Modern Vespa

I'm a very auditory person. I pay a LOT of attention to my sound-surroundings and get a a lot of cues from them. For example, whenever I play world of warcraft in a group with other people of the same class (warlock) I have to pay VERY close attention to my game, because I will hear the casting sounds from the other warlocks and my timing will get thrown all off. Anyway.

When I ride a bicycle (which I still like doing), I get a lot of information about where I am wrt traffic from road noise. I know when cars are behind me because I can hear them.

Then I read about how you should probably wear earplugs when you ride a motorcycle and thought, "gah! not for me!" But it's probably true. With my current setup (mid-height screen, 3/4 helmet with a bubbleface), whenever I break 45 MPH it gets pretty loud in my head. Worse, I get some higher-frequency noise that's nearly the same pitch as a police siren, so it sounds like there's a police chase going on behind me in the distance (it's quiet and intermittent, but there). I expect that the noise will go down when I get my FF helmet, but it'll just be closed out - I won't necessarily be able to hear anything.

So, my discussion question for the day is: how much information about your surroundings do you gain by listening, personally? Should I just go and mute everything and live with the fact that I will only be able to hear horns? Should I take advantage of it and use in-ear headphones and listen to some tunes while I ride? Is there some magic solution I don't know about?

I wear earplugs all the time when riding. Buy a set from a pharmacy for a couple bucks and give them a try. I think you're find they're not as restricting as you fear. I'll also wear noise isolating earbuds on occasion, but without them playing because:
a) I'm a wuss
b) I find riding stimulating enough, without the sound track.


Good luck with it!


Harvey

I am not going to push any particular product, but I understand your concern. Hearing is critical to situational awareness, and SA keeps you safe.

I would guess that the issue in part is the helmet and wind noise. You might want to look changing your helmet style. I have found a full face is quieter than other styles. 2 cents.

Another 2 cents is that some of the more expensive plugs that use more selective materials than foam can cut out just the road noise. Heartech is what I am using, and I find the higher ranges are not so dampened as muted. I can have a conversation with someone and their voice is not totally muted.

They make 3 levels of dampening, so one might work for you.

In town I can still hear fairly well, even with a full face helmet.

I only wear earplugs when I'm going to be riding at highway speeds. That combined with a full face helmet reduces noise quite a bit, but not completely.
Earplugs come in various levels of protection. and are pretty cheap. You can try a few and see which ones work best for you.

I think it is probably most important to be completely aware of what other vehicles are doing around you at all time. Since hearing is reduced, take a look around, use your peripheral vision and check your mirrors frequently.

It's a good idea to wear earplugs when riding for your hearing's sake. I also read an article about the correlation between wind noise and hearing loss.

Some earplugs will give you an NRR (noise reduction rating) to give you an idea how much noise it will block. If you still want to be able to hear your surroundings well, get earplugs with low NRR and/or don't put them too far in.

If you must listen to tune, just be careful (and don't worry...I won't come down on you about tunes while riding because I'm not a jerk...others might )

I believe that the way to look at it is that earplugs attenuate all noise.

i.e. you can still hear the things you want to hear, it's just that all the noises are quieter. And when you make all the noises quieter, you don't lose the ability to hear warning sounds (e.g. sirens). You will lose the ability to hear anyone who's whispering in your ear while you're doing a good speed down the motorway, but you can hear the things you need to hear (and if you weren't wearing plugs and did happen to have someone whistling in your ear, you wouldn't be able to hear them anyway, because of the noise the wind would be making, whistling in your ear).

I realise that my explanation, although I think it's roughly correct from a science POV, sounds a bit sketchy.

I'd recommend you to get a set of plugs (the little foam ones come in packs of one or two pairs, and are cheap enough to experiment with) and try it. If you're like me, you might find that they feel odd at first, but you'll soon get used to them and you'll find that they have a really good effect in reducing tiredness and increasing alertness (and hence safety), on long/fast rides.

Yeah, I'm thinking about getting some replacement / additional mirrors to help with my SA. When I drive my car, I feel like I'm pretty good about that - I scan my mirrors regularly and usually know where everybody else is with respect to me. The mirrors on my scooter are low enough that the my eye scan time from the road - mirror - road is noticeably higher. This is part of my complaint about SA while riding. The other part is the earplugs.

I'll try different brands out, if I could at least know for sure that I'd hear stuff like sirens and horns I'd be happier. Who knows, maybe my FF helmet will cover the problem well without needing earplugs, since I typically cruise in the 45-55 MPH range rather than the 55+ range. I got a scorpion exo 700 in dayglo green, since I'll be commuting in the morning / evening rush hours, which are pretty much twilight for most of fall/winter.

FF helmets are *very* personal fit. So don't get suckered into a brand, try as many as you can.

Shoei makes my head hurt, while Nolan's has funny pressure points. Ended up with a Vemar, and that fits right.

Yeah, I went to some helmet stores and tried on a bunch of brands. The scorpion one was a really good fit, which is why I picked it. The one I was trying on at the B&M store had some random graphix on it (I'm not into graphix on helmets), so I decided to just order the helmet from newenough instead.

It's annoying, since I am a XXL head in most brands. Most stores only carry one or two helmets in that size, so I had to go to a bunch of stores to try on helmets. I kind of liked the Shoei RF-1000 a lot too (I think I could fit an XL in them by changing the cheek pads), but I can't afford one at this point. 90% or more of my riding is my 12-mile commute though, so a little extra weight is probably acceptable, especially given the reviews that the scorpion anti-fog system has gotten.

Have you tried altering the angle of your screen or removing it all together?
It sounds like it's that that's causing all the noise when you ride.

The weight is not as bad as it seems wearing it. Holding it or reading specs makes it "feel" heavy, but if balanced on your head correctly, it can feel lighter than a 3/4.

I spent about a week or two riding without the screen, and I really prefer to have it on - I like how the wind is directed up off of my chest and it also adds a good 5+ MPH to my top end (or so it feels like). I'll try and fiddle the angle of it, that seems like a good idea. Right now the main stream of air hits me more or less in the forehead, which is where the bubbleface part of my 3/4 helmet attaches. So I'm definitely hoping a smoother FF helmet will help there.

But it sounds like I'm going to probably have to work on checking my mirrors a lot more, because no matter what I do, I probably won't hear car tires the way I do when I'm walking or riding a bicycle.

For The Horde!

Also it might be worthwhile to check you local laws to ensure you can have and what type of hearing protection your State will allow you to use.

did someone mention world of warcraft?? lol


THE SIN'DORAEI WILL PREVAILLL!!!!!!!!

(everyone normal in this forum looks at me weirdly....the WoW fans go crazy)

We likes hobbitesses, Precious.

You can keep your nassty blood elves!

*gollum*

*cough* Gnomes in the house, what?

Definitely. But for me, on the X9 (which has an adjustable screen anyway, and then I've added a laminar lip - a sort of screen extender. And I've played around with it a fair bit), I still get a lot of benefit using earplugs on a long, or fast, ride.

I'm convinced I arrive feeling fresher, and suffer no loss of concentration. In fact, I think the plugs' dimming down of annoying sounds while I'm riding gives me more headspace for concentrating on what I should be concentrating on.

Bash'a no falor talah!!!!!!!!