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Hearing Protection - a justification

7K views 25 replies 16 participants last post by  Mark_M 
#1 ·
Opinions will always vary on this. Maybe not as much as an oil or tires thread and definitely not as much as "how do I break it in" thread. But I sometimes read people post that "I'd never ride with hearing protection for such and such a reason and it's not bothering me."

What many don't understand is that "losing your hearing" does not mean that you don't hear things, perhaps just as loudly as you ever did. What it means most often is that you are losing the ability to hear certain sounds or frequencies of sounds. For most people, this means that the higher end of their hearing range is going first. While you may not an audiophile or care whether or not you can hear Ella break a crystal glass, what the loss of that range of your hearing costs you is the ability to distinguish between certain subtle sounds. Like hearing the difference in a "ch" sound and a "sh" sound; a "ba" sound or a "pa" sound - or many others that happen in just about every sentence you hear.

So you're saying your hearing is fine but your wife keeps saying you must be hard of hearing and truth be told, often times she hears back "huh?" So your hearing is fine is it? Then to your wife that means that you just don't care what she has to say :) When actually what it means is that you heard her, but you didn't understand what she said because of your compromised ability to hear high frequency subtle sounds in speech.

When we're younger, our brains have this amazing ability to compensate for some loss of senses. As we get older, both our hearing is damaged and our brains have less ability to adapt to the loss. That involves a topic called brain elasticity. You have less of that when you're older. The good news is that you can still train your brain to be able to hear those sounds a bit better to compensate for the hearing loss. That improvement is possible because we still retain some amount of brain elasticity. But, it's just a lot harder to do and it takes many, many hours of audio training to see any improvement - way more effort than protecting your hearing to begin with.

If you're not wearing hearing protection, I have one important bit of advice that you are going to need to keep your marriage healthier. The phrase is "Honey, I heard you but I didn't quite understand what you said." That way she knows you care about what she says but she needs to say it again more clearly because you're an idiot that didn't protect your ears. I'm speaking from experience here.

I grew up racing motorcycles and playing in bands most of my young life. Later in life, I got very involved in competitive pistol matches and flying aerobatic airplanes. The cockpit of my Pitts is just about the most continuously noisy place you could ever find yourself having fun - way noisier than a rock concert. I've made it a priority most of my life to understand how my ears can be damaged and what I can do for hearing protection. I just never thought to do it on a motorcycle because, hey, I'm wearing a full face helmet. And yet, now I have tinnitus (ringing in my ears from high frequency roll off in my hearing) and often times do not enjoy being at a party in a room full of people because I can't understand anyone with a lot of background noise. So even if you are very careful to protect your hearing, you're still going to likely be faced with this someday. But wouldn't you like for that to be as late in your life and as little as possible?

It was only later in life that I started wearing hearing protection on motorcycles (other than full face helmet). I always wore hearing protection on the range and had the best ANR headsets available in the plane. Several years ago, after several all day rides, is when I first noticed the ringing in my ears that wasn't going away. About ten years before that, I had received the results from an executive physical required by my company that said that I basically still had the hearing of a dog. Off the charts good. I was in denial that I'd injured my ears until the audiologist told me that I had much less sensitivity to high frequency sound and that was what was causing the tinnitus - not curable and I had to live with it. But, I should be making every effort to protect what I had left. That's when I really started researching motorcycle hearing protection.

There's lots of cheap solutions out there and some are great and some are not. This is not at all a "get what you pay for" kind of thing and price does not mean better. The cheap foamy plugs you can get at any pharmacy are equal to the best of the best custom molded ear plugs or in-ear-monitors. A bottle of 50 for just a few bucks.





You can see there that, when you wear them properly, that the noise attenuation is great (32 dB) in the low frequencies but spectacular in the higher frequencies where you hearing is most quickly damaged. So these will protect your ears and I wear them all the time when I'm not concerned about helmet audio. But these are very unsatisfying if you're trying to also hear an intercom or other audio inside your hat. You end up having to turn up the audio to full to blast past the ear plugs and it still won't be very good audio. That's when I went on the search for some ear phones that would match the performance of the ear plugs.

I looked at just about everything on the market and there are lots of products. It had to provide great noise attenuation, have decent audio but not necessarily audiophile quality, and most importantly had to be all day comfortable inside my quirky and narrow ear holes. I talked to a lot of people and kept coming back over and over again to Sensaphonics. A lot of people are perfectly happy with much less expensive ear phones but these checked all the boxes for me. Over 40 dB of noise attenuation and because they're made from medical grade soft silicone and are custom molded by a trained audiologist (and not some knucklehead at a trade show) they have been comfortable for me for 12 - 14 hour days, day after day out on the road. As an added feature, they are pretty amazing audio quality - not that it matters much when I'm on the bike but I'll also use them sometimes when I'm in my tent or hotel room watching a movie on my phone.

