Love of the open road and the thrill of speed are at the top of the list of reasons why individuals love to ride motorcycles. However, if you’re an avid rider, you should know about a significant risk: research has connected this exhilarating hobby to irreversible hearing damage.
A comprehensive study conducted by a prominent German automobile association in collaboration with a manufacturer of hearing protection solutions examined the effect of riding time and motorcycle speed on hearing health. The findings were startling: bikers can suffer permanent hearing damage after just 15 minutes of riding without earplugs at a speed of 62 mph.
What causes hearing loss in motorcyclists?
You might not be surprised that bikers frequently suffer from hearing loss, but you might be surprised as to why. Despite what many believe, it’s not the motorcycle’s roaring engine but instead, the wind that poses the biggest hazard. Even though helmets offer considerable protection from injury during crashes, the research stresses that they fall short in safeguarding the rider’s hearing. Improvements to the helmet, such as extra padding, vents, or weather stripping, do little to decrease the wind noise swirling around the rider.
Regular exposure to extreme noise levels often leaves bikers with a condition known as temporary threshold shift (TTS). TTS is a progressive condition, which means the more you’re exposed to loud noises, the more intense the symptoms can become. People who are coping with TTS may start to detect that their hearing is less clear or other minor symptoms. However, over time, this condition can advance to permanent and irreversible hearing loss.
How do other noises compare to wind noise?
To grasp the severity of wind noise while riding, the German study’s results are illuminating. The wind noise around a rider’s head can reach 95 (dB) at 62 mph. Workers in Europe, for example, need to use ear protection by law if the volume goes beyond 80 dB. This means that bikers traveling at this speed without ear protection are exposed to volume levels nearly 19% higher than what is deemed safe in a work environment.
And the volume level only increases as the speed goes up. At 74 mph, wind volume can reach 98 dB, a level that can cause hearing damage after only 7 minutes of exposure. Many studies corroborate that bikers are indeed at considerable risk of permanent hearing loss.
Safeguarding your ears
Thankfully, safeguarding your hearing while riding is both easy and effective: use earplugs. Most people are familiar with the old standard earplugs, but hearing specialists recommend the filtered versions instead. These advanced earplugs are manufactured to protect your eardrums from high-pitched noises like wind while still allowing lower frequency sounds to get in. It’s crucial for bikers to still be able to hear important sounds like human voices, emergency warning sounds, and car horns.
Furthermore, these modern earplugs allow bikers to enjoy the exhilaration of riding without feeling cut off or numb, a common drawback of older protective devices. You can safeguard your ears from harmful wind noise while still experiencing the thrill of the ride by utilizing filtered earplugs.
It is possible to enjoy the thrill of speed and the freedom of the open road while still keeping your ears safe from wind noise. The wind noise generated at high speeds can cause considerable and permanent hearing damage in a very short time. But bikers can protect their long-term hearing while still enjoying the ride by simply utilizing a set of quality earplugs.
Stay on top of your hearing health by contacting us to discuss hearing protection.