3M foam ear plugs any time I ride. Back in the 70s I rode a naked CB750 2,000+ extremely noisy miles and I remember making a point of wearing ear plugs ever since.. The plugs are a hassle when doing group rides because I have to struggle to hear when someone wants to say something after I get them in. On the flip side, it is a pleasure when I take them out and everything sounds super perfect. When I was in the military we were required to wear ear plugs under our flight helmets so that is where I got the idea to start with. I have no problem hearing my Cardo with the ear plugs in.. I just crank up the volume and it is fine.
Nice video's. I rode cross country from PA to AZ and juggled back and forth between my ear plugs and ear buds from my MP3 player. I agree, it does eliminate the constant pounding of wind, however, I never really felt the need to wear them around town or short highway bursts of 80 mph. I totally agree with wearing them for hours of interstate work of sustained speeds over 60. I purchased a bag of the cheapest, foam earplugs I could find and they work wonders. I keep a pair scattered around in my jacket, riding pants, storage box, etc. (2005, FJR 1300)
Firstly thanks for taking the time and effort to post your results. I've ridden all types, shapes and sizes of bikes...naked, full faired and everything in between. No respect to you, or anyone else in the motorcycling community, but my primary reference for wearing healing protection while riding is...my doctor. Your doctor will give you all the same advice. "Wearing hearing protection while riding a motorcycle is a bad Idea"...said no one with a medical degree ever. Gunfire took a good portion of the hearing in my right ear (no, the Military of the 70's and 80's did NOT encourage the use of hearing protection except on the ranges.) ...anyhoo, I do my very best to safeguard my remaining hearing. I have gone through a sh*load of plugs..cheap...not so cheap, soft, silicone, expandable, and now....moldable reusable ones that do not go into the ear canal. I'm still evaluating them, and not confidant they are any better than the soft expandable disposable ones, but its all how you mold them, so now the rain has stopped I'll be doing further evals. I had no complaints with the soft disposable ones...easy in and out, expanded gently to mold to the ear canal...but here is the rub..pun intended I suppose...the Doc says long usage can lead to ear infections..nasty painful ones...that can damage your ears. Now for most riders do not ride every single day 9 months out of the year...ok...some in warmer climes do, but I live in the great white north, so part of the year is allowed for snowmobiles ;-) I do ride every day, and put plugs in every day...because doc says...right? But! If you do not do as instructed, and turf them after every ride, you risk aforementioned ear infections. We, as men, are just not hardwired to throw stuff away. So we tend to find ways to reuse and recycle stuff. We think washing earplugs will do the sanitation trick...apparently not...as I sadly discovered. I washed mine religiously with antibacterial soap and war water. ...again..stupid doc...says medical grade alcohol wipes/solution only to kill all the germs. Anyway, just be aware of the ear infection thing. Oh...and also be aware that plugs trap moisture in there, so keep 'em dry, and never EVER use q-tips...thats a whole other "keeping your aural radars safe." episode lol. Again, thanks for the video, and sorry about the long-winded post, but I was just doing my own research into ear protection and health based on my experiences :-)
Great video Bryan, thorough as ever. In the 21 years that I have been a biker, I never wore earplugs until around 2012 when I decided to invest in a pair of custom made ones. I wear the Shoei Neotec flip type helmet now but most of the years I wore a full face lid which are much less prone to wind noise. I now suffer from tinnitus and after a long ride that included high speed motorway riding, my tinnitus is much worse. I think it's sonic noise rather than actual wind noise that causes the hearing damage on our type of motorcycles meaning that even with earplugs, hearing damage will take place. Just a thought?
+Biker Paul I have tinnitus also,but the day I notice that it gets worse by driving motorcycles,I stop riding them immediatly!Living without a bike is like shit,but living with hard tinitus is a hell!!!
+Bart Ingels My goodness, what a hard decision that must have been! I cannot stand to thought of not riding. My tinnitus is obviously much less severe than yours. Hopefully continuing to ride now with earplugs will mean that the condition won't worsen.
