Ear plugs?

[b.walker5]

... Maybe the ear plugs could prevent the swine flu? ha-ha Just kidding or could it? Assuming is bad but assuming about assuming is worse.

Ear plugs aint gonna help, but this might...



I suffer from Tinitus in my left ear and wind noise while riding is a welcome relief. With ear plugs filtering outside noise it's like I have a whole friggin symphony orchestra in my ear, perversely it's most likely years of not wearing them in noisey places thats caused, or at least contributed, to the tinitus but now I can't wear them to give relief. It does have some advantages though, sometimes at night it's that loud that I cant hear my wife snore Of course it also means that I don't get any sleep either way

[BigDick]

personally I don't wear ear plugs, but I do wear a bandanna at a heavy slant so it covers my ears, after I started doing this I was way impressed, the wind noise wasn't a killer, didn't make my ears ring, i could hear traffic and all other noises around me perfectly clearly. At work we got an e-mail sent around "extolling the virtues" of ear plugs while riding.

[olebiker]

I never would have believed how much I like riding with earplugs. It also is less tiring allowing me to ride farther and be less tired. Mother Goose doesn't like them but wears them on longer rides. I only found out a few years ago that it will screw up your hearing. I have a lotta miles on me without plugs and I have no idea how my hearing is. Plus I worked in very loud factories when I was young and used to shoot when I was younger. Wonder I can hear at all.

[CatatonicBug]

I've never done any distance stuff, and around town, with my full-face, I'd feel rather awkward dealing with earplugs at every stop. However, having read the comments in this and a few other threads, I'd have to say that I will probably wear them whenever I get around to taking any long journeys.

[wingnut]

I wear a full face and no ear plugs. The wind noise is not bad and after all these years it helps me judge speed. Also this old girl I ride makes some funny noises but I'm use to them. If the funny noises change I'll notice it. Sort of a idiot light you don't have to look for. Now if I'm riding with my loud pipe Hardly friends I might consider it

[Silent]

I don't wear plugs for my morning commute, but that's only 12 miles. I do wear plugs if I'm going on a day ride tho. I noticed a couple years ago, when I rode up to Calgary on the FJR, that my tinnitus had gotten real bad because I wasn't wearing plugs. The FJR is fully faired and I was wearing a full face helmet. I don't have that problem anymore now that I wear ear plugs.

[Crazcnuk]

I rode my bike and it was wonderful, but I thought it could be better:

So I got earplugs to cut down the wind

I got a full-face so I wouldn't feel the wind, bugs or rain

I got a heated vest and gloves so I wouldn't be cold,

I put on a big fairing to cut the elements

In the fairing I put a stereo so I could listen to my favorite tunes

Then I got earphones to hear the stereo better....













Then I realized my car had all these things, and better gas mileage too!

[b.walker5]

...Each to his own..

[olebiker]

...Each to his own..

Amen to that!

[79XS11F]

I wear them most of the time now. I say most of the time because sometimes I forget to put them in and will not stop which is something I always regret later. It's a new habit for me that still needs some time to become part of the routine. My hearing is already not what it used to be so I want to protect what's left.
Rob

[olebiker]

I wear them most of the time now. I say most of the time because sometimes I forget to put them in and will not stop which is something I always regret later. It's a new habit for me that still needs some time to become part of the routine. My hearing is already not what it used to be so I want to protect what's left.
Rob

Hey Rob you are not the only one that forgets then doesn't stop to put them in. Hope we get to see you guys soon.

[BlackD1114]

I suffer from Tinitus in my left ear and wind noise while riding is a welcome relief. With ear plugs filtering outside noise it's like I have a whole friggin symphony orchestra in my ear, perversely it's most likely years of not wearing them in noisey places thats caused, or at least contributed, to the tinitus but now I can't wear them to give relief. It does have some advantages though, sometimes at night it's that loud that I cant hear my wife snore Of course it also means that I don't get any sleep either way

The tinnitus I experience comes and goes. Sometimes it gets bad enough I can't concentrate and I just zone out for a second. I can always tell when its coming though. But when I'm out riding I think I get the same effect from the wind noise as it cancels out and ringing I might get normally. I'm afraid that if I wear ear plugs under a helmet I might not be able to hear emergeny vehicles or warning signs of danger around me. This doesn't mean that I won't give ear plugs a try and test what I can hear.

[79XS11F]

Hey Rob you are not the only one that forgets then doesn't stop to put them in. Hope we get to see you guys soon.

When is the old bastards rally / meet?
Rob

[TopCatGr58]

Authoritative info!

I did a google search for "hearing damage from wind", and the first few articles out of 185,000 were about motorcyclists and wind noise!

