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Should I take off my hearing aids when riding a motorcycle with full face helmet?

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Should I take off my Jabra Enhance Pro 20 hearing aids when riding a motorcycle with full face helmet?

I am asking for multiple reasons:

  • Could the process of putting on and taking off the full coverage helmet potentially physically dislodge or even damage a hearing aid or its to ear canal wire connection?

  • Will the wind noise, which is always present to a degree at highway speeds, even with a quality full coverage helmet, cause the hearing aids to consume power more quickly to attenuate it?

  • 2 new helmets my wife and I are planning to buy are made for Harley-Davidson by Sena, a helmet and supplier that specializes in helmets that include Bluetooth and built-in helmet speakers, and that support rider-to-passenger intercom, and hands-off phone call and GPS support. But highway wind noise degrades the “net versus gross” volume produced by the speakers. so, having the hearing aids on would be helpful in both improving speech comprehension of my phone, GPS, and passenger communications, and in attenuating the always present wind noise.

  • Based on many years of motorcycling, with full face coverage helmets, I don’t THINK there is any danger of water entry into the helmet even in heavy rain, in case any of you raise that as a concern.

Any opinions, especially opinions based on actual experience?

Jim G

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Jim,

I have definitely found that pulling my helmet down over my will almost always dislodge the aids, at least enough to be uncomfortable. Since my Sena streams calls and tunes from my phone, and my hearing loss is moderate, I always remove my HAs for riding.

I would think that if your helmet did NOT dislodge the aids, the helmet is larger than it should be for your head. Just my two cents.

I bet that if you use a hood under the helmet, the helmet won’t damage anything. Just a guess

On the bike I wear a modular helmet which I can pull apart a bit. I leave the aids in, but turned down. Mainly because for me, putting them in and out is more likely to result in a lost aid. I can well imagine the aids being a problem with a regular full face. On the quad I wear a light standard open face helmet which is a breeze to put on.

Thanks, guys! Liviu, the “hood” is an interesting idea, but would require buying a helmet size that accommodates the hood, AND wearing the hood ALWAYS. NOT wearing the hood would compromise the helmet’s protective ability in an actual incident. I suppose that if the hood material was thin enough, breathable, and slippery enough, your idea would work for me. Maybe a material similar to a lady’s nylon stockings material.

Now that I think more about it, I do also wonder how the Bluetooth “hierarchy” (iPhone, Sena system, and Jabra ) would work in the helmet scenario.

The iPhone would be in my pocket, so not accessible, unless I mount it on a handlebar phone mount. So I could not use it to “answer” or iniitate a call unless I use a handlebar mount.

I also obviously could not double tap the Jabra HA to answer a call.

So, I would need to use the Sena "button’ on the side of the helmet to answer a call. That would bring the call sound to the Sena speakers and microphone. My HA microphones would then pick up the sound from the speakers I guess, so I would get amplifed sound, but it would have been processed by BOTH the Sena noise reduction programming AND then the HA noise reduction programming. What would the result be??

Or, if I use a handlebar mount, I could initiate or answer a call via the iPhone but would need to stop the motorcycle to do it (safety AND law), The iPhone to HA conenctivity would use Bluetooth for the call directly, without the Sena system being involved? Or how would the Bluetooth heirarchy work in that scenario?

Jim G

@Dusty said:

On the bike I wear a modular helmet which I can pull apart a bit. I leave the aids in, but turned down. Mainly because for me, putting them in and out is more likely to result in a lost aid. I can well imagine the aids being a problem with a regular full face. On the quad I wear a light standard open face helmet which is a breeze to put on.

I should have mentioned: the new helmets would be MODULAR. i.e. like a full face helmet, but the entire front face of the helmt swivels up to open the helmet face while putting the helmet on or off, or anytime I need to be able to speak at a gas station or want to take a drink of water.

Jim G

In reply to @JimGnitecki

Bro, we as a riders always wear a hood (at least in Europe)
why? I don’t want my all sweat into the helmet.
also you can pull the helmet more easily.
The hood is very thin.

Try it :slight_smile:

1

In reply to @JimGnitecki

@JimGnitecki said:

I do also wonder how the Bluetooth “hierarchy”

It can be entertaining, confusing, and irritating. My intercom answers calls automatically. When I was riding more I had my phone on a custom mount where it was easy to see for navigation, and to tell who was calling. These days I don’t listen to music so leave my phone on my belt and the intercom turned off. I don’t get many calls while riding so when the phone rings in the aids I just ignore it until the next stop.

Here’s something else you might consider. https://quietridemuffs.com/47 Inflatable muffs either self-installed, or preinstalled in a helmet. I went the self-installed route in my modular. It’s the best you can do to make riding quieter, but it still won’t be quiet. It does puts the speaker on the right side of the hearing protection. The main problem with the scheme is that there’s no easy way to try it out before committing. I was able to get the fit tight enough to use without inflating, and still easy enough to put on, but that might not have been possible with a different shell and head size combination. It might also be problematic with some eyeglass arms. I get some discomfort from my glasses during long rides, and inflating the muffs makes it a bit worse.

I wear a helmet sometimes when training horses. The problem I have is any pressure around the ear cuts off the aid. May try different domes and see if that helps.

Hands free should work by voice commands depending on your aids and phone. Not sure how well the aids mike would work with the helmet padding. I never answer the phone while riding.

Could the aids connect to the partner bluetooth?

@don2 said:

Could the aids connect to the partner bluetooth?

Good question! I don’t know the answer. I doubt that the Harley-Davidson motorclothes lady knows either. but even if they do, I woudl not be able to have the iPhone, , and Sena Bluetooth all on at once without some sort of predictable hierarchy.

Jim G

I always ride my bike and wear a helmet with my aids on. I fit that my cutsom ear molds work very similar to ear plugs

In reply to @Liviu

@Liviu said:

don’t forget one thing: the distance
I think it has to be under 10m

Bluetooth is used for iPhone or GPS connectivity, but the “intercom” system uses a different technology than Bluetooth… The intercom has a maximum usable range of up to 0.9km = 0.5 mile between riders and/or passengers.

Jim G

I know what is Bluetooth and intercom, I’m a biker too.

I was responding to “@don2”: “Could the aids connect to the partner bluetooth?”

and by the way, this is wrong: "Bluetooth is used for iPhone or GPS connectivity "

Bluetooth is used to connect 2 devices (any device) that has this protocol implemented.
It’s a wireles protocol 2.4 GHz.

In reply to @Liviu

and by the way, this is wrong: "Bluetooth is used for iPhone or GPS connectivity "

Bluetooth is used to connect 2 devices (any device) that has this protocol implemented.
It’s a wireles protocol 2.4 GHz.

I was talking about how the specific Harley / Sena helmet USES both Bluetooth and NON-Bluetooth communication technologies. The Intercom system does not use Bluetooth.

Jim G

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