Very good and informative video. I always wear foam earplugs as they block the most noise. They are more fiddly than the expensive earmolds but worth the effort. One thing about earmolds is, your ear canal changes its shape with fluctuations in your weight. Therefore if you drop a few pounds your ear canal gets wider and the earmolds loosen. Plus, earmolds wear out over time and they are spendy to buy and replace. I thought I'd try earmolds and thought they would be magic. They were not. They were noisier than foam plugs. I returned them and haven't looked back.
I wear a Shubert helmet & when wind noise gets up I raise my fairing which puts the wind over my head & quietens wind noise.My fairing when up does not affect my bikes handling. I will try ear plugs & see if it is beneficial to me. Thanks for your research.Beemer rider RT.
Older video but very relevant. I also ride FJR 1300 and at 6.2 I am sitting high, I found this ride very loud ( mostly wind and at high speeds the "screeching" engine sound - typical Yamaha sawing machine) . I have tried few windshields to lower the noise level and I am riding now with tall VStream . I hate the look and it does change to bike handling , but with upper position ( I am looking thru the screen ) and visor down it is fairly quiet ride. Anything else it is loud. Good helmet is critical and I away wear ear plugs
Why can't helmet makers develop an air bladder ear cushion for their helmets? I would guess that they will tell you that it would affect the crash ability ratings. But anyway it would make all helmets quiet. I use triple flange ear plugs that are hooked up to music.
I'm glad I'm not the only one giving this thought. I'm considering a new windshield for my Yamaha V Star Classic. I do a lot of highway riding and always wondered about damaging my hearing from prolonged riding with the wind noise. Thats a awesome touring screen you have on your bike Brian.
I am guessing ear plugs is only real way to quiet sound down then? looking at kit car even though bigger wind screen came here to see what volume be as closest I could find
Thank you so much for this work. I've just bought my FJR and am looking to get the touring screen. I wonder what the difference will be between helmets. I currently have the HJC IS-Max 2 to protect my face from trouble. Is there an android version of this app? I'd love to give it a try from here.
I also wear earplugs when I go drive my MX5 on the interstate for more than 2 hours... Now some people will argue against wearing earplugs because they will not be able to hear their music from their fairing speakers...
Anyone there to respond still? this thread is still very relevant. Great video, I did similar research and found I was loosing my hearing on extended rides ...and after years of riding. My ear plugs slipped out during a long freeway ride, in the heat, for sure did not want to pull over and remove my helmet just to adjust the ear plug...found a 'non-earplug' solution that works well and tested out myself :Quiet Ride Helmet', it allows me to control how much noise etc...pretty cool and it works well. Heard of it?
As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating!" I use ear plugs on my half, 3/4 & RF1000 (which I have replaced) helmets. Due to my ear canals being rather narrow and misshapen, I ended up getting the injection molded type from Big Ear at a trade show about 7 years ago. I have since gotten another pair from a different vendor recently. Although they are difficult to insert initially, I now have it down and they are easy to use. My most recent helmet, the Schubert C3Pro, is super quiet at all speeds so I don't always use my ear plugs with that one, only if I know I'll be doing high speed rides for a long distance. Unfortunately, a lot of my riding buddies use no ear protection here in California where helmets are required. Interesting tests you did, thanks for confirming my suspicions that not using ear protection would lead to hearing loss sooner rather than later.
Over here in Holland a respected motorcycle magazine did some real lab tests with all types of "quite" helmets. End conclusion: None of them would protect your hearing really good. Their advise is to always wear good earplugs, no matter what. I just bought my second set. This time with ceramic filters. It is said that these special filters filter out the wind noise and not speech. Lets see if that is true.
Thanks for the input Dutch Scooter Guy. The C3Pro is pretty quiet but again, I do use ear plugs at highway speeds. Would be interested to hear (get it?) how the ceramic filters work and if they were worth the cost.
Nice video, however, I don't understand why would having the visor UP (that is, open) would be quieter than having the visor down (closed). Any theories?
buffeting = SPL would be my guess. Visor open prob lowers pressure/ reverb the mic picks up in helmet but I doubt the results would be similar w/out the large Windscreen. My comm causes it in my Rpha-11 even after I swapped from the Bold to a new PT Slim. Hence, why I'm watching this vid & reading comments from Yrs ago looking for the best solution since the Rec'd Surefires arent avail in my size
Looking forward to seeing your imput-but on my end the words I'm hearing are matching up with the lip movements I'm seeing. For some reason this drives me batty and so I can't finish.
