If that much noise is going into our ears whenever we ride, then as far as I know, that's real damage. My memory might be rusty here, but back when I was studying music and sound engineering one of my teachers said that anything over 80 or 85 dB is causing permanent damage. So if that's correct, even an average of 90 dB on your commute would slowly nick away at your hearing over the long-term.

Yet another reason to wear my ipod with closed ear headphones!

I've been using a PI headband that I pull down over my ears. Can't ride w/o it now; just enough to cut down on the wind noise. Never seemed to need it as a youth, or on the MTB--but I guess (for me) the break point is around 15mph or so.

I'm not sure how good they are, but at home, when I run the mower, I will often just take a corner of Kleenex and use that for earplugs. I haven't tried that on the bike though--I sweat enough that the headband is required for water control.

2 schools of thought on the subject:

1. Most folks don't ride fast enough or long enough to do the kind of damage resulting from wind noise. It would take continuous day-in, day-out heavy wind for years to result in an appreciable loss in most folks. The same way they say saccharin/sugar substitute can cause cancer - it gets everyone upset and worried, and it's not an untruth, but they forget to emphasize that you'd have to drink the equivalent of a small office tower's worth of sugar substitute to approach a cancer-causing level. Unless the bike is permanently attached to you and you're going mach 3 with your hair on fire most of the time, I don't think there's anything to worry about.

2. Earplugs can't hurt. Hearing impaired bike riders do fine - ears are a help, but they're not the only senses that engage when riding. The problem with covering the ears is when you have something like music to get your mind distracted from the task at hand - same phenomenon for car drivers with cell phones. If your hearing is currently good - some noise-dampening plugs aren't likely going to prevent you from relying on your ears as you usually do.

I say this after experiencing a summer of riding with my hearing-impaired mother. She has no hearing whatsoever on the left, not even bone conduction to "sense" reverberation. The right ear gets the wind noise. And she does fine. She spent $2.95 on a mirror that works well for her and attaches to the handlebars as the only "adjustment" she's had to make. She rides her bike like she drives her car - doesn't trust her ears, but looks and preps for what's ahead and to the side before moving.

So - if you really, truly feel like wind noise is bothersome - go for the plugs and ride on less-trafficked paths until you're used to what difference they might make for you. But in terms of more or less safety via using them or not - I don't really think that's an issue if you remain vigilant, as everyone already should be.

Just my $.02

Wrong

I can pause or choose not to pay music any attention any time I want. Music will generally will not enrage me or make me laugh. Music on a bike or car is purely a one way experience. This is vastly different from a cell phone.

I use a single closed-type earbud in my right ear to listen to audiobooks. It blocks the wind noise almost completely. It's not uncommon, especially when there's a headwind, for me to get home and have my left ear be obviously impacted by the wind noise, and the right ear be fine.

Just thinking today about the "fast enough" part --

If I'm riding at an easy 10 mph and have a headwind of another 10 mph, the actual airspeed blowing in my ears is worth 20 mph. That makes a good amount of noise even though I'm not riding that fast.

There seems to be a "perceptive threshold" of sorts where the wind goes from a gentle presence to a genuine impediment. Below a certain windspeed, I can hear everything fine, but with more wind -- whether I'm going faster or the wind blows harder -- I can't hear a thing besides the buffeting in my ears.

I rode around some country roads today before going to work. Unfortunately i forgot my earplugs, as I was gonna do some testing with them, but on one road in particular I got a kinda strong headwind while pedaling at probably around 15-20 mph. Very, very loud on my ears, and they were a bit sore for a good while at work. The actual air rushing into the ears and pushing on the drums really does it.

I wanna test this out more now, particularly with no headwind and just riding at different speeds. I don't have a computer at the moment, unfortunately.

Interesting...seeing how I'm going to bike a lot starting next week, I'll ask my dad about this...he wrote his dissertation on acoustics and sound pollution...

Im gonna stick with my iPod, and the sony MDR-EX71 ear buds.

thanks though.

