I usually ride without any ear protection but after adding my Two Brothers slip-ons I decided to try it. Once I adjusted to it I actually enjoyed the ride more. So I figured I would see just how many on the forum use ear plugs and how long have you been using them?

Eye have lost the high pitch in my right ear = One too many endurance races with open ears and a 4-in-1 on the right side of the bike is rings for days after a race is come a few more times, I'm sick of this is wore special ear plugs molded to my ears for racing.

I wear the roll ups every time out is sometimes I forget to wear them is pull over immediately, or the mule is working the crank and ear we go is damaged goods all over the place is dis body.

I wear em'but not EVERY ride.I have damage already(tinnitus)but not real bad.I will wear plugs more often now that you've reminded me-Thanks!!

I sometimes use ear plugs when ride my VMax. I don't know what is but on the VMax I have a lot of noise in the helmet, it only has a little fairing on it, I believe it's a factory fairing. I use the same helmet when I ride my 14 and it is much quieter in the helmet. One problem that I have wearing ear plugs on the VMax is that I ride quite a bit faster, with the tach being so low on the "tank" cover, I normally shift and ride by the exhaust noise.......

HUH ? Wht did you say ?

I actually read a report in some CYCLE mag. that detailed the damage that your ears can suffer while riding a Bike. But really guys, hearing your Bike "Growl" down the street is what it's all about. That exhaust roar, and the wind noice is what Motorcycling is all about. RIGHT ?

DID YA HEAR ME ??

If I am going to weam them they are connected to my ipod. And I agree, they make quite a bit of difference.

I wear mine all the time now that I am older 52,but in early days nobody was wearing those so I am little def on right side.

This is where my two worlds converge. I've had a pretty great career as a drummer touring the world over with bands and more bands since around 1980. A few years back I ruptured both eardrums during a soundcheck at a large venue. In large rooms or arenas even drums need to amplified so you can hear yourself accurately. If you think drums are loud, sitting three feet from a 5000 watt drum monitor is crazy. I wore in ear monitors most of the time but that night had earplugs in.......except for when the sudden blast of feedback hit that took me out. I was fucked. After I was diagnosed with 'acutely ruptured tympanic membranes' I was sensitive to loud talking, but a open piped bike under an underpass, a fire engine siren, the subway (I live in New York) was excruciatingly painful. And this was in addition to prior significant hearing loss and tinnitus.

Back to bikes. My 84 V65 Magna at the time was turned into a wrenching project and the drums were sidelined. Even my flowmastered Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor was hard to drive, and I could't wear earplugs because of the treatment. My cars, bikes, and life were extremely screwed up, though I got some peace as my wife was told not to rasie her voice at me...yesssss! But it sucked. After an eight month healing period I got myself a stock ZRX which was relatively quiet and started to ride at low rpms with earplugs for the first time which the torquey ZRX was good at. I've tried every earplug imaginable and now love the focused isolation of foam plugs. The fancy, $500.00 custom ones are good for drumming or the in ear monitors are ok when plugged into an ipod, but I don't like to listen to music while I'm riding; personally it's too distracting. Foam plugs effectively kill wind noise and have a really nice notch at around 10khz which is a very damaging frequency at amplitude. Also, the wind noise in my Arai at around 175hz is really bothersome after my problem and that's another frequency where foam is good. Earplugs just seem to be a really great focusing aid now, and I never find myself missing things that I should be hearing like maniacs in cages, motor issues, etc.. I'm a convert and after such a close call have found only advantages in wearing them. My 2 cents, anyway.

I don't leave home without them! Learned a long time ago racing karts how much better I could hear after the race if I wore them. Never really paid much attention to how tone deaf I would be after riding my Motorcycles though, until I started wearing the plugs while riding them too.

http://www.gradolabs.com I still abuse my ears. If I had a better sound card, I could pick up more digital tones off the throttle body video. It's too bad, but the sound is lost once I hear the upload audio to youtube. So, what I have on the hard drive sounds much better thru a pair of grado's.

