When I took a class for my motorcycling endorsement, the instructor spent some time talking about hearing loss for bikers. She said that it's not from being exposed to the loud sounds. It's actually from the wind blowing in your ears continuously. She recommended custom fitted earplugs, and said that they would not significantly impair the ability to hear things on the road. There was also literature to back up what she was saying.

With this new bicycle, I can go a lot faster than I did before. The other night, for the first time, I actually heard and felt the wind blowing in my ears while pedaling. I'm obviously not going at motorcycle speeds, but I'm wondering if damage can still be done.

So I'm wondering if should wear earplugs. Does anyone else do this? Has anyone had problems with hearing loss?

Bicycles hardly go faster than 40mph average. You are fine.

https://www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/215186-hearing-loss.html
^^^
A good read

Thanks, AllenG. That was an informative thread.

I think I'm going to try using the earplugs. They were custom-fitted by an ear, nose and throat specialist a few years ago when I keept getting ear infections. They were made to keep water out of my ears in the shower because the doctor theorized that was the source of the infections. Now that I think back, I was also riding my bike alot, and maybe wind in my ears was the real source.

Well I know that my ears are sensitive to the coolness and cold. I find they get cold easily and when the weather is on the transition point I'll often ride to work in coolish weather with shorts and T shirt but with my polarfleece headband under my helmet to keep my ears from getting cool. So there may well be something to your idea about the ear infections.

As for the need for acoustic protection....well.... I think you're just bragging about how fast you can go....

I'd guess that up to around 30 to 35 kph or 20'ish mph the wind you hear won't be enough to do anything. If you're consistently going faster than that then maybe long terms it's not a bad idea to wear them. And it's not just your riding speed. You need to account for riding into headwinds where your road speed plus headwind can end up being up around 50kph/30mph when it adds up on a really blustery day.

As a motorcyclist (over 500 000km) and a commuter (over 20 years) I have this to say.
What?
LOL
Anyway, I have no hearing loss as I almost always wear earplugs riding my motorbikes on long rides.
I have never worn earplugs on my bicycles. Ever.

I only have one word to say to this one, and I can't really say it on the forum; but it starts with "sheee" and ends with "it".

It would be bragging, except for the fact that, in over 20 years, I've never gone fast enough to hear the wind like that...until the other night on my new bike. It was a radically different bicycle experience for me.
...So m a y b e it was a little braggy about the new bike, which would cause most of you guys to chuckle if you saw me on the street.

Still, it's a real concern to me. I strongly value my ability to hear.

A quick Google shows a lot of snake oil salesmen patenting and selling earplugs, but apparently no serious research on wind noise as a problem. It apparently can be a problem for motorcyclists above about 50 - 60 kph, but mainly caused by turbulent airstreams off the windscreen and forward parts of the bodywork hitting the helmet.

Hearing loss also isn't caused by sound pressure level per se but exposure time as well.

As a really rough rule of thumb, if you're getting a buzzing or ringing in your ears, or reduction in hearing (woolly or muffled hearing) which persists for a while after you stop cycling, it might be a problem - if not, don't worry.

Don't confuse ear infections, wax build ups etc. with hearing loss caused by high sound pressure levels.

I think earplugs are a fantastically bad idea. Not as bad as listening to your iPod while riding, but don't you want to hear what's going on around you?

I have never heard of hearing loss due to bike riding, unless it was due to infections or other issues. If this were a major problem, I'd expect TdF riders to have marked hearing loss, but they appear not to.

I ride my motorcycle on the highway with ear plugs all the time. By lowering the wind rushing sound it actually lets me hear the thrum of semi tires (or that jacked up F350 on dirt knobbies) beside me a lot more clearly than if I'm having to try to pick it out through the wind noise.

Using ear plugs can't be compared to stuffing noise making iPod plugs in at all. One lowers the noise level so your ears and brain can better filter for the stuff that you need to hear and the other generates blocking noise all its own in addition to letting the wind noise add to the cacophany.

I put them in today inside my house. I could still hear the air conditioner, but it wasn't as obnoxious. I also tried using them to block out the sound of a railroad and the freeway when I was vacationing in a very bad location. I could still hear everything. Again, not so loud, but I could hear. I also did an experiment years ago (for a class about disabilities) where I wore earplugs for 3 days. I could still hear the whole time, but some of the end consonants of words were a little difficult to make out.

I think the only fear would be those sneaky Pruis's that I keep reading about.

