From: essbaum@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Alexander Essbaum)
Subject: Re: Earplugs
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 20:45:55 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

In article <1992Sep1.184936.18977@exu.ericsson.se>, lmcstst@noah.ericsson.se (Stamos Stamos) writes:
|> In article <1992Sep1.141625.910@colorado.edu> matthews@ajsh.colorado.edu (Alex Matthews) writes:
|> >
|> >(I used to think the cylindrical foam plugs were good, until I tried the
|> >ProTech Sof-Foam plugs, the neon orange, contoured ones.  I ran out
|> >of them this week and had to use some cylindrical ones, and felt like
|> >I was being tortured!  A testimonial, dear friends. I paid $0.83/pair
|> >for the ProTechs)
|> >-- 
|> 
|> Yup, I hate the foamy yellow thingies. It may have NRR of 33 db, but inside
|> a helmet that could be NIR of 33 db (Noise Increase...
|> 
|> When I first had to start using(had too because I bought this used CBX550
|> with a straight-through pipe, but that's another story...), I used the yellow
|> foam cylindircal ones. At the end of each trip my ears would be ringing like
|> crazy. In fact my ears would ring much less if I didn't use the ear plugs. I
|> couldn't understand it because with plugs in and helmet on it was much quieter.
|> 
|> What happens is that these foamy thingies are made to compress with your
|> fingers allowing them to be inserted into the ear, then they slowly expand.
|> The problem is that they keep expanding out off your ear and touch the helmet
|> (also they are much to big for 'inside-the-helmet' use). No matter how I 
|> inserted them they always expanded to the point where they just stick out of
|> your ear. This makes for a magnificent acoustical coupling between your ear
|> drum and your helmet.

i have just recently started using earplugs while riding (long distances) and it
took me a little while to learn to insert the things properly.  i've used two
types (dunno what manufacturer).  both foam, one cylindrical, one cylindrical/
cone shaped.  to insert (ie. right ear) reach behind your head with left arm,
grab ear ~1" above earlobe and pull back.  use right hand to squish/roll foam
into thin strip.  stick foam into ear (just like your not supposed to do with
q-tips).  maybe hold foam in for ~5 sec while it expands.

|> As the helmet is buffeted by the air/bugs it moves/hits the foam. This can have
|> your ears ringing in no time. If you don't believe me, try it. Insert the
|> foamy thingies in your ear wait a bit then tap them VERY lightly with your
|> finger, they will sound very loud.

um, yeah.  after inserting the plugs, my ears ring too.  just like if i'm in
a quiet room/place my ears ring.  probably due to riding without earplugs and
listening to lots of really loud metal music (mostly the music i think :).  when
i ride without earplugs, i don't hear ringing because there's too much other
noise.

|> I think they should come with a WARNING:
|>                                         If you use these while wearing a 
|>                                         helmet you probably will damage your
|>                                         ears!
|> 
|> 
|> I have found the waxy ones(for swimming) to be the best inside a lid.
|> The disadvantage of these is that every time you use them a bit of wax is
|> lost.  Other things you can do to make things quiet at (ummm) 'highish speeds' 
|> are:
|> A) Use a quiet lid. (ya right)

i have an RF200 which i believe motorcyclist rated as quietest in a test maybe
a year ago.  it's a hell of a lot quieter than the Kiwi K21 i used to have.

[stuff deleted]

|> Due too the fact that I would like to keep my hearing in the upper frequency 
|> range(as your ears are damaged you hear fewer and fewer frequencies, back
|> at school our class connected a sine wave generator to a speaker, most people
|> could detect the sound up to 14~16 khz, the teacher bombed out at 9khz(deaf bat)

i think i went up to ~17KHz.  that was ~3 years ago.

|> remember that next time you spend that $1,000 on speakers that go to 25khz)
|> I use all four methods above. (ummmm, that doesn't mean I speed.) 
|> 
|> Performance Bikes did a noise test on lids at 70mph(I think), they all were
|> in excess of ~125db. (I am a bit sketchy on the figures, I should look the
|> article up). I think this is in the range of immediate irreparable ear damage.
|> Does anybody have the exact figures???
|> 
|> I wonder what you would get at 140mph. (ummm, not that I have ever gone that
|> fast)

it's quieter at 140 for me cause i'm behind the fairing, out of the wind :).

[stuff deleted]

|> --
|> Stamos <lmcstst@noah.ericsson.se>            ZZR11            Ellas
|> Ericsson, Cellular Design
|> Montreal, Canada.

axel
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