Most motorcycle safety gear protects you from something that might happen. Wind noise is different. It’s damaging your hearing because you’re riding.
Riders spend thousands preparing for a crash and then raw-dog 117 dB of wind noise for three hours. I measured exactly that on my bike a few days ago.
For what it’s worth, Elsebie and I have been using Alpine motorcycle earplugs since 2011 and started distributing Alpine Earplugs in South Africa in 2013. That’s not because we’re distributors. We’re distributors because we were already using them. In the last 15 years we’ve changed bikes, luggage, jackets, boots, cameras and GPS units, but the Alpine earplugs have stubbornly remained part of our riding kit.
Anyway, this is four minutes of me trying to convince you to wear bloody earplugs. Use them, don’t use them; that’s entirely your call.
The thing is, wind noise is the only part of motorcycling that’s actively trying to damage your hearing every single ride. Not occasionally. Not when things go wrong. Every time you swing a leg over the bike.
Hearing damage is irreversible. Worse still, it’s cumulative. A little bit today. A little bit next month. A little bit next year. The damage compounds over time until one day you’re asking people to repeat themselves, struggling to hear conversations in busy places, or dealing with tinnitus.
Most motorcycle safety gear protects you from something that might happen. Your helmet protects you if you crash. Your boots protect you if you fall. Your riding jacket, armour and airbag vest are there for the day things go wrong.
Wind noise is different.
It starts working on your hearing the moment you get on the bike.
That’s what makes hearing protection different from every other piece of riding gear. My helmet might save me one day. Motorcycle earplugs help protect me every single time I ride.
One of the biggest myths in motorcycling is that an expensive helmet solves the problem. It doesn’t. There is no such thing as a truly quiet motorcycle helmet. Some helmets are quieter than others, but wind turbulence around the helmet, windscreen and rider still creates harmful noise levels at highway speeds. You don’t wear motorcycle earplugs because your helmet is noisy. You wear earplugs because wind is noisy.
And if you’re thinking, “I’ve already got tinnitus, so the damage is done,” that’s exactly backwards. Tinnitus is a warning sign, not a free pass. Continued exposure to motorcycle wind noise can still make hearing loss and tinnitus worse.
The surprising thing is that proper motorcycle earplugs don’t just protect your hearing. They also reduce rider fatigue. Most riders find they arrive more relaxed, more focused and less mentally exhausted because they’re no longer fighting a constant wall of wind noise for hours on end.
Your hearing doesn’t grow back.
And that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.