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Let’s Not Scream at Each Other: Moto Ear Plus Ear Plugs - Printable Version

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Let’s Not Scream at Each Other: Moto Ear Plus Ear Plugs - rdprdp01 - 02-09-2025

Good afternoon, everyone. I hope this Sunday has been kind, pleasant, and beautiful for you. I remembered all of the Members of the Forum in my prayers today, even those among us which may not share my Faith. For those skeptics, think of it as a call to Karma that you, friends, family, and your motorcycle will have a great week. Smile

I have been trying to get a better understanding of the impacts of motorcycle riding on hearing. Most of the men in my family end up completely deaf. Although some of that may be attributed to genetic code, the vast majority is attributed to bad behavior and poor choices for me and my forefathers. We are often boys grown old who like guns, race cars, rock concerts, motorcycles, and anything else which goes boom. At 61, I have managed to retain my hearing and hope to break the family trend.

My research yielded some surprising results and at least three pragmatic solutions I share in this thread. I welcome any other suggestions you may have to help reduce hearing loss or correct mistakes in my thread.

My surprise was to learn that wind noise is a far greater contributor to hearing loss for motorcyclists than engine or exhaust noise. That conclusion was reached by so many credible sources that I believe it can be considered a fact and not an opinion. Here is one of the 40 sources I reviewed. I will spare you the balance of the research!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7561464/


A few passages I copied in my notes follows. They are so widely quoted I cannot with confident attribute them to the proper author but the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders is mot likely:

• “When we are exposed to harmful noise—sounds that are too loud or loud sounds that last a long time—sensitive structures in our inner ear can be damaged, causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). These sensitive structures, called hair cells, are small sensory cells that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Once damaged, our hair cells cannot grow back. In other words, if you overuse it, you lose it.”
• “The risk of hearing damage can be measured in two ways - how loud and how long. Just one loud BOOM above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears, and continuous exposure to noise at 85 dB can be harmful over time.”
• “An increase of only a few decibels has a dramatic effect on the danger to hearing. Each increase of 3 Decibels (dB) represents a doubling of noise energy/sound pressure, and halves the safe exposure time you should listen for.”

So I went about the business of finding out just how loud my 2017 CB1100 EX is with stock exhaust in various riding scenarios. I wanted a baseline from which I could determine what wind noise contributes and how to best offset it.

Here is my beautiful motorcycle idling outside, yesterday morning. There was no wind present. To ear only the motor and exhaust, I believe you can double click on the video and unmute the sound:

[Image: 105507cceff2f0654b723ef0436b6325.mp4]

I used an application on my iPhone to measure the DB Readings while idling and for other scenarios:

Idling in Driveway (63 dBa)

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Urban Driving (92 dBA)

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Highway Driving (97 dBA Cruising / 127 dBA Passing and On Ramping)

[Image: 844c05932661f654c820755ef1a8678a.png]


Without question, I place my hearing at rick while riding my CB110. The response to offset the risk was far less clear. The experts believe that prolonged exposure over time to specific frequencies ultimately causes many motorcyclists to incur permanent hearing. My three responses follow:

Response 1: Install a fairing: Some fairings, but not all, can help redirect wind away from our head and ears. I installed a Road Comet 2 and found it to be very helpful with reducing fatigue and some wind noise.

http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=19304

Response 2: Wear a tight fitting helmet with good aerodynamics and wind noise-reduction capability. I wear a Shoeii GT-Air 2 helmet which has a good wind noise reduction rating (I have recently ordered the Shorii Gt-Air 3 which has even better noise suppression). The experts assert that if properly fitted it can reduce the noise which reaches my ears by 5-7 dBA.

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-kit/helmets/shoei-gt-air-ii-review/

Response 3: Start wearing ear plugs while riding. Sadly, I have never, ever worn any ear plugs while riding a motorcycle. That addition is impactful, because they are the last line of defense between your ear drums and the droning sounds which threaten to deafen all of us. The options were plentiful, but I ultimately selected The Moto Pro Ear Plugs from Earpeace.

https://www.earpeace.com/products/moto-pro

The cost was $40 USD not including a carrying case and the nerdy cord I ordered to connect them so they could “hang” around my neck in those moment when I want to remove them but not return them to a case.

Among my many defects, I have freakishly small ear canals. The folks at Earpeace factored that into their design and provide ear tip options. I found the process of swapping out the ear tips and installing the connecting cord to be tedious. I had to use all of the curse words I know in English and French to complete both tasks, but I did succeed.

The Moto Pro Ear Plugs are comfortable, nearly undetectable when inserted, stay in place while wearing my helmet, and most importantly, reduce the wind noise by another 19 dBA. I could still hear my Apple Maps playing through the Sena Air 2 sound system installed in my helmet. More importantly to me, I could still hear the lovely exhaust note of the motorcycle, engine, and traffic noise too.

Audio through the Sena Air 2 was clear and easily understandable at idle or highway speed. I do not listen to music while riding, but I am certain it would also be great. Through some magic I do not completely understand, the Mot Pro Ear Plugs block the frequency associated with wind noise but allow everything else to pass through.

If you have managed to get to the end of this thread, I applaud your stamina and interest. I hope you found it useful and more importantly helpful to retaining your hearing. I hope someday to meet a member of the Forum in Northern California. It would be lovely if we did not end up screaming at one another at our first meeting. Smile

Have a great week and be safe on your motorcycle. Picture follow. David

[Image: 96ceaff43e2cc30183613f38f5ecba29.jpeg]

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RE: Let’s Not Scream at Each Other: Moto Ear Plus Ear Plugs - Cormanus - 02-09-2025

Thanks, David. There’s been a fair bit of discussion on the forum about this over the years. The bottom line for me has been that the science is clear about wind noise being the real danger and, if you don’t use ear plugs of some sort, your hearing will quickly be damaged.

RE: Let’s Not Scream at Each Other: Moto Ear Plus Ear Plugs - rdprdp01 - 02-09-2025

(02-09-2025, 07:24 AM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: Thanks, David. There’s been a fair bit of discussion on the forum about this over the years. The bottom line for me has been that the science is clear about wind noise being the real danger and, if you don’t use ear plugs of some sort, your hearing will quickly be damaged.

Copy that

RE: Let’s Not Scream at Each Other: Moto Ear Plus Ear Plugs - the Ferret - 02-09-2025

Great post. I unfortunately rarely as in really rarely wear ear plugs. The results being, I have terrible tinnitus 24/7/365 and am fairly hard of hearing (just ask my wife). The only time my ears aren't ringing is when I'm asleep. The hearing loss causes me great difficulty in conversations, watching TV or a movie or any other time I should be hearing what I'm not.

I have tried ear plugs. Worn some earplugs where all I can hear is my heart beating in my chest. I have worn others that seem to do nothing. I've tried some that immediately popped out. The best I have used for me are a silicone plug for swimmers ears. Roll it into a ball and squish it in your ear. Still, most of the time I do not wear them. Guess I think I am beyond hope.

At any rate, you are correct in that the sooner and more often you wear ear plugs, the better off you will be...trust me.