Anything is better than nothing but please don't make the mistake of thinking that because you're wearing a high quality full face helmet that you're wearing hearing protection. The quietest helmet ever tested is the Schuberth C3 and it measured just over 80 dB at something like 70 mph. Your hearing is permanently damaged by 85 dB noise when exposed for more than 8 hours. You may not be wearing the best helmet for noise, or your bike may have noisy wind protection, or your lid might not fit tight - if you're exposed to 88 dB of sound for 4 hours your hearing is permanently damaged. OK, let's say your helmet is a bit noisy and you're riding faster - at 94dB your hearing is permanently damaged after 1 hour of exposure. Don't get me wrong, you don't get tinnitus that fast but when your hearing is damaged it never gets better and just compounds over time until someday you are at a party and can't understand what anyone is saying even when they are right in your face. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

OK, that's my public service announcement. If you don't chose to protect your hearing it's nothing to me. But you make informed choices about other aspects of your health right? Do your own research and make your choice because regardless of what you think of anything I've just written here, you'll have to live with it.
 
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#5 ·
https://www.sensaphonics.com/2x-s

At the time I bought mine, there was only this one, the 2MAX, and 3MAX. Since I'm riding a bike I didn't think it was worth it to spend the extra money for audiophile sound and the 2x-s sounds fine to me.
 
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#3 ·
I couldnt agree more! Didnt use it for many years and now developed tinnitus (Ringing of the ears)
Loud sounds bother me many times now including loud exhausts and air flow around the helmet!
Tinnitus can drive people to suicide and has a big impact psychologically........I am an ENT Surgeon so have seen tons of patients like this and I actually kick myself for not having used hearing protection earlier on
 
#4 ·
Thank you for sharing those words of wisdom. I couldn't agree more. I use the cheap foam ones, but they do indeed get in the way of intercom communications. At the moment my only solution is to blast the intercom on full volume, but even that doesn't do the trick too well.

What are those sensaphonics earphones you use? Are they "active" noise cancellation or the standard passive ones? Presumably you have to physically connect those to your helmet somehow, for intercom use, and keep using the intercom microphone?

Thanks for the insight.

Another thing : this doesn't replace the use of ear-buds, but a tall windscreen reduces wind noise for sure. It all helps.
 
#6 · (Edited)
The Sensaphonics come with a 3mm male jack on a short (or optionally longer) cord that plugs in to my Sena BT headset. I primarily use it for intercom on long trips with my friends.

The are not ANR but because of the custom molded, high quality silicone they provide as good passive noise attenuation as the excellent foamy ear plugs.

A couple of additional comments:

Ear hygiene is important any time you are sticking something in your ear. I've heard of people packing their ear wax (I know, TMI) and having to see their doc to get their ears cleaned out. Every time I get out of the shower, I swab out my ears with a q-tip and because I stay on top of it, there's never any danger of pushing the wax farther into my ear.

Secondly, keep them clean. It should go without saying that if you drop your ear phones in a dirt place where germs and dirt live, clean them well before you stick them back in your noggin. I know of one particularly nasty ear infection that the friend thinks was caused by this - maybe one of the MDs on here could chime in on that.

Lastly, I carry a tiny tube of Neosporin +Pain in my earphones case. The first time each day that I put them on, I dab a small amount and smear it around the part that goes in my ear taking care not to get any near the holes in the earphone. This makes them slide in much more easily making it simple to get them seated properly and the tiny bit of ointment make an even better seal. I've been doing this for 7 years now with no problems.
 
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#11 ·
After 24 years of flying in two different Navy helicopters for 4,700 hours the VA Audiologist told me I have hearing loss. I said what?

I use No Noise earplugs that have a transducer in them to let my music or important sounds be heard, cost about $30.00
I also have a set of Hearos with the same type transducer in them. I think they cost about $20.00.
 
#13 ·
I too have been determined to have “borderline” hearing loss..but the VA has come through by providing hearing aids and get this..blue tooth capable..now if I can find an app to make them tie into my Nav V.

Side note: (political) The former head of the VA in my readings on Shulkin found him somewhat for the veterans in his programs with the exception of his and his wife’s trip expenditures to Europe this past summer.. Also I found it interesting that he recommended the elimination of audiology and opthomology programs throughout the VA.
 
#12 ·
Every now and then, we all need reminding of what we should be doing in all aspect of riding. I've become a bit slack of late and only wear them on fast and long rides. Thank you GrayBeard for swaying me back to using hearing protection.
 
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#14 ·
Originally Posted by Ayep

I use the cheap foam ones, but they do indeed get in the way of intercom communications. At the moment my only solution is to blast the intercom on full volume, but even that doesn't do the trick too well.
right, they are too strong. Try these instead and see if they work...they do for me. And the protection "sounds" to be the same. I've used them for about 7k miles and they seem to work as well as the foam plugs which I used previously in the form of an ear bud. You may want to trim the stalk a bit so they don't press inward. They offer significant protection.
 

