Ear plugs, road noise & headphones etc

sustained exposure to noise over 90Db (i think it's 90? maybe it's 100??) will result in permanent hearing loss. This is why some people insist on wearing ear plugs.

I believe it's as little as 15 minutes of sustained exposure

However, playing music as well as hearing road / engine / wind noises will not help with that problem

 

I wear ear plugs and can hear horns and sirens. Wind noise is the biggest factor. Around town I don't wear them, but if I do any interstate riding, in they go for the whole ride.

As for music.... I know that here in the US, in most states it is illeagal to wear headphones and operate a motor vehicle. I have a communicator, that has speakers that mount in the helmet that I can pipe music in to and that is legal. But I don't as it is too distracting for me.

 

I listen to music. And don't find it very distracting and I can still hear traffic. I only turn it up loud enough so I can hear it, not so it is the only thing I can hear.

It does become kind of hard to hear once on the open road the wind does become kind of load.

 

I find ear plugs a hassle for shorter trips, I usually just wear my neck sock unless it is over 25 degrees. I have also experimented with music, the wind noise is so bad with normal headphones that you will send yourself deaf in no time trying to get above it.

Saying this, lots of people recommend special ear plugs that go inside the ear block out wind noise and have a tiny speaker in them, you can also get them custom fitted to your ear, this also helps as your helmet wont yank out the headphones when you put it on.

I find i tend to focus more when I have a bit of background music.

Do a bit of a search on the net and I am sure you will turn something up.

 

Noticed you are from brissy and so I lifted this from OCAU.mc.

 

I found that I mostly I can't hear my engine when I ride over 80k due to increasing wind noise in my helmet and so I wear earplugs on the bike if I am doing anything other than a short ride around town.

I use plugs all the time at work due to the noisy evironment there as well. Being a sufferer of industrial deafness from around 19 years of age I dont want it to get worse. After going for a couple of long rides when I first got the bike, I noticed the ringing in my ears was worse when I finished the ride and think my old helmet is a bit quieter than my new more expensive one.

Those plugs with the speaker built in sound like a good thing. I wonder where I could get some here in Tas?? Will have to look around!!

 

Well here's my $0.02.

When i commute to (& from) work, i don't use ear plugs and i don't use headphones.
When i do freeway stints i use my Sony 71SL canalphones and listen to music at slightly quieter than i do on the bus/in public.
When i do ride days i either use deep reach high density foam plugs or i use the Sony 71SL's (depends on if there's boring bits between the twisties <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->).

On a 250, wind noise won't do heaps of damage as you top out at about 180km/h... over 200km/h is when the wind noise really gets bad! Even for a short stint at 250km/h it's enough to make my ears numb out for a while.

Don't wait till it's too late to use ear plugs. Normal outter ear headphones i think do more harm than anything else, as you've got wind noise and MORE sound being pushed into your ears!

The best solution if i had the time, effort & money... would be to get some of the thin headphone speakers and mount them inside the padding in my helmet, then use earplugs aswell - music and hearing protection at the same time. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->