ear protection

**Kwaka-Kid** · 17th April 2003, 06:38

Well i personally cant do it, so i wont

i also know plenty of old dudes that have riding for years, some of which have perfect hearing. :/ im willing to take my chances as i feel i have more chance of not hearing the wind of a car about to T-Bone me. I know it sounds stupid, but honestly, for me the difference is great, i reley on my ears when riding, im not sure exactly why exactly i feel this way, like, but im sure, i can just hear far more around me and know whats going on where i cant hear... OH! perfect example... the first morning i wear them, heading down my road, i looked right (but theres a tree in the way) so its hard to see very far a car coming... and i didnt see much, looked left as i was about taking off and just glanced right and outta the corner of my eyes, argh! car! okay so it wasnt exactly a close call, but i reley on my ears there, i can hear the cars roadnoise as it comes down the hill usually, so easily... also on the racetrack, i can hear where bikes are and where they are coming up on me. or at least i think i can? im sure. i feel, blind.. with earplugs in.

**Coldkiwi** · 17th April 2003, 07:04

Yeah Blu, I knew that

but by the same token, both the inlet and outlet holes on most helmets are pretty small. My confusion is compounded by the fact that i know full well how rooted airflows get when you reduce the cross-sectional area of a duct like that (I work at a building services company).

As for the wonderful acoustic black box... they do exist... sort of! Sony do some noise cancelling headphones that work reasonably well at low frequencies. They really excell with constant low freq. noise like in jet aircraft but do not do much for high frequncies. The handy upshot of this is that you can hear your mate talking in the next seat to you without getting a headache from the engine noise.Also, there is an input for music (which I find VERY distracting when trying to concentrate).

So what you yearn for does exist.. but it won't really help much with wind noise and I would wager be about as comfortable as having toothpicks in your ears when you drag your lid over it!

**bikerboy** · 17th April 2003, 07:21

Toothpicks in your ears...?

Just what do you acoustic Engineers get up to

**Kwaka-Kid** · 17th April 2003, 07:41

and thats not the only place i hear thoses dodgey engineers shove those toothpicks :P

anyways i agree about music, i cant hack it, i need full concentration and hearing on the road. BTW im outa pukekohe this friday

- getting in free even, ran into a dude @ haldanes who memberd me from tracktime

Its funny because i dont remember anyones bike really.. and they are all worth 20x more then mine, yet people remember mine, funny that, usually they have to have somthing different to stick in ur mind, apart from a boy-rider with a crazy attatude to life, and a ratbike without any done maintanence, and that tickty tickty sound as the chain slaps when u ride, im pretty run-of-the-mill. :P

**MikeL** · 17th April 2003, 08:07

Coldkiwi
I followed your advice about pulling the top of the ears up to straighten the ear canal. Must say beforehand I was a bit sceptical - I mean, there can only be one way to insert a squishy thing into a body orifice, surely? But no! What a revelation! Rode to Tauranga and back today and not only did the little orange thingies not work their way out, but the sound level stayed way down, so much so that as I did my usual 160 on the straight bit outside Waharoa the normal high-pitched scream was just a muffled purr so I had to roll on more throttle to try and get some sort of sensation. This way madness lies.

**Kwaka-Kid** · 17th April 2003, 08:41

yep its true. i found the same thing, only @ work with air compressor.

And now im weighing up... Take my 400, i have taken a link out and chain is tight..but risk snapping the chain and then just thorowing away the bike coz it aint worth fixing the bottom end in my mind...

Or take my dads 1978 Suzuki GS1000, 29mm smoothborecarbs, homemade/weleded 2.5" exhaust and can muffler, Only about 5 year old front tyre but its pretty much bald, and about a 10-20 year old rear tyre, Avon Roadrunner, shes as hard as a mofo and wheelspins quiet easily in 1st @ low revvs, and shesTHE MOST SQUARE CUT tyre you ever saw, im dead serious, much like a car tyre. And that bikes done 150,000k's approx and does blow smoke. But the chain is alrite at least..