If motorcyclists are experiencing hearing loss, I wonder if it's from the engine noise rather than wind flutter. I think Motorcycles are the loudest sound I encounter out there. They are even louder than police sirens and some jet engines (I pass by the executive airport). No wait... the police NOTAR helicopter is the loudest thing, then motorcycles and locusts third. I think I'll wear the ear plugs just for those.

Being on a sport bike coasting in 5th at 70mph is all wind noise.

I'm finding that traffic sounds are most obnoxious. Not sure what contributes more to hearing loss--rowdy traffic or wind. I wore earplugs the last time, and the ride was just so much nicer. I could still hear everything, but I didn't have the feeling of impending doom that cars/SUV's normally give me. It actually helped me to be more safe and sane on my ride.

The only noise on a sportbike above 60 mph is wind noise. I've read at higher speeds (100mph+) wind noise can pretty easily exceed 90db depending on your helmet, which is why most sportbike riders (smart ones) wear earplugs.

Wadded up tissue, or toilet paper also works as an earplug in a pinch. I used to do that at concerts when I felt the music was too loud.

Took a couple rides today with Etymotics ER20 earplugs --

Everything was quieter, of course. A little less wind noise than through the Shure earbuds I mentioned back in post #22, and they stayed in place much better.

On the street, there really wasn't much that I could hear that I didn't already see from 20+ yards away. Making lane changes across 40-mph traffic requires me to see farther back than I can hear, so I'm always looking anyway.

On a MUP, again, I didn't hear anything new that I hadn't already seen. The mirror really helps.

Part of the MUP is on a wooden walkway. I could hear the vibrations rumbling in my skull. :D

So far, and, honestly, to my surprise, I'm finding that I prefer earplugs most of the time.

Hachi, I did the wadded-up napkin thing at a dance club in Scotland. It really saved my sanity -- they had bass speakers on the floor that consisted of multiple horn-loaded drivers, with the complete enclosures being a bit taller than me. Felt great, but God, that room was loud. However, when I got outside later, my ears weren't ringing.

I'm still really liking the earplugs. Even if there is no proven benefit to hearing, it just makes for a much nicer ride. The traffic sounds that used to just grate my nerves are dampened. It's just a little louder than what I could hear in my car.

Rearview mirror is a must. It's one of the next things on my agenda.

I already wear phones, so the hearing part is covered, but yes, I'm now looking into mirrors as well. As l33t as it is to look back, a mirror does most of the looking back for you without forcing you to turn around. Now I just need to figure out which one to order.

Just try some, and keep using the ones you like. Most mirror users tend to end up with head-mounted mirrors of some kind, but some still use handlebar or otherwise bike-mounted versions.

The mirror I just got (to stick out of the handlebar) doesn't fit with either of the wedges provided. When I finally get my electric motor (to be installed at the bike shop), I'm going to take the mirror, too. Maybe they will have some kind of wedge that makes it fit.

In the meantime, I just have to turn my head a lot. Guess turning my ears towards the wind is another argument for hearing protection, eh?

I can personally verify what you have said. By 120 mph with a full face helmet, the engine noise is a distant background hum, very faint, compared to the wind noise. You know its there, but you could easily forget about it. I wore ear plugs with a sport bike and full face helmet.

I also experienced a strange phenomenon at even higher speeds. The wind noise seemed to fade away as well, and everything seemed to get quieter. Real quiet, as if I were just floating over the road. I don't know if this was due to air slipstream effect at higher speeds achieved by lying on the tank and getting aerodynamic, or if there was a zen like state of focus achieved that just made me unaware of the noise. But it was very strange to be floating down the road at 160 mph, all quiet and peaceful.

Naturally, I sold the darn crotch rocket becuase I just couldn't keep myself from doing stupid things like going 160 mph on long rural straightaways. And you have to see waaaay down the road for such stupid stunts, the horizon comes up awefully quick! I wasn't worried about anything sneaking up behind me due to earplugs, either. :) The walgreens orange foam earplugs worked well for that kind of loud noise, they would be a bit much noise attenuation for cycling, I think. I also think that wind noise in a motorcycle helmet is the kind of lower frequency noise that decieves you, since it doesn't seem as loud as it is. I never thought about any increased risk of blocking my hearing on a motorcycle becuase cars don't try to share the lane with you like they do when you are on a bicycle, and you could still hear horns and sirens and loud engines .

