Earplug Recommendations?

[shelion]

When will helmet technology take the leap to dampen wind noise enough to make plugs unnecessary?

Probably never. You, and your head, are hurtling through the air at 60+ miles per hour-it's going to be noisy. The obvious thing would be to develop better sound-dampening foam that also meets DOT standards for crash protection, but I have no idea if that's even possible. The characteristics for crash protection may be mutually exclusive for sound, and vice versa. Plus, for maximum sound protection, the helmet would have to seal completely around your head, including the bottom and I doubt many people would want to wear a helmet with a very snug fitting, upside down turtleneck attached to the bottom.

[markap]

Actually, I'm very surprised it's not in the market yet. Active noise cancellation should be able to be very well tuned against the fairly consistent type of wind noise present. I think airforce pilot helmets already have some type of active noise cancellation. If I ever break the headband on my current set of sunnheiser's, I might try to stuff them into the helmet. They work very well against the drone of planes and subway travel.

[ERC Scott]

Formula 1 helmets (at least some) have noise reduction cans built into the helmet. Of course the environment they see is not as variable as that of an MC. Would be nice, but I expect the price is quite high. Scott

[Unity]

When we all have affordable noise reduction in our helmets, perhaps they'll come up with something to restore the hearing we lost riding without earplugs, in military training without earplugs, hunting without earplugs, at rock performances without earplugs ....

--John
(What?)

[markap]

When we all have affordable noise reduction in our helmets, perhaps they'll come up with something to restore the hearing we lost riding without earplugs, in military training without earplugs, hunting without earplugs, at rock performances without earplugs ....

--John
(What?)

They are available now - I think they call them "hearing aids".... pretty expensive so I'm told by folks much older than me.

[Maria V]

When we all have affordable noise reduction in our helmets, perhaps they'll come up with something to restore the hearing we lost riding without earplugs, in military training without earplugs, hunting without earplugs, at rock performances without earplugs ....

--John
(What?)

They are available now - I think they call them "hearing aids".... pretty expensive so I'm told by folks much older than me.

[shelion]

When we all have affordable noise reduction in our helmets, perhaps they'll come up with something to restore the hearing we lost riding without earplugs, in military training without earplugs, hunting without earplugs, at rock performances without earplugs ....

--John
(What?)

[shelion]

When we all have affordable noise reduction in our helmets, perhaps they'll come up with something to restore the hearing we lost riding without earplugs, in military training without earplugs, hunting without earplugs, at rock performances without earplugs ....

--John
(What?)

Even better, though less transportable

[fierstf]

I found this discussion on another site and decided to try these earplugs based on all of the positive feedback
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.p ... t=earplugs

I absolutely love these earplugs and use them all of the time now. Great price/performance. Order the here: http://earplugsonline.com/

[ERC Scott]

These look a lot like the Mack's brand moldable ear plugs one can find in most grocery stores. I have worn them (Macks) a couple times (I've tried most commercially available hearing protection devices when I was working in the safety field). These moldable wax balls are different from insert-able foam plugs in that they rest almost entirely within the concha of the ear (external bowl leading into the ear canal) and could be advantageous to people with pressure-sensitive ear canals. Also they are waterproof, so useful for swimmers, etc. I found them very comfortable and especially useful when sleeping in a noisy environment, but on more than one occasion I found one tangled in my hair when it fell out during sleep. Worth a try if you are looking for something different or have issues with insert-able devices. Scott

[Kontoboy]

As an alternative to earplugs, I just picked up my second pair of Etymodic M5 in-ear ear-buds. They have great sound deading capabilities and great sound for the Ipod on long trips. Don't want music or redia--just turn it off. They come with three different sized rubber tips to better fit your ears, and after getting use to them I foud I can comfortably wear them for a full day of riding. They also are low profile and fit comfortably inside the helmet (run the wires around the back of your neck

The run about $60 on-line.

Kontoboy

[sati8d]

You could always pick up some cigarette butts off the ground - they work too! Back in the day on the firing range.....

[redman]

Yep, gotem then smokem, field-strip em and stickem in. What was the Army thinking?