Running and cycling headphones you can hear traffic through

What to buy first

For the road, a bone conduction neckband. Nothing bounces loose, there's no case to carry, both ears are open to the car behind you, and the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 adds 12 hours and mics rated for wind. It leads best open-ear headphones for running, this hub's flagship, with a buy button at the top of this page. If bone conduction sounds too thin for you, the Shokz OpenFit 2 ear-hook is the open-ear alternative with real drivers; if you run in rain, the IP67 OpenRun Air 2 can be rinsed under a tap afterward.

For the treadmill, the rules change: there's no traffic, so a sealed earbud with ANC is fine, and best earbuds for running ranks open and sealed together with each pick labeled road or treadmill.

How the category divides

By where you are. Road and trail running wants an open ear, a rating for rain and a fit that survives 170 strides a minute; neckbands and hooks lead. Cycling adds a helmet with a rear dial, 30 km/h of wind and cars passing at speed; clip-ons that clear the helmet strap and neckbands that sit under it lead (best earbuds for cycling, best bone conduction for cycling). Hiking wants a whole day of battery and a rating for creek crossings (best earbuds for hiking). Only bone conduction gets its own running page, because runners made it a category: best bone conduction for running.

Then by light. Only one maker puts LEDs on a headphone: Suunto's Wing 2 and Wing pulse with your cadence on the back of your head, which is the part of you that faces the cars. If you run or ride in the dark, that's the reason to pick them over a Shokz.

What decides the price

Wind handling, mostly. A published wind rating for the mics (Shokz: 25 km/h on the OpenRun Pro 2, Air 2 and OpenFit Pro; Suunto: 30 km/h on both Wings) is a flagship feature and the thing that makes calls possible at a run or a ride. After that: battery (8 hours at the bottom, 12 at the top, 36 with Suunto's power bank), USB-C versus a magnetic cable, DualPitch bass on the Shokz Pro 2, and lights. The rating doesn't track price: budget neckbands from Creative (IPX8) and Mojawa (IP68) out-rate the flagship Pro 2 (IP55). The budget cut, with maker list prices on the day checked, is best running earbuds under $100.

The mistake buyers make

Taking a sealed earbud with ANC onto a road. It's the one design that removes your hearing from the place you most need it, and transparency mode is a processed, latency-bound, switchable substitute for an open canal. The evidence and its honest limits are in can you hear traffic with open-ear headphones, and the design classes are ranked in safest headphones for running. The second mistake is the volume: an open ear tempts you to turn up to beat the wind and the road, which masks the quiet cues and, per NIDCD's guidance, risks your hearing. If you can't hear your own footfalls, it's too loud.

For cyclists specifically, the mistake is expecting any open-ear to beat wind at 30 km/h. Nothing does without closing the ear. Wind noise on a bike covers what the makers publish and what you can do about the rest.

Buying for a runner

The gift lane lives here because runners are the people most often bought headphones by someone who isn't one. Best gifts for runners sorts picks by the runner you're buying for (road, dark roads, heavy sweater, swimmer, glasses, treadmill) and tells you what to check first, like Shokz's Standard-or-Mini sizing. Gifts for runners under $50 does the same at the budget end, with the same rule: a published IP rating or it isn't on the list.

How the pages in this hub are built

Every figure links to the maker's page, read on the date shown. Wind ratings are quoted in the maker's words. We haven't run or ridden in any of these and every page says so. The rubric is at How We Rank; on this hub, awareness and calls-and-wind carry more of the argument than anywhere else on the site.