If anyone recalls from a previous posting on here, I have been concerned recently about the state of my ears (yes they stick out more as I lose my hair!lOl ).

Hearing issues started after 2 particularly severe bouts of hay fever late this summer whilst riding home after a long day in the saddle. This manifested itself as pressure in my inner ear leading to increased sensitivity to resonance whilst riding my bike. Filling up on anti-histamine tablets, whilst important for safe riding, may have compounded things? They say this about drinking alcohol before or during a loud rock concert. Whatever the tipping point, the result for me has been the mild onset of tinnitus. I say mild because I only notice it when I wear earplugs in bed or it is exceptionally quiet, and thankfully it is not severe enough to cause madness…….unless I am already!

As a result of this I started a program of silencing my bike, although this was only a part of the problem (more on this later). The first casualty was my beloved Stealth can. Yes, I miss the awesome sound, instant grunt, and sense of not needing to change gear much, but it was an obvious target, even if it is not the primary cause. I may bring it back if I can get a decibel killer design installed, and I may experiment with other damping devices. I fitted a standard XB12R muffler with valve closed, which is significantly quieter at semi-legal cruising speeds. The air filter has also been returned to a standard paper element, and the air-box has had sound deadening pads attached (to hell with weigh saving). As friends will testify, the only sound now as I pass them is the deep bark from the muffler’s exit pipe!

One of the most significant changes has been to my crash helmet, going from my Arai Freeway with goggles to a more streamlined (and cheaper!) SPADA open face with flip down visor (although to be fair Arai make something similar). With a quieter bike, the differences in helmet and eye protection with regard to wind noise were much more noticeable. So this is where I must focus on improvements before unleashing on my Buell.

I had been reading about tinnitus on the web for some time, but It was not until this week that I finally consulted my GP for some advice. What he said was interesting and seems to match my experiences.
He said that a blocked nose from hay fever and changes in pressure in the tubes leading to the ears will make me more sensitive to resonance through the skull. This would also follow when wearing ear plugs, although ear plugs will ultimately protect your hearing. Not blocking your ears would cut down skull resonance, but leave you open to the problem of wind noise. This is where helmet design and bike come into play, because when I started to notice problems, resonance from my helmet and skull into my head felt more of an issue than wind noise on the outside! Prior to this I seem to have been able to maintain a comfortable pressure in my ears, where no one source of noise felt uncomfortable. Although I could still begin a ride feeling comfortable, the onset of resonance was becoming quicker and more prevalent.

Resonance through the skull accounts for more noise than many of us suspect, and obviously a big resonant machine like a motorcycle will be significant in this. Even when on my little SRX400 with standard muffler, I can open my mouth and pop my ears to hear the noise of the valve gear coming out of my mouth (the engine is rigidly mounted to the frame).

A friend had some high tech earplugs which have small tubes to the outside to equalise the pressure (I wish I knew what they were called), but these are definitely next on my list.

My GP did console me by saying that he would be more worried about permanent hearing damage if tinnitus had occurred only one ear, and I could expect changes as I get older. Although he was not familiar with motorcycling equipment, he confirmed that I was doing the right things to manage protection of my hearing.

Now I’m looking forward to trying out my new SHOIE J-Cruise lid.

I'd put money on helmets causing more hearing damage than noisy pipes. I love my HJC Carbon helmet but I realised how much my ears hurt after a ride when I bought a AGV helmet. I actually hate the AGV and hardly wear it, the HJC is so light and comfy, I carry on using it. I now worry about my hearing when I ride

A mate of mine had a similar symptoms to you, so he went to the clinic and had his ears syringed. The problem was solved. Anyway, he kept going on about how nice the syringing was, he persuaded me to have mine done. I was a bit strange, but lovely

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

I always thought that

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08 Specialized Langster

Schuberth

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2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

Pardon

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

He was a great composer but a useless motorcyclist. I've been clay shooting for 35 years or more, and riding bikes since 1960, and inevitably, my hearing has suffered. In the shooting world, many shooters are buying custom-made in-ear devices. The take a mould of your ear, and according to several people I know who have bought them, they work a treat. You can hear normal conversation, but when ambient sound reaches a certain level, they shut down - instantly. Might be worth looking into this solution. Did you say something?

I suffer from Tinitus from work related machinery ,before health and safety ruling, cant really put a day it happened just noticed it one night and now it is really quite loud. Doc said there was nothing that can be done so I just put up with it. A loud bike helps .

Someone I used to work with called it titiness , but like Quasimodo he'd had resonance through the skull.

Yeah that, I f**kin hate mine but its the quitest helmet there is.

Andy

I got some custom fitted ear plugs from 'Ultimate hearing' and now I've got used to them I find them really quiet but I can still hear back ground noise which can be a bit of a safety issue.

pardon , speak up

I'll be really pissed off if my J-Cruise is noisier than the SPADA as the cheaper lid only cost me 40 quid!

yea i always check my tyre pressures too

I heard or read somewhere that hypnotherapy can also help!

edd, you post is giving me plenty to think about as I wear earplugs every night to sleep. If not, I hear everything, even a cockroach crawling on my roof. Even still, I only get a solid 3 hours of sleep each night. And I wear plugs on the commute and sometimes in the office if I have to really concentrate on something. So, I may have plugs in my ears between 9 - 12 hours each day. I prefer the little closed cell foamies as they reduce up to 33 dbA.

The pressure differential you speak of caught my attention. My ears, even without plugs, over the past 10 years have become to feeling "plugged" at all hours. My hearing has become muffled as if I had plugs in. And this is really discouraging, because as a musician, I've always had an over developed ear (more through training than nature). If I hav no distractions around, I still hear everything but many frequencies are attenuated but I still pick them out. You'd have a hard time beating me in "name that tune" as I can still tell what something is by the first 2 notes just by the timbre of the instruments and any given guitar player's signature tones.

But I have another issue and that is balance. I went to an audiologist about 5 years ago and I passed all the tests because I concentrated on them. But there was still the frequency attenuation issue and also me walking around off balance like I'm piss drunk all day. In fact that's how I feel 24/7, like I'm walking around inebriated. The earplug thing and pressure differential may be my issue.

I have eye issues too, since I was a child actually. All eye tests prove that I have zero depth perception. My brain can not put the images in the left and right eye together to form a single 3d image. So my eyes switch all the time. I rely on perpective and relative size of objects to form my own mental version of a 3d image. I'm sure my balance issues have a fair bit to do with this.

Eyes or not, my ears have now become a major concern. It cound fix 2 important things on my health list.

So, as you learn more, post up. In the meantime, I should build myself a soundproof room to sleep in and forego the plugs, even on my commutes.

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Bob Krzeszkiewicz
2012 XR1200X - 2011 Kawasaki Z1000SX - 1999 Buell X1