what to take? :/ oh and both fork seals are leaky but thats nothing, i can ride hard with that. Hmm, i am thinking GS1000, any free time on track is worth taking up, even if i go really slow and dont lean thru corners.. then streightline the hell outtaher!. Oh and lastly shes got a 250's top brake resivour and 1 pot brakes but dual disc on front, trying to stop 260kg of hardnutz metal. I must say the brakes do scare me a littel, on the street it takeson average prolly 4x the stopping distance of my 400. that front tyre is hard and u cant loc kit up, but u cant do a stoppie either, brakes back then were not very good, especially when u took them from an even older (i think 1971) Suzuki GT750 :/ may god help me stop that beast for the hairpin, because ill need to get from approx 250kmph to around 2 kmph to make it safely around the hairpin! No leaning allowed on that sucka

(also not when u only weight mid 60kg :/)

**bluninja** · 18th April 2003, 02:41

ColdKiwi, how much airflow do you need ? Yes the holes are smaller but since the exit is into a low pressure open area the air just lowers pressure and accelerates to higher speed going through the exit hole. However if you went fast enough the exiting air could go supersonic and you would get a lock......and loads of noise from the helmet.

As for the box of tricks; I'ts nice to know there is some in use in industrial conditions. I played with some speakers and a wave generator to reduce the noise of a diesel generator in my final year at college (Marine Engineering). Lots of fun, but wadding and a shell produced equivalent reduction for a fraction of the cost.

As for music, I find singing whilst I'm riding is great. Not even I can hear my singing, which is a good thing.

Errr....better go get my medication

TTFN

**Gixxer** · 18th April 2003, 05:50

When I do wear plugs on long trips I hear fine, the wind noise is cut out and I can still hear whats going on around me, plus the fact that I tend to use my mirrors alot, even without plugs in, you should always know whats going on around you even in a car, so you can see those over taking trucks.

I also like a bit of thrash metel when riding, have not lost the concentration yet.

**Kwaka-Kid** · 18th April 2003, 08:06

"They say music can alter moods and talk to you
But can it load a gun for you and cock it too?" - Eminem, Sing for the moment

"They say music can alter moods and talk to you
But can it rev your bike for you and crash it too?" - Me, for you gixxer :P

Well im off to Mungawhai heads on saturday morning early,

staying up there and jetskiing for 3days

and car club hired puke tomorrow and are lettin me on for free

**wkid_one** · 18th April 2003, 12:23

Feck - can I come down to the track?

**Kwaka-Kid** · 18th April 2003, 12:40

Man i dunno, i hardly know the guy, he rememberd me, and then realised also that he knows the previous owner of my bike.. yadda yadda.. invited me into their little circle (riding group thingy) if i rode on the street like i did on the track, haha! which i replied no because i cant afford the tickets.. the usual bike bullshit went on then he invited me, so long as i come on 2 wheels im in for free and get some good riding in with a small group. but tell ya what, ill give the previous owner of my bike a ring and see if i can "bring a mate" Im taking the van down ('91 yota hiace) with my bike in back, stripped down a little...also i can take any crashed bikes back to aucks sorta thing, somebodys gotta do it and it may aswell be me. So yeah, Wkid_one im 025 685 2699, or 8180666. ill ring him right this second..

and post again, or, somthing, also icq 109906456, msn frenzalrhomb_16 at hotmail.com, got jetstart, so im always on these

and email, logo at xtra.co.nz

(emails done like that to avoid bot spam)

sweet az

**Kwaka-Kid** · 18th April 2003, 12:43

JESUS CHRIST!

its bloody midnight , sorry i forgot, i only got home from 2nd job around 11:30pm, i loose track of time, i must sleep

Listen wkid, i reckon you should come down on your bike anyway, who is going to turn down a great rider on a nice bike? And if they did, you get to watch me have fun

haha no seriously, just cruise down i say, the guys seem really kool, the one i saw in haldanes was apparently on a Silver R1, he looked a little familiar, but anyways yeah wkid, come on down

**Gixxer** · 18th April 2003, 22:22

thanks for the song KK, music may change the mood, but it does not rev the bike or make me loose my self control.

watch out for those low flying trucks man, I hear they can be dangerous.

might c u on the road sometime.

happy easter everyone, and don't become an easter holiday statistic.