Discussion
Don't use em round town for commuting, need my hearing to help me.
Do use em for out of town trips where I'll be sitting at motorway type speeds for a period of time.
I have issues with my hearing anyway on account of regularly playing in a band at school with the volume up at 11. Basically any loud sustained noise will remove 80% of the hearing in my right ear with constant ringing too for at least two days afterwards which isn't nice.
Do use em for out of town trips where I'll be sitting at motorway type speeds for a period of time.
I have issues with my hearing anyway on account of regularly playing in a band at school with the volume up at 11. Basically any loud sustained noise will remove 80% of the hearing in my right ear with constant ringing too for at least two days afterwards which isn't nice.
I normally wear custom made jobs in red from Ultimate Ear Protection but lost one of them a while ago.
This thread reminded me to send them an email asking about replacements. Thay send you the moulds as well as the plugs.
I find I ride much better/smoother with them in. Makes it easier to concentrate.
This is the place I got mine www.ultimateear.com
This thread reminded me to send them an email asking about replacements. Thay send you the moulds as well as the plugs.
I find I ride much better/smoother with them in. Makes it easier to concentrate.
This is the place I got mine www.ultimateear.com
I always wear them. I use the cheap disposable ones and buy them a box at a time.
Before it became common knowledge about potential hearing damage due to wind noise in the helmet I never wore ear plugs (nobody did!) and as a direct consequence, I now have some hearing difficulties. Trust me; hearing difficulties are not something you want!
Before it became common knowledge about potential hearing damage due to wind noise in the helmet I never wore ear plugs (nobody did!) and as a direct consequence, I now have some hearing difficulties. Trust me; hearing difficulties are not something you want!
I have tinitus, makes hearing myself speak and hearing what other people say quite difficult in a noisey environment. Caused by working with bands and discos at uni, totally unaware of the consequences.
The ENT consultant I saw told me that the ringing you get after being exposed to loud noise is nerve damage . . . the brain can usually compensate hence after a day or two it goes away - that's not the effect/damage gone, it's just the brain compensating for the permenant damage. Different people can tolerate different levels of damage before their hearing suffers permanently.
He said he sees 6 or 7 young people (he was talking about roughly 12-18 years olds) EACH WEEK coming to him with various hearing problems, all caused by loud music, concerts and/or earphones.
The ENT consultant I saw told me that the ringing you get after being exposed to loud noise is nerve damage . . . the brain can usually compensate hence after a day or two it goes away - that's not the effect/damage gone, it's just the brain compensating for the permenant damage. Different people can tolerate different levels of damage before their hearing suffers permanently.
He said he sees 6 or 7 young people (he was talking about roughly 12-18 years olds) EACH WEEK coming to him with various hearing problems, all caused by loud music, concerts and/or earphones.
PARDON?
I always wear them unless I am just pootling around town. I seem to have devloped tinnitus in the past six months.
I must admit it is a bit of blow to realise that the damage is irreversible at the age of 30. it's not too bad but I now avoid nightclubs and noisey environments as much as possible.
I use disposables as I can pick up bunches of them at work. Some are better than others tho.
I find wearing them makes me ride faster actually because I haven't got the intensity of wind noise as a reliable speed indicator.
I didn't wear them at my first trackday (woohoo!) the other week - wanted all available info to my senses
I must admit it is a bit of blow to realise that the damage is irreversible at the age of 30. it's not too bad but I now avoid nightclubs and noisey environments as much as possible.
I use disposables as I can pick up bunches of them at work. Some are better than others tho.
I find wearing them makes me ride faster actually because I haven't got the intensity of wind noise as a reliable speed indicator.
I didn't wear them at my first trackday (woohoo!) the other week - wanted all available info to my senses
Yup, I always wear them too. I use the disposable earfit ones. I don't bother for town and other low speed (no more than 30-40 mph) trips, but definately for everything else. I always strongly advise mates of mine who start biking to wear them too. A small, cheap and easy prevention for a very big potential problem IMHO.
dern said:
I wear them all the time on the bike. I've read the theory on how the noise damages your hearing and I love music too much to take any risks like that.
I never wore them when I was into fast bikes in the 70's/80's. I knew there was a hell of a lot of wind noise whipping through my ill fitting helmet, but commuting a fast 40 miles a day for about ten years, plus many motorway blasts across Europe, removed a good section of my mid range hearing, apparently. I'll start wearing them now though, as I've just got back on two wheels.I actually wear ear plugs in bed when I'm offshore, too many noisy door slammers and corridor talkers!
A huge bag of assorted ones is but a couple of quid off Ebay, find the ones that suit you best.
I wish I had used them for my day trip last weekend. My ears were ringing when I stopped.
Just ordered a box from http://www.safetysupplies.co.uk/trolleyed/4/index....
Should do the trick.
Just ordered a box from http://www.safetysupplies.co.uk/trolleyed/4/index....
Should do the trick.
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