EARS COME IN ALL SIZES AND SHAPES!
Most of us have a pair and they are not a matching set, close but no cigar. Some ears are Extra Large and some are tiny, then there’s the average size and I hope I fall in that catoregory. Most ears are like side scoops on your head, some are swept back like a baloney cut exhaust pipe. The worst ones are the ones that stick out like air brakes on an F15- fighter jet. The point here is that no matter what size or type of ears you have we are all subjected to noise pollution, especially when we ride. The most dominating noise I hear while I ride is my pipes (or the person riding next to me as well) and the wind. The wind noise I hear then dominates the noise my pipes make when I hit a certain speed. The pipes sure make a sweet noise and I tolerate them easily, but the wind creeps up and the sweet sound is drowned out, bummer.
There are many styles of helmets, from novelties to, high cut, low cut, full face, and what ever you can get away with, hmmm NO HELMETS! Most helmets we choose don’t offer any protection for your ears, but some offer somewhat low rating protection (just because they cover your ears). We get certain types of helmets for various reasons, we want to look cool, or we don’t like the confinement, it doesn’t matter because we all have different opinions anyway. Besides we want to look as cool as our bikes are, right! Then there’s the geek looking type of helmet that we would never be caught wearing, usually seen on people riding them goldwingers. The full face helmet probably offers you the best protection as far as the noise levels are when your riding, the only setback about this is that your head weighs five pounds more and grew in size 15%, this is not a fact, just an observation, it could be more, pending on the size of your head. We should never rely on any helmet for ear protection, even though some offer more than others it’s still not an excuse to not have any type of protection as you will read more of this article.
Have you ever been to some type of motorcycle event, and you see multitudes of bikers and their passengers that don’t use ear protection? The number that don’t will surprise you, you included! Have you ever wondered, what is their excuse for not having any type of ear protection? When you think about it, there is not that many choices to make to protect you’re hearing. Check this out, the pipes on your bike are loud let’s say, but when you pass the 35 miles per hour speed, the wind noise starts dominating your ears, the speed is approximate but if you need to confirm this then get on your bike and test it out. This may differ because not all of us have the same hearing and some may already have some hearing loss, but do this see for yourself.
Think about this. You were riding your bike all day, maybe stopping here or there for some refreshments etc. and you decide to go home, you ride from let’s say a gentle cruise then to breakneck speeds, the sensation of riding and the speed in which you travel has your adrenaline pumped, you get home in record time, you’ve left your buds behind eating your dust and you get into your pad and it’s all quiet, except the noise you now hear, is it a buzzing or ringing sound? It’s not the phone or doorbell, hears a hint, it’s inside your skull, maybe on both sides. I would say with confidence that most people have experienced this phenom; it’s called TTS, TEMPORARY THRESHOLD SHIFT. This is a temporary shift in your hearing due to overexposure to loud noise.
Do you remember this experience or are you still doing this. I remember going to a rock concert in my youth and after enjoying the loud music I would be half deaf and my ears were ringing as I left, do you remember that! It would eventually go away and I probably escaped damaging my ears permanently because I did it once in a great while, if I did this say every other day I would probably be deaf right now (right Peter the Who…). I will gamble and say we all did this before, that effect is the same sensation as riding without ear protection. If you ride most of the time and you don’t have any type of ear protection you will start to see this Temporary Shift become a permanent one with the unpleasant side effect of a constant ringing or the good ole’ buzzing of the ears. This condition is usually related to the beginning of hearing loss and I’ll tell you like all Doctors would say “It’s not a good thing”. For me I don’t want to wear a hearing aid just to hear my pipes blastin that sweet sound only a Harley makes, do you?
Is the ear just another Organ in the body? Is it an Organ that you’re only concerned with, when it troubles you? We are just humans and we don’t care about something unless it becomes a problem i.e. Tooth-ache, major gas, dysfunction, and ear ache! Okay, check this out! You wear eye protection because you don’t want to loose your eye or eyes, right! With all the cool looking shades (prescription even) you want to look just as cool as you ride your bike, God forbid if you loose an eye or eyes, it makes it real hard to ride as far as I know, but you’ll do whatever it takes to protect them, right? Just think about losing 50% of your hearing, maybe more or less, it doesn’t matter if you know you lost some of your hearing, what would you do? Maybe cry like a girl with wet hair 15 minutes before the prom! Hearing loss is permanent, once it’s gone you’ll be wearing a hearing aid or you will be going around and saying, EH… Say what… can you speak louder, I can’t hear you!
