Originally Posted by BarracksSi

I'm not expecting anything new in this thread, so I decided to just quote a post from the first page...



I mentioned it in another thread, but a rider doesn't need to be traveling at 20 mph to get that amount of wind noise. Going 10 mph into a 10 mph headwind gives you an airspeed of 20 mph; same with all the gusts & crosswinds. The quietest riding is when you get a tailwind.

I decided to try some ER20 earplugs (no music, just plugs) that I got at work, and I was really surprised. The ride itself was a lot more peaceful, and I don't remember being surprised by anything that I hadn't already seen in my mirror or by looking around.

If I change lanes, it's usually behind a cluster of vehicles, and I'm trying to not swerve in front of any stragglers that are twenty or thirty yards back. I will never be able to hear them, however, because the cluster is making a lot of noise already, masking anything that's behind me.

So, I figured that since my ears are pretty useless in traffic anyway, it's not a problem if I try to keep the noise down.

Even unimpeded, I don't think that we can trust our ears enough, especially since our lives depend on not getting hit by anything. We should always do a visual check.