Gyrobob
Serious Thumper
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Posers ain't motorcyclists
Posts: 2571
Newnan, GA
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bill67 wrote on 06/06/12 at 07:22:05:I've never road with ear plugs,How do you here whats going on around you. You hear a lot better with earplugs.
-- Without ear plugs, the wind noise (and the exhaust noise for the "my straight pipes prove I am manly" crowd) is deafening. This drowns out a lot of the noises you really do want to hear,.. such as engine noises that weren't there before, or cages sneaking up on you, or emergency vehicle noise, or,.... in some cases, the person on the back.
-- With ear plugs, the volume of everything is reduced to a safer, and more listenable level. All the noises are still there. All those noises can now be heard more easily.
-- Generally the foam earplugs reduce wind noise frequencies more than the other frequencies. They act somewhat like a notch filter, allowing the sounds you DO want to hear to pass through more easily.
-- Having lost a lot of hearing from flying jets and not using earplugs for part of it, I am quite sensitive saving all the hearing I can. Riding motorcyles at highway speeds w/o earplugs creates decibel levels that cause permanent damage.
One warning with the foam filters, though,.. they must be inserted all the way in or you leave an acoustic volume inside the ear canal that can seem to amplify certain frequency ranges and make things worse. It makes me laugh when I see people shooting on some of the gun shows that have foam earplugs inserted about a 1/4" with most of the earplug outside. One good test is to roll them up, shove them all the way in, wait for a minute to let them expand, then snap your fingers up close to your ear. If you can barely hear it, it worked. Otherwise, do it again. If you have to try a few times to get them out, because they are in so far, that is about right.
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