Anyone tried those new silicone or wax malleable ones? I currently use earplugs designed for high noise industry as my eardrums are already damaged from a childhood illness but I'm always willing to experiment with new ones seeing that some chemists are now phasing out the foam ones.

Hi Peirre - I had mine through the following week... the ones with the monitors built in. Used them on the run down to Budapest through Germany (motorway madness) - utterly fantastic. Going to order a pair of blanks now to just wear as usual.

m

I've tried them but found it slightly painful to mash them against my ear openings, and I could never get them to seal correctly for very long. I've settled on foam plugs, rated at 32 or 33db noise reduction, in bright colors for when I'm fishing for them in a pocket, on the ground at night, etc. The bright colors will also tell you when they're too disgusting to continue using.

Ive a shubert (c2) and i must follow mmaarten in his advice that a good helmet and stock pipes should be enough (aslong as you drive under 100km/h)

above 100 km an hour its gets bad, wind will be the biggest noise factor and from my personal experience i can advice people (even with headphones) to use earplugs as they will cancel out the low tones like wind and engine noise while the higher pitches like music and people talking will get true perfectly!

Small annecdote, if i go to a club with really lound music, and i plug in some earplugs. I will be able to understaind what my friends are saying from a greater distance than without them. So no more shouting in the ears or saying "yea sure" when asking 3 times "say again" and still didnt understaind what they were saying.:clap:

What did you say?
 

I always wear earplugs on any ride over 15 minutes. Initially, you cant hear anything, but then your ears get used to them and you can cars, sirens and horns. I've got bad tinnitus from riding and running chainsaws - noise is cumulative. There is no reversing or correcting, other than hearing aids. When it's quiet - to me it sounds like insects carrying on during a midwestern evening.
I've found the ear plug link below to fit my left ear and a different model to fit my right ear.
Howard Leight | MAX Earplugs

I am using custom made earplugs with 25dB filter.
I got mine done by hearing specialists in Finland. They took a cast? from my ear canal and few weeks later I got mine in a mail.
Fits perfectly, can wear them 24h/day without any problem.
Fantastic protection against noise, but can still hear easily when people are talking.
Highly recommend. If you loose your hearing, you cannot get it back...

I leave a trail of breadcrumbs around the world when I travel on a bike.. Those bread crumbs are green or yellow and are made of foam.

I've lost HUNDREDS...... I always pack about 50 pairs as they are sooo small and light and easily lost.

That why I don't have £50 ones....

I've seen people with earplugs which are tied together. Like on your sunlglasses or when your mum would sew elastic to your gloves and put them through your coat sleeves so you wouldn't lose them..

ahhhh those college years :innocent:

Corded ear plugs they're called.

http://www.hearos.com/images/corded-ear-plugs.jpg



Anyway.. A tall screen takes away nearly all of the wind blast which is the worst offender. Noisy exhausts don't help either.

So, if you're travelling on an enduro bike with no screen and a noisy exhaust...


BUY LOTS OF EARPLUGS OR YOU WILL GO DEAF...

While browsing this thread my wife saw teds pic and wondered if / why I was looking at sex toys :eek:
Anyway I allways take a big bumper bag of cheap ones for the same reason as above.....they hide themselves away some how? But they do turn up later when I shake out the tent and sleeping bags. 100' s of them ! Great for sleeping in noisey places too. I have had the odd time when its been a bit of a task to remove them. Also the odd time when I have been ashamed of how dirty they have got on one use. I reckon wearing earplugs adds several hundred miles to a daily ride, by reduced fatigue. Frankly if you do more than 50mph on a bike I think its a must.
For people who dont wear earplugs: FRANKLY IF YOU DO MORE THAN 50MPH ON A BIKE ITS A MUST.
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hahaha...

Rules of travel.....

Improvise, improvise, improvise....

doh

Not sure if that says more about your wife's expectations or the size of Ted's ears :rofl:

Even without the hearing loss issue I'm an ear plug advocate because they give me both another 10mph on my cruising speed and a sense of wellbeing as I ride along because I can't hear the mechanical torture going on in the engine. It works particularly well on a small engined bike like a 125 where you have to hammer it to get anywhere.

However I've had so much trouble (= takes so long) getting the foam plugs to seat properly in my ear canals that I've often wondered whether I'd save time overall by dumping the plugs and riding slower. Most of the time the things are one shot because they only compress and stay compressed long enough to fit when they're cold. Once they warm up with the heat from your fingers they rebound too quickly to fit easily - in my ears anyway.

Whether the expensive custom fit ones have the same problem or not I've not ventured to find out but I'd be somewhat annoyed to find I'd spent the money and still had to spend 10 mins fitting them.

I have a pair of custom made plugs. Whilst they take a little fiddling, it's only around 30 seconds until I'm good to go. Great inestement, and have probably paid for themselves in the three years I've been using them.

I bought a do it yourself custom earplug kit and combined it with a set of decent music earbuds. Works great. Blocks noise well and I can play music at low volume levels.

Also bought the best helmet I could afford - a Schuberth C3. The quiet helmet is well worth the investment!

Roborider - 1150 GS Adventurer - Galax VA

Hmm,

I have a C3 and I still get hearing problems, some times made worse (!) by wearing earplugs. I really want to try and get some of the custom made plugs but I'm nowhere near a place that can do it.

PS. The C3 doesn't do well in the sharp tests.

I think that noise is a complex combination of bike, windshield, head size/shape, clothing, bike options that channel wind, earplugs and (for me) level of hearing loss. .. that it is almost impossible to do an apples to apples comparison on any one factor. I only know that I find the C3 comfortable and very quiet and that I often don't even wear my earplugs unless I'm planning to listen to music or TED talks while on my 2 hour airport slab commute.

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FYI just buy a custom earplugs kit and DIY. Mix the compound, press into your ears, let it set and you're done. Wash and dry your ears beforehand. Lol

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