Love of the open road and the thrill of speed are at the top of the list of reasons why people love to ride motorcycles. But this invigorating hobby comes at a high risk of permanent hearing damage for people who ride a lot.
The impact of motorcycle speed and riding duration on hearing health was examined in a comprehensive study carried out by a hearing protection manufacturer in collaboration with a prominent German automobile association. The conclusions were startling: bikers can suffer irreversible hearing damage after just 15 minutes of riding without hearing protection at a speed of 62 mph.
What causes hearing loss in bikers?
While the idea of hearing loss may not be surprising, the leading culprit might. The greatest threat isn’t the raging engine, contrary to the common belief, it’s actually the wind. While helmets provide significant protection from injury during crashes, the research highlights that they fall short in safeguarding the rider’s hearing. The wind noise whipping around the rider’s head isn’t reduced very much even when a helmet has added padding, vents, or other modifications.
Frequent exposure to excessive noise levels often leaves bikers with a condition known as temporary threshold shift (TTS). The more often you are exposed to loud noise, the more intense your TTS symptoms will be with this progressive condition. Individuals who are coping with TTS may begin to detect that their hearing is less clear or other minor symptoms. But irreversible hearing loss can, over time, be the outcome.
Comparing wind noise with other noise levels
The German study sheds a lot of light on just how extreme wind noise can be while riding. The wind noise around a rider’s head can reach 95 (dB) at 62 mph. To put into context, European Union (EU) law mandates that workers must protect their ears if exposed to volume levels higher than 80 dB. This means that bikers traveling at this speed without ear protection are exposed to noise levels nearly 19% higher than what is considered safe in a work environment.
And the noise level only gets louder as the speed goes up. Hearing damage can take place after only 7 minutes of riding at 74 mph which produces wind volumes of 98 dB. Many studies confirm that bikers are indeed at substantial risk of permanent hearing loss.
How to safeguard your hearing
Fortunately, protecting 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-frequency noises like wind while still allowing lower frequency sounds to penetrate. It’s crucial for bikers to still be able to hear vital sounds like human voices, emergency warning sounds, and car horns.
Bikers are also able to get the full experience of riding without feeling isolated or cut off from the external world which can’t be said for the old conventional style. You can protect your ears from harmful wind noise while still enjoying the thrill of the ride by using filtered earplugs.
It is possible to enjoy the excitement of speed and the freedom of the open road while still keeping your ears safe from wind noise. Considerable and irreversible hearing damage can be caused by the noise of wind at high speeds. But bikers can protect their long-term hearing while still enjoying the ride by simply using a set of quality earplugs.
Give us a call today to learn more about hearing protection so you can stay on top of your hearing health.