I just don't get going fast enough or long enough to think I need hearing protection on a bicycle. I find bicycle wind noise to be a bit of a distraction at times, an annoyance I would like to remove, but not a threat to my hearing. I hope I am right about this.

I also know that there are some shotgun shooters that like to listen to music when they shoot. They buy eapplugs that have speakers built in for mp3 players. This way they get hearing protection from the gun noise (> 20db NR), and music.

Yeah, true; that's why I like my ER20s, since they still allow the "s" sounds to come through (I can hear the sound of my hands brushing my shorts, for example).

It probably depends on the surroundings, whether you're pedaling along at 160 mph on a quiet rural road (wait... that was on a motorcycle, not a bicycle... I mean 16 mph ;)) or catching a diesel fume draft from a city bus. A common way to tell if noise is reaching harmful levels is whether or not you'd need to raise your voice to converse with someone -- and yes, it's really that low. Of course, it'll take longer for just-loud-enough-to-be-hurtful noise to do real damage, but if you're cruising with 15-25 mph airspeeds* for three hours, it's going to add up.

(* I said "airspeeds" because road speed is only part of it. If you're riding at 15 mph and have a 15 mph tailwind -- lucky you :p -- you'll have nearly zero wind noise; but when you turn around and you're pushing 15 mph into a 15 mph headwind, you're getting 30 mph's worth of wind noise.)

Ok, I initially didn't give this much thought. Nor did I give motorcycle wind noise much thought until I was beaten over the head with the evidence. An internet search will get you pages and pages of motorcycle wind noise / hearing loss links. I can't find anything that is bicycle wind noise specific on the internet. Is this an unexplored area?

But I did find this, which is sure to elicit some comments:

From http://edu.udym.com/stop-hearing-loss-in-children/

"You can make it a habit to your children to use the earplugs. Earplugs keep the ears protected and safe from the loud noises. See that the child wears the earplugs while riding a bicycle, mowing the lawn or practicing in the school band."

That's right folks. You should be teaching your kids to ride a bicycle with ear plugs right from the start!.

Sarcasm never helps debate.

sorry. I actually found it to be the only reference (in a 45 min internet search) that might support cycling as a danger to your hearing. From the structure of the statement quoted above, bicycling was included with other noisy activites such as lawnmowers and music performances. Lawnmowers and music performances are known to be activities that have sound levels high enough to damage hearing with enough exposure. Because bicycling was mentioned with the other noisy activities, I got the impression that bicycling was not mentioned becuase it was an everyday activity that would make training children easy. To the contrary, I had the impression it was explicitly mentioned because of the noise level involved in bicycling. There was no discussion or references on the above link to support this conclusion. The mention of children wearing hearing protection while bicycling is extremely contrary to popular notions and beliefs, which is why it caught my attention. If adults wearing ear plugs can generate endless debate on BF, what about kids? But if cycling does damage hearing, then it would be appropriate to teach children at an early age to protect it.

Yeah, I see what you mean.

On the other hand, it's coming from a childrearing perspective, and there just aren't many little kids riding over 15-ish mph and/or riding in traffic. When I was a kid, it took me a while before I even got fast enough to hear wind noise. To me, then, calling for hearing protection for kids, and considering how & where they often are riding, is over the top, bordering on playground leashes.

I'm in a fairly large, loud music ensemble, and whenever we rehearse or perform indoors, I use hearing protection. It's not much louder than standing next to a bus at idle, so yeah, I prefer some protection while riding, too.

What I think it comes down to is that our ears were not designed/did not evolve to operate in a high-noise environment. Basically, anything that makes normal conversation difficult will, cumulatively, add some damage.

Here's a small comparison chart. I think that the numbers for cars & diesel trucks are from driving past at speed, but they're still loud enough at urban speeds, especially since they accelerate so often.