Those are really big increases in dB between 60mph and 80mph, even with a stock screen. Even riding at 45mph without earplugs is uncomfortable. Ears are very sensitive organs.
I have a couple cheap helmets and a "naked" bike. Noise is just Unbearable and silicon molded plugs are not an option. I molded my own by counter molding the company provided ear plugs. The process is simple : make a mold using candles wax in a small glass and a couple toothpicks, after cooling and removing the original, just inject some engine sealant silicon caulk..., let it dry a couple days in the wax, they place mold and new earplugs in boiling water to remove wax. Handle with care the new plugs as they may still need a few more days in open air to completely cure. Rub any remaining wax, put in your ears...and trim any excess. So they are copies, but they are smaller (no fancy forms protruding out of ear and interfering with the helmets linings) and they are 100% closed (no fancy sound filters). The result is nearly perfect in terms of comfort and noise attenuation. Only a bit hard to remove from the ears... Riding without is not an option...
Funny, I never wore Ear Plugs before on my GOLDWING with a Tulsa Windshield. very quiet with full face HJC Shield Up.. but know I have a 2016 ZX14R SE. with a Shoei X12 helmet. fullface. ride with Shield down all the time. very loud Wind Noise. So I Do wear Earplugs Now. while riding. lol
If this iPhone gauge is indeed accurate, this is very interesting as 90db at a sustained level causes hearing damage. I would not have guessed that is was that loud. Then if you add music over your helmet audio system, you are even louder yet. Can you say tinnitus?
NBBrad depends how long you are exposed to the level of sound to curse permanent damage. www.ultimateear.com/how-it-works.php according to them you can be exposed to 90db for 8 hours before permanent damage and 95db for 4 hours.
I HATE EAR PLUGS!!! THIS VIDEO SOUND IS SCREWED UP, TOO LOW! Seriously I can’t ride without ear plugs, only issue I have that I have to blast my sena to hear music. Looking for a good balance in music vs.sound protection. Good Video! Thanks
Modern helmets are just louder than old full face helmets from the 20th cen. Modern ones $600 or $100 use more EPS and less foam at the ears. The EPS of the Ear to Jaw is typically not even glued in. It vibrates and there is a big round hollow spot behind the EPS at the ear. That causes the echo chamber that magnifies wind noise. Why a loose jaw and voids behind the ear??? so they can use the same basic helmet to fit expensive speakers and sound systems into. I just put acoustic foam in the empty and meaningless cavity and... voilà, wind noise dropped in half. I also glued in the jaw form as it should have been by the assembler. That dropped all the chatter and vibration noise. Modern helmets are very cheaply manufactured. Cheap and quick assembly with lots of gaffers tape and injection out of sight. Thus they are noisy echo chambers.
TwoWheelObsession. Possibly, but I've tapped on quite a few in the dealership (that by price aren't pretending to be cheap) and most have that cavity at the ear between the styro and the shell. Tugging a bit on the chin most seem to wiggle. They shouldn't wiggle or squeek/creak AT ALL, but SHARP/SNELL won't count that against them as long as they pass the various impact tests with the melon sensor in there like your head. A scorpion helmet I had personally for passengers allowed me to just yank out the entire chin piece and the upholstery was pretty badly spray glued and taped in place. Tap around the chin strap opening and see if they cupped out the EPS a bit too much. Space for the strap to come through is one thing but a two or three inch round cavity is obviously to hold a speaker in other models. 20th cen helmets sporting motorcycle name brands had true upholstery, laid up glass shells, proper stitching and attention to detail I'm not seeing in the splashy decaled/trash builds I see from the world reshaped by China. Too many riders today are just gear junkies. Due to that, the mfgs throw out bulk over quality and try to lure you into buying 10 items till you find the perfect one.
