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

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In reply to @kev716

kev716 -
Now THAT is the most critical argument for keeping them outside a helmet!! Even hungrier than a helmet are GD Covid masks. :no_mouth: Unfortunately, it looks like those will always be around at various times. At least I don’t feel so dorky using masks since you see them everywhere!

It has been thoroughly documented by numerous motorcycle magazines that wind noise alone inside a full coverage helmet reaches hearing damage thresholds unless you ride behind a windshield, and of course it is worse if you use open pipes. You should not only remove your hearing aid, but you should wear hearing protection like ear plugs to avoid further damage to your hearing.

Edited

With cheap and non-full-coverage helmets, or NO helmet at all, I can see that. But has anyone properly tested a GOOD full coverage helmet, with proper (snug, not loose) fit, lots of sound deadening inside, and with under-chin sound deadening? If so, I have not seen it.

I have been riding with good quality, full face coverage helmets for most of my 56 years of riding (the first couple of years, there were no full coverage helmets available yet). I had no detectable hearing losses until age kicked in. THEN I started to see some losses, mostly at high frequencies, characteristic of age hearing loss, not due to noise exposure.

I THINK it makes sense to NOT wear hearing aids inside a motorcycle helmet, but as for needing ear plugs, I have not yet seen any proff they are required if the helmet used is chosen reasonably wisely and a tight, versus loose fit has been chosen.

Jim G

@JimGnitecki said:

I THINK it makes sense to NOT wear hearing aids inside

say what? excuse me?
the most important thing is the awareness.
even everything is louder you still want to hear as good as possible.
I always had my with full helmet

The only problem I see is with the type of .
Let’s say you badly crash and a doctor using special manuver will attempt to take off your helmet, there is a chance that your helmet might get stuck (because of your HA)

In this case, is definitely better.

how? :)))
The is behind your ear inside of your helmet
I’ll stick with my idea to use a hood.
Putting and taking off your helmet is.much easier.
And will keep the HA in place behind the ears

Edited

I was simply rpelying to the idea that the could prevent removal of a helmet. Nonway it could do that. The helmet being removed roughly by a paramedic in an emergency WOULD come off, with the HA either staying where it is, or flying out, or the connector wire between the part and the in-canal part being yanked out. NO way could it stop the helmet from being removed.

The other day, I tried putting on and taking off 2 of my full coverage helmets while wearing the HAs. No problem. The HAs stayed in place. However, as my wife pointed out:

  • That does not mean thta repeated use would not do damage - like eventually pulling out the connector wire between the BTE, and then also allowing a BTE piece to fly out in the process

  • There is possible harm in that the HAs would amplify wind noise that the helmet was painstakingly designed to reduce

  • My hearing withOUT the HAs is good enough to be safe while riding. And I can carry the HAs in my pocket inside the charging case, for use at stops during the ride. I only need them for conversation, not for simple gas or bathroom stops.

Jim G

In reply to @JimGnitecki

Jim; I rode for 32 years, ending 21 years ago at my wife’s insistence after our daughter was born. For most of that time, I subscribed to just about every motorcycle magazine in existence, and I recall numerous articles between 1980 and 2000 about testing noise levels inside the the best helmets available at the time, and all the magazines recommended ear plugs as they measured noise levels consistent with hearing damage. The magazine editors wrote that they wore ear plugs themselves, even in California, where it is actually illegal. My last helmet was an Arai Signet, as I recall, dating from ~1998, and earplugs definitely suppressed the wind noise, even in my Yamaha GTS 1000 with an extended windshield. The only bike I had with no helmet wind noise was my Gold Wing with a Vetter Windjammer fairing, although the Windjammer picked up engine vibration and radiated that to the rider. Well, there may have been advances in helmet design in the past 25 years, and I don’t read motorcycle magazines any more. I do, however, usually turn off my hearing aids in my convertible, my last refuge. But 56 years of riding! Wow! You’re up there with Jay Leno! Enjoy and be careful.

I went riding today using a new helmet “modular” helmet. This is the kind of helmet that looks exactly like a full face coverage helmet, but the front of the helmet can be hinged upward to enable putting it on and taking it off easier, especially for eyeglass wearers. I did nOT wear my .

The helmet turned out to be pretty quiet, which is good, because it is a Harley-Davidson / Sena helmet that includes a fully integrated communicaiton system. I have not yet set up the communications, but look foreard to trying that.

Jim G

In reply to @SlimToNone

@SlimToNone

I had a real break through when someone here posted instructions for custom programs to use when the speaker is wearing a mask.
I used it, and it increased high and mid frequency, and volume. Maybe more.

I had these changes incorporated in all programs by my dispensing audiologist. However, when he quit on me he reprogramed my hearing aids eliminating this change.

My is similar, but my hearing loss is more severe than yours.

fwiw my hearing aids are Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s.

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