This is what we need to protect, both of them for most of you, don’t you want to hear your nagging wife or husband let alone the whining little brats that you may have. Remember, constant exposure to loud noises is one of the leading causes of hearing loss. The tiny hair cells in the inner ear, the ones that convert sound to the electrical impulses that are sent via the auditory nerve to the brain, are permanently damaged by loud sounds, i.e. loud pipes, wind or the constant nagging of you know who. One of the most important facts about hearing loss is that it is a gradual thing, excluding a freakish accident. As we get older and have been riding for years our hearing is not as good as it was in our youth, you’ll know when you see the volume level on your TV, you’ll freak out because your almost maxed out or worse when your spouse tells you why is the TV on so loud and you say, EH… Say what?….!!!
So you need protection? You don’t need a Trojan or Vito from the mafia. What you need is the good old fashion earplug or earplugs, for you that have more than one ear and less than three. There are so many types of earplugs and the cost ranges are from pennies to shall we say triple digits (choke!). If you’re really desperate you could use cigarette butts (something I learned in the Army), I recommend the ones with filters, but take out the tobacco first and most important, make sure it’s not still smoking, this could be embarrassing. First of all, you have the cheap foam ear plugs and I do mean they’re cheap! They are okay but it feels like I’m stuffing a marshmallow in my ears and they seam to work themselves out while riding. You can gravitate to the next level (around $20 bucks) and buy nice earplugs from a music store, that’s where I got mine, being a hard core rocker at the time, my ears were ringing after every band practice and I couldn’t hear myself think! I shopped until I found an earplug that lets you hear everything but also protected your hearing abilities.
These little earplugs have a filter in them or as the so called bar-room scientists call them, mufflers. The next level of earplugs are the silicone molded earplugs, I’m sure most of you have seen the multitudes of ads out there, I’ve seen these companies at events and will make them for you on the spot (approx. $30 bucks and up), how cool is that! And for a few bucks more, probably a lot more, you can have molded silicone in the ear monitor earplugs, the cream of the crop, especially if you have a killer stereo on your bike. You have to be more than smart when your wearing any type of ear protection, you can’t relax, thinking all is good because you’ve conquered one problem, stuff happens and maybe a certain noise you need to hear can prevent an accident or major motorcycle related problems, have you ever seen, all of a sudden, a trail of smoke coming out your back end, it will freak you out and I’m not talking about your butt! You don’t want to be rocking and rolling thru an intersection and can’t hear the siren from a 30 ton fire truck thinking it’s safe to cross, do you?
Do you know what NRR is? The answer is “NOISE REDUCTION RATING”. What does this mean? Do I have to stick my fingers in my ears? Will I go blind? The answer is maybe…. All earplugs have a rating for reduction of noise to your ears, you have to figure out what works for you because you might have a wind shield or a faring setup or a full face helmet, so you might not want an earplug with a high rate of noise reduction, therefore shop around and get what’s comfortable for you. Most companies that sell earplugs have web sites that offer information about their products, check them all out if you can and compare them to one another. You might end up buying a couple of sets before liking the one you picked up last. You may have multiple sets for different types of riding situations. It’s good to have a back up set in case you loose yours, or maybe someone you know doesn’t wear them and you want to tell them you have a set they could have, the cheap ones of course!
Just remember: There are many types of earplugs out there and the costs are practically free to big bucks. It’s what you want that counts, because everyone is different and may have their own philosophy about hearing loss, being protected is what counts the most. You have to make a conscious effort in doing this; it should be as standard as putting on a helmet. If you think it’s macho, egotistical and or are worried that some people would laugh at you, well, at least you’ll be able to hear them! A little side note on re-usable earplugs, keep them clean, always wash them according to their instructions. If you see the ear scum on your plugs, wash them, ear poop happens! You don’t want to push dirt or ear poop back into your ear canal, you don’t want to risk the chance of an ear infection, and if you ever had an ear infection you’ll know. Just remember earplugs help to reduce the permanent effects of hearing loss. To all you older people, this is not a younger generation thing, the sooner you start protecting you ears, the longer you’ll be able to hear more. It is better to be safe than sorry and I’ll tell you, when you get older down the road and used earplugs you’ll be happy when you don’t have to say, EH…. Say what?… can you speak up I’m hard of hearing.
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