TwoWheelObsession. My club took apart a damaged shoei (recent build) and it too was pretty poor by comparison to 1980 builds of the past labeled Yamaha and Honda (lord knows who actually built those). Better than a Scorpion but not by that much. Some Scorpions sport a $500 ++ price tag. Loved the crazy Russians beating helmets with an iron bar and watching most come apart. Best test I ever saw. I get it, fancy electric windshields, bar charts, computer analysis, to say Wear Earplugs with full face helmets. Earplugs cost 10cents anyone can try them on their own for pennies. I can see you are a gear junkie. Hey if it makes you happy. There are many moto gear junkies on RUclips. However, advice on any gear. Best gear is free. Riding skill and minimizing distractions. Best way to be safe is complete mastery of your machine, knowing your limits, avoiding crazy situations (and crazy riding companions). That you can control and the rest, including gear, is faith in others. I do, of course wear a helmet, jacket sturdy riding brogans and sturdy pants with knee and butt protection inside. Done. I'll but some more about every five years as they get aged. Peace Out !
As you know, all helmets are not built the same! The more exspensive ones usually dampen noise much better than cheaper ones. So unless you test helmets first before doing this test, it's basically irrelevant to most riders! If viewers are really intertested in lowering wind, general noise, watch the helmet tests on other videos, they will give you better info than this one!
3M foam ear plugs any time I ride. Back in the 70s I rode a naked CB750 2,000+ extremely noisy miles and I remember making a point of wearing ear plugs ever since..
The plugs are a hassle when doing group rides because I have to struggle to hear when someone wants to say something after I get them in. On the flip side, it is a pleasure when I take them out and everything sounds super perfect.
When I was in the military we were required to wear ear plugs under our flight helmets so that is where I got the idea to start with. I have no problem hearing my Cardo with the ear plugs in.. I just crank up the volume and it is fine.
Nice video's. I rode cross country from PA to AZ and juggled back and forth between my ear plugs and ear buds from my MP3 player. I agree, it does eliminate the constant pounding of wind, however, I never really felt the need to wear them around town or short highway bursts of 80 mph. I totally agree with wearing them for hours of interstate work of sustained speeds over 60. I purchased a bag of the cheapest, foam earplugs I could find and they work wonders. I keep a pair scattered around in my jacket, riding pants, storage box, etc. (2005, FJR 1300)
Wow, real eye opener...never would have thought those levels would have been so high. Thanks!
I leave mine in so the nagging isn't quite so loud when I get home after a peaceful ride.
I use ear plugs all the time. Literally will not ride without them.
dougk35 - I got myself molded earplugs. A recommend this to anyone!
Firstly thanks for taking the time and effort to post your results.
I've ridden all types, shapes and sizes of bikes...naked, full faired and everything in between.
No respect to you, or anyone else in the motorcycling community, but my primary reference for wearing healing protection while riding is...my doctor. Your doctor will give you all the same advice. "Wearing hearing protection while riding a motorcycle is a bad Idea"...said no one with a medical degree ever. Gunfire took a good portion of the hearing in my right ear (no, the Military of the 70's and 80's did NOT encourage the use of hearing protection except on the ranges.) ...anyhoo, I do my very best to safeguard my remaining hearing.
I have gone through a sh*load of plugs..cheap...not so cheap, soft, silicone, expandable, and now....moldable reusable ones that do not go into the ear canal. I'm still evaluating them, and not confidant they are any better than the soft expandable disposable ones, but its all how you mold them, so now the rain has stopped I'll be doing further evals. I had no complaints with the soft disposable ones...easy in and out, expanded gently to mold to the ear canal...but here is the rub..pun intended I suppose...the Doc says long usage can lead to ear infections..nasty painful ones...that can damage your ears. Now for most riders do not ride every single day 9 months out of the year...ok...some in warmer climes do, but I live in the great white north, so part of the year is allowed for snowmobiles ;-) I do ride every day, and put plugs in every day...because doc says...right? But! If you do not do as instructed, and turf them after every ride, you risk aforementioned ear infections. We, as men, are just not hardwired to throw stuff away. So we tend to find ways to reuse and recycle stuff. We think washing earplugs will do the sanitation trick...apparently not...as I sadly discovered. I washed mine religiously with antibacterial soap and war water. ...again..stupid doc...says medical grade alcohol wipes/solution only to kill all the germs. Anyway, just be aware of the ear infection thing. Oh...and also be aware that plugs trap moisture in there, so keep 'em dry, and never EVER use q-tips...thats a whole other "keeping your aural radars safe." episode lol.
