Ear Plugs - Hearing Protection

I'm pretty in tune with hearing conservation. They beat it into us at work. Give all the foam ear plugs we want to take home. I shoot handguns, so they are mandatory there.

Bottom line, wearing ear plugs is second nature to me.

All that said, I don't wear them when I ride.
 
I recently rode to the west coast and back and on the way there I didn't wear ear plugs, on the way back I decided to buy some and it made the trip soooooo much more enjoyable. After three 12 hour days of riding I didn't feel like I had gone through a mine field in a tank.
 
I wear ear buds so I can listen to MP3's thru my phone whenever I ride farther than 1/2 hr or so. They definitely help cut down noise, but the music is so loud im not sure that it helps cut my hearing loss! I have grown up shooting skeet and sporting clays and wear $150 + hearing protection whenever I shoot, but never really give it much thought on the bike.
 
i dont wear ear plug's :eek: , but i certainly have considered em in the past . maybe sometime in the future , i will get around to buying a set of Ear plug's .. :innocent:
 
If you don't have as set of ear plugs, you might as well just kiss your hearing good bye...With all the new highly vented helmets, wind noise is increasing in these helmets. I started out by not wearing earlplugs but got tired of that whinning noise. I started to wear noise cancelling earbuds while hearing music but at low volumes...I found that it was getting harder to hear certain sounds. I went to aN MC show and bought some plugs. WOW ...I will not ride a bike without the plugs in my ear. So much more comfy, I can still hear my music and bluetooth device as well as certain sounds from around me while riding. They are so worth every cent I spent and I have noticed that my hearing is not getting any worse.
 
Racinteach said:
I went to aN MC show and bought some plugs. WOW ...I will not ride a bike without the plugs in my ear. So much more comfy, I can still hear my music and bluetooth device as well as certain sounds from around me while riding. They are so worth every cent I spent and I have noticed that my hearing is not getting any worse.
Click to expand...

Have a link to the ear buds you bought?
 
here are some of 2 components with silicone and under allergic, in have an acoustic very very small and it leads to a cable that him you put in gps ipod or anything you want...

the above ear plugs , my made a friend here that is expert!





for me is the best quality...a little expensive but worth it !!
 
Last edited:
I found some excellent earplugs/ear buds.

They are made by Koss and they are called The Plug. They actually have a traditional ear plug as the tip which can be squished and then molded to fit your ear. The bud itself is even lower profile than the buds that came with my Zune player.

... O yeah, they are CHEAP!!! (about $15)

I tried them out mowing the yard yesterday, and they completely blocked out the noise from my gas lawn mower and my gas weed eater.

410T3BR7RRL._SS500_.jpg
 
Ear plugs

I rode for nearly 40 years without ear plugs. I've used them for the last 10 or so. I have a hearing loss of 70 percent in each ear. My new hearing aids were bought with a home equity loan of $6,400. Once or twice recently while doing local errands I didn't put in the plugs. I found the noise inside my very good (almost new) Shoei RF1000 to be excruciating. Wish somebody had steered me toward earplugs when I was a whippersnapper. So, listen up, Whippersnappers: EAR PLUGS!
 
When I rode a cruiser i never wore a helmet and had a tall windscreen, I was in a pocket and therefore never needed plugs.

When I rode to Michigan (120 miles) I had a terrible earache in my left ear by the time I got there. Granted it was a tad windy so between that, the vents in the helmet and buffeting, all contributed to it.

I stopped and bought some new earbuds for my ipod and jammed out on the way home and was much more comfortable.

I won't ride w/o something in my ears from now on.
 
ear plugs

It is not just the volume, but the exposure time that causes hearing loss. Take a look at the following charts. The first shows the loss of hearing vs time of exposure. The next shows the actual db of a number of common sounds.

I know that wearing a helmet reduces db, but not nearly enough, without earplugs. Good plugs reduce noise by as much as 32db. When you add wind noise to, highway sounds it doesn't take much exposure to bring hearing loss.

DdB: Measuring sound

I Love What I Hear! Common Sounds [NIDCD Health Information]
 
Ear plugs of any kind used to be illegal in the state of California. They revised the law to allow motorcyclists to wear hearing protection. It was determined that riding without hearing protection was detrimental to your hearing and caused significant hearing loss. This after a long review of lawsuits and disability claims by the CHP Motorcade.

Politics, some things never change. :rant:
 
I would not dream about riding without ear plugs. It's mostly the low, sub-audible, frequencies which kill your hearing. I know a couple of people who have tinnitus and believe me I'm not interested.
 
Anything above 35 mph and the wind becomes too troubling. Ear plugs are a necessity.. I can still hear traffic and emergency vehicles just fine under the helmet.
 
Big help

I recently did two days of just over 1300 km each on the bike. Droning down long straight boring highway. For the first time in as long as I can remember I decided to wear earplugs. The cheap orange foam ones. It was bizzare coming up to stops (gas stations) as it was so quiet, but on the road I could just make out the engine sound, without any wind noise. At days end I did not have that buzz and weird fuzzy, part deaf feeling, that I get when I don't wear them. I have a new RF 1100 that is the quietest helmet I have ever owned (when the vents are closed). 8 or more hours of wind noise, even dramatically reduced by a good helmet still leave your ears buzzing like you've been to a rock concert. Now that I have tried it, I will use them when I head out on the highway. I still won't bother around town as they really limit your hearing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top