I started to wear then about 25 years ago after racing at Oulton on a TZ250....my ears were ringing.....wear them every time I get on a bike.....my advice is to always wear ear plugs!!!
Yep always. By the time you realize you have a problem with your hearing it is too late ,and serious damage has been done. No going back. I’ve worked offshore for 30 years and worn ear protection the whole time. The guys that didn’t are now very much deaf. They seriously regret it now. Personal choice yes , but my advice is with any noisy environment do what you can to protect a precious sense that can’t be repaired.
I can't say that the noise has ever really bothered me - maybe I'm already deaf from a misspent youth in bars & clubs. LOL. If my bike was so noisy I needed earplugs I'd probably quieten the exhaust first. Having said all that I might give them a try, can't do any harm. Any particular reccomendations supplier/ brand or are they pretty much all the same?
I have cheap in ear foamies in the pockets of all my jacks and trousers, so I have access to them. Had expensive mounded plugs in the past but they were never quite right. Unless it is a quick dash to the shops they are always in!
I have just had 3k worth of digital hearing aids fitted. I didn't use ear protection whilst riding my bikes when younger and I have worked on noisy building sites for half my life with no ear protection. My ex wife is an audiologist and she wrote an article for one of the bike magazines a few years ago on the damage caused by wind noise. I will ask if she still has a copy and post it up. I have struggled with tinnitus and hearing in group conversation for a while now and got to the point where it was embarrassing asking people to repeat themselves. The hearing aids are great and have sorted my problem but given the choice I'd rather have the 3k in my pocket and my natural hearing back.
I've worn them for the last 20 years, of all the type I've tried including custom mounded ones these are the best for noise reduction https://www.moldex.com/product/goin_green/ I buy them in bulk off evil bay
I worked around fighter jets for 18 years, have always ridden bikes, play guitar with a large Marshall stack amp and now work in a fecking noisy refinery. I have always worn plugs for all of these and every year we have to have a company medical/hearing check. Mine remain in good health, and that can only be down to the little Howard Leight Max plugs that are constantly shoved in my lugs..
These are worth a go also Jez, we get given boxes of these from the company, and they are safety paranoid nuts, so if they use them, pretty sure they must be ok.... Lug ol Protectors
I use Mouldex SparkPlug ones on bike Also - been using them this trip in China to block out the loud Chinese around me in the factory who talk more than any women I know.... Also use them to sleep on the plane.. Pretty much all day comfortable. I have only been using them the last 3 or 4 years.... wish I had been using them before as i have mild ringing in my ears - and have done for many years... (could be a poet)
Tried a few different types of foam plugs and just couldnt get used to them so dont bother, Never have
What others have said. After year of loud music and noisy working environments tinnitus has set in... Seriously unpleasant Have worn earplugs for riding the last four or five years. Had custom plugs done in February. Great. Don't go anywhere on the bike without them. You shouldn't either!
I do but its shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted in my case. My hearing, like my eyesight, probably isn't going to see me out. It's too late for health reasons but I wear them because wind roar is bloody annoying. I wish I could find some that are properly comfortable though. All plugs when worn all day for about three days in succession become painful, even the cheap foam ones.
I do wear them mostly when I’m wearing my full face lid, but they’re useless on open face lids. That said it’s not stopped my tinnitus either which I put down to a misspent youth going to noisy gigs and such.
I commute 3 or 4 times a week and always wear them, feels unusual not too, like i am less focused. Unfortunately i have prescribed white noise aids my tinnitus is so bad - my old career i was constantly flying and put it down to this.