Again, thanks for the video, and sorry about the long-winded post, but I was just doing my own research into ear protection and health based on my experiences :-)
Thanx for the info kind sir!
Great video Bryan, thorough as ever. In the 21 years that I have been a biker, I never wore earplugs until around 2012 when I decided to invest in a pair of custom made ones. I wear the Shoei Neotec flip type helmet now but most of the years I wore a full face lid which are much less prone to wind noise. I now suffer from tinnitus and after a long ride that included high speed motorway riding, my tinnitus is much worse. I think it's sonic noise rather than actual wind noise that causes the hearing damage on our type of motorcycles meaning that even with earplugs, hearing damage will take place. Just a thought?
+Biker Paul I have tinnitus also,but the day I notice that it gets worse by driving motorcycles,I stop riding them immediatly!Living without a bike is like shit,but living with hard tinitus is a hell!!!
+Bart Ingels My goodness, what a hard decision that must have been! I cannot stand to thought of not riding. My tinnitus is obviously much less severe than yours. Hopefully continuing to ride now with earplugs will mean that the condition won't worsen.
Mine is acceptable also,but it really can't get any louder than this!
Very good and informative video.
I always wear foam earplugs as they block the most noise.
They are more fiddly than the expensive earmolds but worth the effort.
One thing about earmolds is, your ear canal changes its shape with fluctuations in your weight. Therefore if you drop a few pounds your ear canal gets wider and the earmolds loosen. Plus, earmolds wear out over time and they are spendy to buy and replace.
I thought I'd try earmolds and thought they would be magic. They were not. They were noisier than foam plugs.
I returned them and haven't looked back.
anything over 85 decibels for any length of time and it is a concern, at the very least it wears you down which can lead to mistakes.
I wear a Shubert helmet & when wind noise gets up I raise my fairing which puts the wind over my head & quietens wind noise.My fairing when up does not affect my bikes handling. I will try ear plugs & see if it is beneficial to me. Thanks for your research.Beemer rider RT.
Older video but very relevant. I also ride FJR 1300 and at 6.2 I am sitting high, I found this ride very loud ( mostly wind and at high speeds the "screeching" engine sound - typical Yamaha sawing machine) . I have tried few windshields to lower the noise level and I am riding now with tall VStream . I hate the look and it does change to bike handling , but with upper position ( I am looking thru the screen ) and visor down it is fairly quiet ride. Anything else it is loud. Good helmet is critical and I away wear ear plugs
Why can't helmet makers develop an air bladder ear cushion for their helmets? I would guess that they will tell you that it would affect the crash ability ratings. But anyway it would make all helmets quiet. I use triple flange ear plugs that are hooked up to music.
I'm glad I'm not the only one giving this thought. I'm considering a new windshield for my Yamaha V Star Classic. I do a lot of highway riding and always wondered about damaging my hearing from prolonged riding with the wind noise. Thats a awesome touring screen you have on your bike Brian.
I am guessing ear plugs is only real way to quiet sound down then? looking at kit car even though bigger wind screen came here to see what volume be as closest I could find
Brian, just wanted to leave a thanks for doing this video. Very informative and useful information and it is appreciated.
Excellent information. Thanks for taking the time to compile. I use always earbuds.
It just feels wrong without them.
I watched your review on the Surfire EP7 earplugs, I picked up a pair and they are amazing, made the ride feel even better.
Wow. I am impressed with all that info.Never used ear plugs apart from firing range. Certainly did not realise that much.Great vid Bryan thanks.
Not what I expected. Thanks for the video
Thank you so much for this work. I've just bought my FJR and am looking to get the touring screen. I wonder what the difference will be between helmets. I currently have the HJC IS-Max 2 to protect my face from trouble. Is there an android version of this app? I'd love to give it a try from here.
I also wear earplugs when I go drive my MX5 on the interstate for more than 2 hours...
Now some people will argue against wearing earplugs because they will not be able to hear their music from their fairing speakers...
Anyone there to respond still? this thread is still very relevant.