This company has two products that mount on your helmet straps. One deflects the wind the other covers your ears with a space to put headphones. They claim they block the wind noise and allow you to hear music while still being able to hear ambient noise.

https://www.slipstreamz.com/

I used to wear earplugs all the time on the motorcycle. Light, heavily vented race helmet + high speeds = extreme noise.

The sound on a bicycle isn't remotely comparable though, and I've never felt the need to wear them.

--------

and as usual, the safety nannies just can't help but spread the fear...

There's some simple fixes for those

- riding in a straight line
- this complex maneuver that involves turning your head and looking behind you
- a mirror

Every time I've worn earplugs at work, I could hear everything, it was just quieter.

I've had the same concerns about wind noise -- I mean, if I can't hear my own tires or whether the RD is a little out of whack, then that's plenty of constant noise. I'll look for another pair that I can keep on my own and leave the work plugs at work.

For most of my life I have been intently concerned about my hearing. I used to spend a lot of time creating my own music where too-high volume was a temptation. Although I still hear pretty well I do notice (especially when I use stereo headphones) that one ear seems to "hear better" than the other. I carry a pair of the spongy earplugs at the bottom of my fannypack (yes this is what I use to carry my patch kit and an extra tube). The brand is Flents Quiet Time, they are rated at reducing 33 decibels, I paid around $15 for 50 pairs). I use them when I mow the yard, when I take an afternoon nap (I live in a noisy neighborhood), and sometimes at work (when I unload delivery trucks and encounter metal-clanging, from a ram being moved, sometimes dropped, into place, and pallet-jack noise)

On the bicycle I have only used them a few times over the course of several hundred rides, when I found myself riding against unusually strong, and annoying, winds (maybe 20 mph or more) that practically rendered my ears useless as safty devices. These spongy earplugs are designed to be rolled and inserted into the ear (where they expand to fit the shape of the ear canal), this creates maxium (33 db) dampening, when I mow the yard I use them this way. The few times I have used them while cycling I think I just push them into my ears, this way the wind noise was cut down to a degree, but my hearing ability was less dampened. I found in the situations where the headwinds were actually howling in my ears that dampening the wind with earplugs helped me to focus on the ride, and enjoy it a bit better.

as someone studying to be an audiologist, I highly recommend earplugs when riding at high speeds and with any sort of a headwind especially.

There are plenty of styles of plugs that can be fitted by an ENT Specialist that cut decibels, and not frequencies. Those foam ones mainly cut frequencies, and thats why it is harder to hear certain things, like cars.

What have you been hearing () about custom-fit plugs versus inexpensive filtering plugs like Etymotics' ER20s?

Havng been a touring/session musician for alot of years I was told about ear plugs very early on. The person who told me to use them said, "They block out all the low/high frequencies and everything sounds like crap. If you sound good w/earplugs at rehearsal, you'll sound good on stage." He was right. I just kept using ear plugs onstage, too. They DO help one to focus in on what's important, soundwise. My wife, who is a musician, too has trouble hearing high frequency sounds with which I have no trouble. She never used earplugs. I doubt wind noise generated by cycling will affect one's hearing, but I'm going to start wearing those little sponge earplugs, anyway. I value my hearing.

I tried using my Shure isolating earphones on a ride recently. I didn't put them in until I got off the busy streets, and didn't even turn on the iPod for another half hour.

The noise I heard most was still wind noise; I couldn't hear my gears or tires any better than before. But, everything was a lot quieter -- so much quieter that it was actually peaceful. Even crossing the 14th St. bridge wasn't that bad with 60-mph traffic just a few feet away.

I looked around as much as I always do, using my mirror regularly and getting a direct look back before changing lanes and making turns.

To the op. If you ride regularly over 20mph, wear the ear plugs. We have descents around here that'll take you at 45mph. I just wear them all the time.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...7&postcount=31

I rode home with a nist certified extech sound level meter strapped to me last year on the shoulder strap of my bag. It had a muffler over the mic to muffle wind noise but I still recorded an average of 96.2 dbA, low of 58, high of 112 (probably as I passed under the #7 subway track).

You don't realize it, especially if you're hammering away and going fast, but there can be a LOT of wind noise, especially with all the aerodynamic turbulence coming off vented helmets.

WRT to ear plugs, get some from an industrial supply store to dampen noise but still allow certain frequencies through. Their attentuation is not broad spectrum like the expandable foam ones.

And like a dumb@$$, I forgot to wear them again on my ride tonight. Realized it as soon as I hit traffic. I think I'm going to have to put the earplug container in the Camelpack that I've got hooked up to the bike right now.