offers some cushioning, however with the very dry spell we’ve had for the last few months, I’ve found the Cheviot Pace’s to give the soles of my feet a bit of a battering with the lack of cushioning, to the point I’m considering putting insoles in them for going out on the harder trails, or just forget about them until the trails are a bit softer and rely on my Asics in the meantime.

I suppose the question is would I buy another pair of either of them? Once I’ve trashed this pair of  Trailrocs… You know what, probably not - I would be more likely to give a go to the Scarpa Spin RS8’s which are the replacement for the Neutrons (once I’ve gone through those as well), which come in at slightly cheaper than the Inov8’s however at £68 they would be the most expensive pair of trainers I’ve bought, although at in excess of 400 miles before the Neutron’s failed I think that is decent enough value for money.

On the Cheviot Pace front - I’ve already bought a second pair in anticipation of the demise of the first - mostly because the price point of them is what I would hope to pay for a pair of trainers, and so long as I can manage the discomfort factor of concrete hard trails, which is not really what they are for running on, I’ll be fine!

Eat pies.

Drink beer.

Run far.