Great video, I did similar research and found I was loosing my hearing on extended rides ...and after years of riding.
My ear plugs slipped out during a long freeway ride, in the heat, for sure did not want to pull over and remove my helmet just to adjust the ear plug...found a 'non-earplug' solution that works well and tested out myself :Quiet Ride Helmet', it allows me to control how much noise etc...pretty cool and it works well. Heard of it?
As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating!" I use ear plugs on my half, 3/4 & RF1000 (which I have replaced) helmets. Due to my ear canals being rather narrow and misshapen, I ended up getting the injection molded type from Big Ear at a trade show about 7 years ago. I have since gotten another pair from a different vendor recently. Although they are difficult to insert initially, I now have it down and they are easy to use. My most recent helmet, the Schubert C3Pro, is super quiet at all speeds so I don't always use my ear plugs with that one, only if I know I'll be doing high speed rides for a long distance. Unfortunately, a lot of my riding buddies use no ear protection here in California where helmets are required. Interesting tests you did, thanks for confirming my suspicions that not using ear protection would lead to hearing loss sooner rather than later.
Over here in Holland a respected motorcycle magazine did some real lab tests with all types of "quite" helmets. End conclusion: None of them would protect your hearing really good. Their advise is to always wear good earplugs, no matter what.
I just bought my second set. This time with ceramic filters. It is said that these special filters filter out the wind noise and not speech. Lets see if that is true.
Thanks for the input Dutch Scooter Guy. The C3Pro is pretty quiet but again, I do use ear plugs at highway speeds. Would be interested to hear (get it?) how the ceramic filters work and if they were worth the cost.
may i ask what helmet brand/ make/ model do you use , please?? other than that gr8 video and awesome bike...
Nice video, however, I don't understand why would having the visor UP (that is, open) would be quieter than having the visor down (closed). Any theories?
buffeting = SPL would be my guess. Visor open prob lowers pressure/ reverb the mic picks up in helmet but I doubt the results would be similar w/out the large Windscreen. My comm causes it in my Rpha-11 even after I swapped from the Bold to a new PT Slim. Hence, why I'm watching this vid & reading comments from Yrs ago looking for the best solution since the Rec'd Surefires arent avail in my size
Looking forward to seeing your imput-but on my end the words I'm hearing are matching up with the lip movements I'm seeing. For some reason this drives me batty and so I can't finish.
Plays fine here so it's not the file. Try clearing your temp files.
Those are really big increases in dB between 60mph and 80mph, even with a stock screen.
Even riding at 45mph without earplugs is uncomfortable. Ears are very sensitive organs.
CLOOOOOOOOSEUUUUUUP! whoah...
also it depends a lot on the helmet you wear. but thanks for sharing this. ride safe.
I use them 99.9% of the time. Actually just bought new ones(didn't work as well as expected so had to buy another brand).
Great topic, and interesting results so far. Would not have thought that the decibel level was going to be as high
as you recorded. Ear plugs for me !
I have a couple cheap helmets and a "naked" bike. Noise is just Unbearable and silicon molded plugs are not an option. I molded my own by counter molding the company provided ear plugs. The process is simple : make a mold using candles wax in a small glass and a couple toothpicks, after cooling and removing the original, just inject some engine sealant silicon caulk..., let it dry a couple days in the wax, they place mold and new earplugs in boiling water to remove wax. Handle with care the new plugs as they may still need a few more days in open air to completely cure. Rub any remaining wax, put in your ears...and trim any excess.
So they are copies, but they are smaller (no fancy forms protruding out of ear and interfering with the helmets linings) and they are 100% closed (no fancy sound filters). The result is nearly perfect in terms of comfort and noise attenuation. Only a bit hard to remove from the ears...
Riding without is not an option...
Funny, I never wore Ear Plugs before on my GOLDWING with a Tulsa Windshield. very quiet with full face HJC Shield Up.. but know I have a 2016 ZX14R SE. with a Shoei X12 helmet. fullface. ride with Shield down all the time. very loud Wind Noise. So I Do wear Earplugs Now. while riding. lol
Always wear them, bought 200 pair of disposable ones online...
72bunk just get reusable ones, cheaper and sometimes cuts down more noise.
