Listen: It’s Not Hard to Protect Your Hearing

Motorcycling can be hazardous to your health, even if you never crash or fall off your bike.

British researchers have shown that riding at freeway speeds for extended periods can cause permanent hearing damage, unless the rider is wearing properly fitted earplugs. But before you direct your suspicions at the seemingly obvious mechanical culprit--the engine--read on.

“At about 40 miles per hour, the machinery noise disappears,” said Dr. Andrew McCombe, an ear, nose and throat surgeon who oversaw the research conducted from 1992 to 1995. “The wind noise drowns it out. The faster you go, the more wind noise you get.

“It’s that wind noise, even when wearing a helmet, that causes the problem.”

McCombe, himself a motorcyclist, said the damage accumulates over time. As part of his research, he tested the hearing of 250 motorcyclists who had been riding regularly for at least five years. All the riders in the test group had worn helmets, as is required in Britain, but not earplugs.

“We found there was a statistically significant hearing loss in this group,” McCombe said in a telephone interview from his home near London. “Most of them might not notice it in their daily lives, but unless they start protecting themselves, it will get worse.”

McCombe also conducted wind-tunnel studies and inserted tiny microphones in the ears of riders to measure sound levels. The results of his research have been published in several medical journals, including the peer-reviewed Journal of Laryngology and Otology. He found that if you do all your motorcycling at 50 mph or less, you have little to fear from wind noise, presuming you wear a full-face helmet. McCombe found that at those speeds, noise levels are within accepted limits, even on an all-day ride.

You motorcyclists in Los Angeles who fit that 50-mph-and-below profile can stop reading. The rest had better be afraid for their ears, especially if they have a long freeway commute or enjoy touring.

Using noise guidelines established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the United States, McCombe determined that at about 65 mph, hearing damage can begin to occur after two hours of riding in one day. At 80 mph, the safety limit is one hour.

Even those findings might be understated. For one of his experiments, McCombe had motorcyclists ride at 80 mph for exactly one hour. According to OSHA guidelines, they should have been right at the safety limit. But tests showed that most of the riders suffered at least temporary hearing loss.

“It’s like what you experience after coming out of a loud pop concert,” McCombe said. “After a few hours, it goes away. But every time you do that and recover, a little permanent damage is left behind.”

The good news is that the vast majority of riders can prevent hearing damage by simply wearing the inexpensive foam or plastic earplugs available at most drugstores.

The bad news is that for motorcyclists in California, such earplugs are illegal. The state Motor Vehicle Code reads: “No person operating any motor vehicle or bicycle shall wear any headset covering, or any earplugs in, both ears.”

So much for cheap protection.

But luckily, there is a moderately priced solution. An exception to the law makes allowances for “custom earplugs or molds.”

At $35 a pair, custom earplugs are a good deal more costly than the disposable ones found at pharmacies. But they have several advantages, apart from being legal. I find the custom plugs to be far more comfortable than the disposable type, especially on long rides. And, not surprisingly, they fit much more snugly.

While custom plugs cut the wind noise, they allow the rider to hear other vehicles and warning signals such as car horns or sirens. In fact, with wind noise eliminated, it’s easier for motorcyclists to hear these important sounds, McCombe said.

The custom plugs are made of silicone and supposedly last for years. They wash easily with soap and water after a ride. Getting them fitted is even kind of fun.

Linda Lender, a Mission Viejo-based hearing conservation technician, offers them to motorcyclists at the monthly Bike Night gathering at the Speedway Bistro & Cafe in Newport Beach. Lender, who wears a white lab coat while doing a fitting, first examines ears for acute wax buildup or other problems that might prevent a good fit. She then inserts a cotton block in each ear to protect the eardrums.

After the customer chooses a color, Lender uses a large, plastic syringe to shoot the silicone into the ear.

“It will feel like peanut butter in your ear,” she says reassuringly. Never having experienced peanut butter in my ear, I found it to be a strange sensation. After allowing the plugs to set for a few minutes, she pops them and the cotton blocks out.

Lender lets the plugs cure for an hour before checking their fit and showing the customer how to use and care for them. Then you take the earplugs home, but Lender advises waiting eight more hours before use to allow them to fully harden.

* Linda Lender does most of her custom earplug business at gun shows. She can be reached at (949) 770-2129. Information on upcoming Bike Night dates is available by calling the Speedway Bistro & Cafe at (949) 675-5900. Another local supplier is Skorpion Racing of Laguna Hills, which does custom earplug fittings at races and other motorcycle events. For information, call (800) 764-6789.

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Two-Wheel Ride surveys the motorcycle scene in Southern California. David Colker can be reached at david.colker@latimes.com.