Ever see a bad shock on a car? It keeps bouncing and never recovers as rebounding with the surface, like a normal shock? I hear something smash, hit the ground, my right ear acts the bad shock on a hard bump.

And Rush LimBog with the heavy oxycontin habit was loosing his hearing from the stuff. My ears ring if I take aspirin; so my guess is that ringing sounds familiar if I can use that pun.

Yes, say the octogenarian looses hearing normally. Others with heavy equipment, sound checks; somewhat accelerate theirs at an earlier age. Goes with the music/goes with the sport of the horn is the exhaust or beat of the ear drum is still music no matter how much is tapped in.

Future racers/musicians ear dis... Trackday my Garage Band.

Yup. Threshold Shift is what the Dr's call it and it sucks and blows. Hearing damage is cumulative so like the hub said, "ear dis." Wind noise seems like a pretty harmless sound compared to say, my Bonneville with 18" straight pipes or John Force blasting by, but it'll get you over time. All of those dead cilia in there never recover and wind which occupies a lot of mid frequency will take out your ability to hear conversation a little bit at a time. When someone pulls up next to you on a Hardly Ableson and blips it, you may find yourself in the unlikely position of looking at his taillights while you're clutching your ears as he rides off.

When my ears got cooked it cost a band a national and european tour which is a FORTUNE in legal fees, cancelations, and potential lost album sales. All of you who depend on your ears which is to say everyone, wear the plugs and find a way to love them.

And yessss to Grado Labs, by the way. A great company right here in Brooklyn.

i wear the silicone (putty like) earplugs that you can get at walgreens. the reason i got them wasn't to drown out the exhaust noise but to reduce the wind noise. my x11 is loud as heck. on the box it says the plugs reduce noise up to 20 decibles. they work pretty well, and i wear them for commuting. the only time i don't wear them is if i'm just going to make a quick run or riding with a group. sometimes you have to communicate with the group and it's hard to do if you've got plugs in.

I Don't leave home without 'em.

Depending on my mood...either the basic "cubes" or Etymotic ER6Is for music.

wear them at work
Wear them when riding
wear them while making love to the old lady

Anytime noises exceed 120 decibels

wear them while making love to the old lady

just stick something in her mouth to shut her up

grado headphones+1,music when riding-10,high-siding a 1200 kaw at 200kph while listening to "Its the motion" by Clare Marlo not pleasent/I have an Arai rx7 and a Shoei rf 1000 I find the rf1000 the quieter helmet,I always when I remember wear ear plugs

Always wear them, even on short rides... in fact, I am so used to them, that not wearing them annoys me in a few short minutes.

It is not all about damage to the ears... I find it with ear plugs, you can filter out a great level of extra noise (wind noise in the helmet, tire noise from the car/truck next to you, engine/chain clattering, etc.), and this helps lower overall fatigue... I can also go faster and enjoy 'the performance' of the bike and the main sound coming from the engine and pipes, while filtering out the extra engine whine/noises.

Do not do yourselves a disservice. Start wearing ear plugs. You will ENJOY your ride MORE. Seriously.

* Last updated by: faz on 3/26/2009 @ 4:16 PM *

Faz is totally right. You definitely get in the zone with the plugs in.

Ear plugs sound like a great idea, however i've never worn them. Does it block out most sound? I guess a better question would be if you can still hear traffic around you, just to keep safe on the roads?

i've honestly never heard the traffic much anyway due to the wind and exhaust noise. the plugs are going to block the wind and exhaust, and i'm sure they'll block the noise from the traffic too. i guess if listening for surrounding traffic is vital to you being aware while riding, then you'd need to weigh your options.

Faz burned the hair out my ears is that was some hot reading. And no, you can hear tires screech, the emergency sirens, and if you close your eyes, could you feel a rough running bike or a smooth running bike, yes or no?

Like Faz'aid, well, I zed that; you dizzolve all that dirty laundry out in the road is to wash out all that is normal noise riding your bike. You forget about muffing of the buffing is more of the same noise, only your ears can't breath.

1+ Good one, Faz! Gonna get Rotty on you for a burp at the Perth you,you! Was that you, "OR do I owe you an apology." < Men In Black.