If this iPhone gauge is indeed accurate, this is very interesting as 90db at a sustained level causes hearing damage. I would not have guessed that is was that loud. Then if you add music over your helmet audio system, you are even louder yet. Can you say tinnitus?
NBBrad depends how long you are exposed to the level of sound to curse permanent damage.
www.ultimateear.com/how-it-works.php
according to them you can be exposed to 90db for 8 hours before permanent damage and 95db for 4 hours.
I HATE EAR PLUGS!!! THIS VIDEO SOUND IS SCREWED UP, TOO LOW! Seriously I can’t ride without ear plugs, only issue I have that I have to blast my sena to hear music. Looking for a good balance in music vs.sound protection. Good Video! Thanks
Modern helmets are just louder than old full face helmets from the 20th cen. Modern ones $600 or $100 use more EPS and less foam at the ears. The EPS of the Ear to Jaw is typically not even glued in. It vibrates and there is a big round hollow spot behind the EPS at the ear. That causes the echo chamber that magnifies wind noise. Why a loose jaw and voids behind the ear??? so they can use the same basic helmet to fit expensive speakers and sound systems into.
I just put acoustic foam in the empty and meaningless cavity and... voilà, wind noise dropped in half. I also glued in the jaw form as it should have been by the assembler. That dropped all the chatter and vibration noise.
Modern helmets are very cheaply manufactured. Cheap and quick assembly with lots of gaffers tape and injection out of sight. Thus they are noisy echo chambers.
Thanks for the opinion, but all my helmets are solid foam, glued in and don't vibrate.
TwoWheelObsession. Possibly, but I've tapped on quite a few in the dealership (that by price aren't pretending to be cheap) and most have that cavity at the ear between the styro and the shell. Tugging a bit on the chin most seem to wiggle. They shouldn't wiggle or squeek/creak AT ALL, but SHARP/SNELL won't count that against them as long as they pass the various impact tests with the melon sensor in there like your head. A scorpion helmet I had personally for passengers allowed me to just yank out the entire chin piece and the upholstery was pretty badly spray glued and taped in place.
Tap around the chin strap opening and see if they cupped out the EPS a bit too much. Space for the strap to come through is one thing but a two or three inch round cavity is obviously to hold a speaker in other models.
20th cen helmets sporting motorcycle name brands had true upholstery, laid up glass shells, proper stitching and attention to detail I'm not seeing in the splashy decaled/trash builds I see from the world reshaped by China.
Too many riders today are just gear junkies. Due to that, the mfgs throw out bulk over quality and try to lure you into buying 10 items till you find the perfect one.
+S Tho I use high quality helmets like shoei rf1200 not bottom of the barrel stuff like scorpion. No issues.
TwoWheelObsession. My club took apart a damaged shoei (recent build) and it too was pretty poor by comparison to 1980 builds of the past labeled Yamaha and Honda (lord knows who actually built those). Better than a Scorpion but not by that much. Some Scorpions sport a $500 ++ price tag. Loved the crazy Russians beating helmets with an iron bar and watching most come apart. Best test I ever saw.
I get it, fancy electric windshields, bar charts, computer analysis, to say Wear Earplugs with full face helmets. Earplugs cost 10cents anyone can try them on their own for pennies. I can see you are a gear junkie. Hey if it makes you happy. There are many moto gear junkies on RUclips.
However, advice on any gear. Best gear is free. Riding skill and minimizing distractions. Best way to be safe is complete mastery of your machine, knowing your limits, avoiding crazy situations (and crazy riding companions). That you can control and the rest, including gear, is faith in others.
I do, of course wear a helmet, jacket sturdy riding brogans and sturdy pants with knee and butt protection inside. Done. I'll but some more about every five years as they get aged.
Peace Out !
As you know, all helmets are not built the same! The more exspensive ones usually dampen noise much better than cheaper ones. So unless you test helmets first before doing this test, it's basically irrelevant to most riders! If viewers are really intertested in lowering wind, general noise, watch the helmet tests on other videos, they will give you better info than this one!
hi fidelity ear plugs for every ride here
Thanks a lot -;)
Very good to know. Thx for sharing.