Best bone conduction headphones for motorcycle helmets: thin frames, free ears

Why riders ask about bone conduction

A full-face helmet has two shallow ear pockets and a liner that presses everywhere else. Put an earbud in and you have a hard object between your skull and the foam, which is uncomfortable within ten minutes and moves every time you pull the helmet on. Wired headsets add a cable to snag. Helmet speakers solve the pressure problem and commit you to one helmet.

Bone conduction sidesteps most of it: the transducers rest on your cheekbones in front of your ears, where the ear pocket is hollow anyway, and nothing at all goes into the canal. The band wraps low behind your head, under the helmet's rear rim on most shapes. Your ears stay completely open, which for a rider is the point rather than a side effect.

The law before the product

This varies enormously by state and it is the first thing to check. There is no federal rule. According to the Motorcycle Legal Foundation's state-by-state guide, a group of states including California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia prohibit wearing devices in or over both ears while riding. Several of those, including Colorado, Maryland, Ohio and Rhode Island, permit a single-ear device. A long list of other states, including Texas, Arizona, Florida's neighbors in the south east and most of the mountain west, has no restriction at all.

Getting one under a lid

Three things decide whether a set works under your helmet.

Transducer thickness. The pads sit between your cheekbone and the helmet's cheek pad. A thick pad on a snug helmet is a pressure point on a long ride. The slimmest frames here are the Shokz OpenRun family, which is why they lead.

Band path. Put the headphones on first, then the helmet, sliding the band down so it sits below the helmet's rear rim rather than inside it. On a helmet with a low-cut rear shell you may have to angle the band; on an open-face or three-quarter helmet it is trivial.

Size. Shokz offers Standard and Mini on the OpenRun models, split at 9.25 in measured behind the ears. Riders with a tight helmet sometimes prefer the Mini for a lower, closer band even when their measurement says Standard, and riders with a larger head should not: the guidance is at bone conduction for big heads.

The table

Wind noise is the real limit

Be realistic about what you are buying. At 70 mph the inside of a helmet is a loud place, and bone conduction has no isolation to offer: it adds sound rather than removing any. Music stays audible because the transducer is coupled to your skull rather than fighting the air, but detail goes and you will run the volume high, which is its own problem over a long day.

The microphones have the same difficulty in reverse. Shokz rates the OpenRun Pro 2's mics as wind-resistant to 25 km/h, which is about 15 mph, and that is the best published figure in the family. Taking calls at road speed will not go well on any of these. If intercom-quality communication with a pillion or a group is what you actually need, a helmet-mounted system is the right product and this page is not it.

Battery matters more here than in the gym: the OpenRun Air 2's 10 hours and the Mojawa's 8 comfortably cover a day's riding, while the OpenMove's 6 hours with no quick charge does not.

Buyer's guide: riding with them

Helmet on second, always

Headphones, then helmet. Doing it the other way drags the band up and leaves the transducers on your temples, where they sound thin and press in the wrong place.

Buy IP67 or better

Rain on a bike is not a splash, and you will get caught out. The OpenRun and OpenRun Air 2 are IP67, the Creative is IPX8 and the Mojawa is IP68; the OpenMove is IP55 and is the weakest here on that count. See earbud IP ratings explained.

Physical buttons only

Every pick here uses buttons rather than a touch panel, which is the right answer with gloves on. Learn where they are before you ride, because you will be finding them by feel through a helmet.

Consider onboard storage if you ride without a phone

The Creative Outlier Free Pro holds 8 GB and the Mojawa Run Plus 32 GB, so the music continues when your phone is in a jacket pocket out of Bluetooth range or the signal drops in the hills.