Instead of making you follow a link to SPortrider.com, I just copied it and have pasted it below. It's a bit long, but well worth the read, and will hopefully persuade everyone to think about protecting their hearing in the long term!

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss - What? Say Again?
Listen Up-Unless You Want To Wear Hearing Aids Prematurely, Don't Ignore The Dangers Of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
By Kent Kunitsugu


I recently crossed paths with a motorcycling friend whom I hadn't seen in at least 10 years. It was great to see him and good to find that he was still very much into motorcycles. He told me that he commutes to work on a motorcycle almost every day (actually the only way to transport yourself in the sprawling gridlock of Los angeles) and still takes the occasional road trip to a distant destination on two wheels.

During the course of our conversation, though, I noticed that he asked me to repeat my statements every once in a while. We were inside an office building, so the environment wasn't noisy enough to cause problems. And while I'll admit that I probably mumble a word here and there, I haven't had any people tell me that I'm too soft-spoken. Mind you, it wasn't as if I was talking to an elderly person with a poorly functioning hearing aid or anything like that; it was just that his handful of "say again?" requests kind of stuck in my mind after our chat.

As motorcyclists we're bombarded with a lot more environmental noise than other motorists. And continued exposure to that noise can have harmful long-term effects on our hearing. Ironically some of the riders I started out with in my beginner years wore earplugs because their bikes were fairly loud at full bark, and the example they set (the earplugs, not the loud bikes) is one of the reasons I've worn earplugs literally from day one. But interestingly enough, the most damaging din isn't from the source you might initially think.

Back in 1994 two ear specialists from england conducted a hearing test on 44 Grand Prix riders to determine if they suffered from NIHL (noise-induced hearing loss). Almost half of them showed hearing losses much greater than the median for each one's age. "so what?" you say. "I'm not a GP rider." No, but note that this test was conducted in 1994, long before unmuffled MotoGp four-strokes ever made an appearance; muffled two-strokes with a 102-decibel-A (dBA) limit were the mount of choice back then. It was soon determined that the sound responsible for the riders' hearing loss was wind noise. And this was with the latest, trickest, most aerodynamic helmets, many with custom parts for each rider to ensure the best fit.

The two specialists, Andrew Mccombe and J. Binnington, then conducted a very thorough scientific study in 1995 of British street motorcyclists, including the country's motorcycle police. By inserting a tiny microphone next to the rider's ear they were able to measure noise levels accurately, part of which allowed them to determine that wind noise begins to drown out all other sounds once the rider passes 40 mph. At 100 mph, the wind noise level averaged at least 110 dBa for the 10 different helmets measured, which is about the same as listening to a gas-powered chainsaw (and this is with a helmet-imagine how loud it must be without one). Even cruising at 70 mph, wind noise would be about 100 dBa, which OSHA (the federal occupational safety and health administration) noise exposure standards state you can tolerate for a maximum of two hours per dayand that's cumulative, not per exposure-before permanent hearing damage definitely occurs. part of Mccombe and Binnington's study involved having a group of 18 selected riders go through a rigidly controlled test, and all were found to have suffered measurable hearing damage.

"Big deal," some of you are surely saying. "I've been riding for 10 years without earplugs and can hear fine." The problem is that the damage to your hearing is insidious; the most vulnerable parts of your ear are the receptors that handle the higher frequencies of sound that aren't readily noticeable. Everyone has surely experienced temporary hearing loss from deafening noises in the lower frequencies such as fireworks or loud concerts; after an hour or so your hearing returns, giving the impression that permanent hearing loss would involve the same massive deficiencies across the complete hearing frequency range. Unfortunately, noise-induced hearing loss from continued exposure occurs in a much more subtle way. The lost higher frequencies involve the minor inflections of speech that help define spoken language, especially consonants that don't have the louder vocal intonations of vowels, often occurring as the difference between past and present tense or singular and plural. For example, if someone were to speak in a normal tone of voice and environment, would you be able to tell the difference between "happen" and "happened" or "sportbike" and "sportbikes"?

I recall my friend was one of the macho types who felt that earplugs were an unnecessary hassle, and I have the distinct feeling that he may have been suffering from the cumulative effects of NIHL. Because wind noise occurs in the sound frequencies that earplugs are most effective at blocking, they can often reduce the sound level by at least 20 dBa, a very significant amount. Wearing earplugs may seem like a needless chore, but they can go a long way toward preventing you from being fitted up for hearing aids well before your time.

T.C.

[olebiker]

When is the old bastards rally / meet?
Rob

Not till fall but I am going to both XS East and North. Maybe see you at one or the other.

Carl