Ear Plugs? Opinions please...

[Lou Girardin]

Where do you get the Alpines from , keen to get some..cheers

AMPS (or other bike shops)

[Mental Trousers]

I got some from a music store. They're great except that the stalks were a bit long so I cut them. Since then they've been fabulous but recently they've started falling out. So I'm thinking of going to get some custom ones made as I think I have the same problem as Gremlin. Obviously I'm not a mutant like Gremlin though

[Hitcher]

Buy your earplugs from NZ Safety or a similar store. Best selection, best advice, best prices by a suburban kilometre.

[TLDV8]

Buy your earplugs from NZ Safety or a similar store. Best selection, best advice, best prices by a suburban kilometre.

Exactly,or be prepared to pay a 1000% mark up.

fwiw..stay away from the yellow cylinder shaped plugs,EAR brand? they are quite hard and seem to be the ones that give people the most trouble with comfort...... fit any plug as per the instructions,you still see people who just stick them in their ear with most of the plug sticking out.It is also better to give them a few minutes to expand and settle in the ear before putting your helmet on.If they havn't sealed properly the noise can be worse.As a boilermaker/welder and 30 years of having to wear hearing protection on a dayly basis i have found the softer conical plugs from the likes of 3M or similar to work great.It all comes down to personal chice but i think most people once they get used to them never look back fwiw

[beyond]

Ok, seen no hard and fast facts so here ya go:
With a good helmet travelling at 100kmh, wind noise is producing 90 decibels at your earhole.
Maximum safe exposure before damage, is 85 decibels for fifteen minutes.

So remembering that the decibel range increases dramtically for every point, unless you are riding for less than five minutes you are safe without earplugs.

Every kmh increase also increases the decibel range to very damaging levels over 1ookmh.

I for one hated earplugs and have ridden 21,000km's over the last year. I started getting ringing after long rides and when trying to sleep at night.

I bought some Alpine plugs mentioned before from Motomail for $49 and started wearing them. I found they cut wind noise significantly yet allowed you to hear whats going on as I like to know whats happening around me.
I found them uncomfortable after two long trips, but felt more refreshed and not so tired.

Went back to foam compressibles but they cut too much noise. Will go back to the Motomail ones and persevere with these.

SUMMARY: To prevent permanent hearing loss and/or damage, you NEED to werar earplugs, no doubt about it at all.

[imdying]

The bits in your ears that do the hearing don't grow back, and can't yet be fixed

[Kendog]

Thanks for the tip off markauckland!! I was thinking just the other day that it would be nice to have earplugs that have earphones in them!! Had a look at the ones you recommended from Etown and just bought some as they are EXACTLY what I wanted! Amazing, I'm just stoked as that kinda thing never happens for me, you know, you have a good idea but no bugger makes them!! (Like leg extenders for when I ride my bike). So cheers mate!
Mrs KD

[madboy]

So, beyond, what are the facts for a 21 kilometre commute (each way) with speeds between 80 and 250k? Perhaps I might need to wear them on the daily commute too! It's just too inconvenient, I might get some ones on a cord or something as I find the foam ones are really great - once you get them in there right.

[MrMelon]

Watch out when replacing earplugs with those earbud headphones. Having music blasting directly into your inner ear for long periods of time while riding will make your ears ring as much (if not more) than riding without earplugs. I'm sure using my mp3 player and those earbuds as much as I did last year has done me some permanent hearing damage. I've stopped using my ex71SL's now since they were rooting my hearing faster than anything else. I just use the EAR yellow soft foam plugs now which you can pick up from protector safety for 40-50c a set. They block out fricken everything but after using them for more than a couple of hours they really accentuate the ringing that's already in your ears.

If you still want to hear well but protect your ears, then i'd go with some of the rubber cone ear plugs. I got a set of etymotic er-20's for $20 which I use when going out and listening to loud music. They'll drop 20db off all frequencies so you can still talk to people and hear clearly. They've got a big plastic knob coming out of the middle of them though so not really the best for using under a helmet, but I'm sure you could get used to them.

[imdying]

I used to use my iPod on my bike, even mounted the belt clip to the top fairing stay. One day I played it at home at the volume I used on the bike.... waay to deafening. After that, I've flagged it, it was doing way too much damage to my hearing

[beyond]

Madboy,

That commute at those speeds will mean that when you're old and pushing your Zimmerframe, you'll have two huge ear amplifier horns strapped to the bars on the zimmer and then you might be lucky to hear yourself fart after a night on the Vindaloo.

AND: for those who use MP3 players, the volumes required for easy listening when riding at even normal speeds, means that you are directing excess volumes of sound waves down the auditory canal which will severely deform the sound wave catching devices (hairs) which in time will cause excess hearing loss and consequent loss of enjoyment of life. i.e. You will end up staring dumbly at your freinds when they talking to you at less than a level considered to be screaming.

[Hitcher]

I wear the grommet-style plugs. The purple-and-yellow ones with a purple cord. These basically eliminate shitloads of noise. I really struggle to hear normal conversation tones wearing these under my helmet. Yet when riding I still hear enough not to feel totally isolated from the world around me. In my experience riding, the only noise you hear over 100kmh is helmet wind noise -- I've left exhaust/induction roar and cam whine long behind at that speed. The grommet plugs are easy to install (no fannying around scrunching things up pre-insertion) and I find them comfortable for long stretches (up to two hours at a time). They also hang round your neck on their cord at service stations, so you don't have to worry about how clean your fingers are or look for somewhere to stash them so they don't blow away.

[imdying]

AND: for those who use MP3 players, the volumes required for easy listening when riding at even normal speeds, means that you are directing excess volumes of sound waves down the auditory canal which will severely deform the sound wave catching devices (hairs) which in time will cause excess hearing loss and consequent loss of enjoyment of life. i.e. You will end up staring dumbly at your freinds when they talking to you at less than a level considered to be screaming.

This is exactly right. And there's nothing that can be done (yet) to repair this damage

[Kendog]

You will end up staring dumbly at your freinds when they talking to you at less than a level considered to be screaming. [/QUOTE]

Lol, I do that anyway!! I used to use the normal earplugs on my mp3 player on the bike, and yes found it wayyyyyy too loud when I went through a town at low speed, but if I only have to have the volume probably half of what I used to because these earphones block out the wind noise it sounds like I'd only need the sound to be slightly louder than I would normally have it. I found I had to turn the volume up real loud mainly to be able to hear the music over the wind noise. Will give it a go, if it doesn't work out, well, another set of headphones to add to the collection.
cheers though.

[miSTa]

For those that like their music when riding the maybe the answer for you http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.aspx

By all accounts they're pretty good.