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#15 ·
Originally Posted by Ayep

right, they are too strong. Try these instead and see if they work...they do for me. And the protection "sounds" to be the same. I've used them for about 7k miles and they seem to work as well as the foam plugs which I used previously in the form of an ear bud. You may want to trim the stalk a bit so they don't press inward. They offer significant protection.
Where can we find those?
 
#16 ·
I think where the other plugs are at CVS Walgreen's etc, but amazon has them too, in addition to the ones, I think, that Ryno23 referenced. I think I got mine at the drugstore, iirc; used them for two trips--a few days in Arkansas in NOvember, and for the whole of the Nova Scotia ride. Satisfied with them, and coming from a perspective of being concerned about hearing loss/protection, and previously using etymotic earbuds modified to accept those foam plugs.
 
#18 ·
I rode since I was 17 years old and only when I was doing serious traveling I used ear plugs.
It saves your hearing. For sure.

Now I have a new GSA which has special dash which is a music/phone/gps hub.
Can I still hear these sounds with ear plugs?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
#19 ·
Doesn't that new hotsy snotsy dash have bluetooth on it? Trying to blast music and intercom past ear plugs is a very unsatisfying experience. You spend serious dough on that new GSA. The money you'll spend on great quality hearing protection in the form of custom molded ear phones is relatively little comparatively and cheap at twice the price to save your hearing.

A lot of us are using the Sena BT headset on our helmet and several models of that device have an input jack for your headphones.
 
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#20 ·
Well, that's exactly what I am saying...using the "baffle" style plugs protects your hearing and allows music to be heard, at least in my case, and that is what you are seeking, right? The foam plugs did not allow it. The noise reduction with the baffle style is still in the mid 20s vs 32/33 for the foam plugs--and that's the highest extant afaik.

For me it was worth the $10 chance I took on them, ymmv, but for me it was all the difference. (Again, credit to JetSpeed for the suggestion)
 
#21 ·
I'm definitely going to be looking for these. For most of my riding around town on errands, I don't wear the Sensaphonics and it would be still nice to know if someone calls me. When I got the 30K Sena, I put the speakers in the one of my helmets for these occasions and these ear plugs may be just what I was looking for to make that work for me.
 
#22 ·
I think this should be pinned. This is a very important post and more riders should be able to read this.

I use custom filtered earplugs like THIS from Big Ear but it's just because I prefer these kind of earplugs. All I can say to other riders is that it doesn't really matter if what you're using is cheap or expensive...just take care of your ears. Wear whatever works for you.
 
#23 ·
Earplugs

I have used earplugs since 1992 when I bought an R100R. I even use them when cutting grass and other high decibel activities.
I have used the custom molded plugs for years and have been happy with them. Then a few years ago, I think it was one of
the "new products" in MCN magazine, I saw NoNoise earplugs. They are the the "baffle style" but add a ceramic cylinder in
the center that has a hole drilled in it's center. That hole is sized to allow specific wavelengths through and not others.
It allows me to better things like speech while filtering out nasty noise like the wind. Been very happy with them. Can't remember
who I got them from.Twisted Throttle or one of the other online retailers.

Jim
 
#24 · (Edited)
Can't say enough good about S-Plugs. $129.95 + tax and shipping.
https://www.plugup.com/best_and_most_comfortable_stereo_earplug_earbuds_p/s%2022-3.5-4.5.htm
Been using them for 6 years on both the Goldwing and the GS. I have 2 Sena 20s Bluetooth Intercom units and there is a 3mm jack in the unit. It makes it super-easy to use S-Plugs. I would not go more than an hour or two without them. When my ears get tired of having them in, I switch to 3M foam earplugs.
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Individually-Wrapped-Uncorded-Reduction/dp/B01IU9ZDVI/ref=sr_1_14?crid=3UF9FAZGKKFWB&keywords=3m+foam+ear+plugs&qid=1568419562&sprefix=3m+foam+ear%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-14
There is a difference in cheap foam earplugs, I have found.

BTW, I can hear Intercom and music reasonably well with the Sena helmet speakers wearing foam earplugs. I have a Shoei Neotec flip-face helmet that fits well but I am always surprised at how loud it is without hearing protection, and it's one of the better-rated helmets for sound attenuation!

Thanks to the OP for such an important message!

David
 
#25 ·
just an addendum to my previous post from last year.

I am now using the 33db foam plugs. Sena and Garmin did an update a few months ago, and now I can hear the bluetooth music, directions, etc through the foam plugs, usually just fine, so that is what I now use. For me they are more comfortable than the baffles. No need to spend more than a few dollars on this, I think, for good protection.
Anything is better than nothing
 
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