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It's not about hearing your own bike, it's being able to hear everything else around you.
I think it IS about hearing your own bike. If you're going 60-70 mph down the highway with a helmet on and the sound of your pipes in your ears, what else do you think you're going to hear? You sure aren't going to hear the crickets chirping or the birds tweeting.
I shift gears by the sound of the engine rpm. If I have music blasting in my ears, then it's a distraction to the gear shifting, braking, and overall handling of the motorcycle. Motorcycle riding is an experience of feeling and visuals. The only sounds you should hear or notice is the sound of your engine or perhaps a loud siren of an emergency vehicle, but even that is hard to hear with a helmet on and the wind noise.
I think it IS about hearing your own bike. If you're going 60-70 mph down the highway with a helmet on and the sound of your pipes in your ears, what else do you think you're going to hear? You sure aren't going to hear the crickets chirping or the birds tweeting.
I shift gears by the sound of the engine rpm. If I have music blasting in my ears, then it's a distraction to the gear shifting, braking, and overall handling of the motorcycle. Motorcycle riding is an experience of feeling and visuals. The only sounds you should hear or notice is the sound of your engine or perhaps a loud siren of an emergency vehicle, but even that is hard to hear with a helmet on and the wind noise.
Jupp, you ain't gonna hear **** other than wind an engine. I don't have it so loud i can't hear my bike or loud horn. I can still hear most things. But it's naive to think you ride with you ears.
My bikes are stock and I still hear everything around me. I tried pixel buds too. I ride everyday, so riding isn't my hobby. Besides a motorcycle/scooter I also ride a bicycle with a bluetooth speaker. I can hear and feel cars besides I check my perimeters every 5 secs. I enjoy having music I don't play it loud. It just helps clear my mind. Thank You!
I don't want my mind cleared when I'm riding. I want it focused on the bike, the road and my surroundings.
Music evokes emotion and other subtle changes in the human body that are better used focused on the safety of the riding experience.
Although ear buds are allowed in MN (in one ear only) In forty years of cycling I have only used them once. That was as a young rider on Interstate I90 for an afternoon. It was obvious to me that they create a mental state that's not inducive to the kind of alert you have to be on a bike.
That's, of course, only speaking from my experience. But then I've never had an accident either. I had an excellent instructor and followed everything he said to the letter. It was good advice.
Good grief, yes. Full helmets in general are problematic for me.
I learned as a young mother that it was when I was on the landline the children knew I was distracted enough that they could do mischief while I was partially somewhere else in conversation with another person,
Music is less engaging than conversation but definitely can produce trance states/distraction. I'm surprised anyone could even question this if they think about their internal changes in thought and mood while they are listening to music.
Been ridin' for 50yrs. I've tried to use ear buds for music, but it has to be so loud at a cruising speed that it get annoying at parking lot speeds and can't seem to work a volume control with gloves on, so I quit using ear buds.
Only use earplugs while riding. Your hearing suffers gradually without plugs while riding motorcycles. Just like you never notice your TV getting dimmer as the years go by.
I wear earplugs everywhere at work, at bars and strips clubs, driving.
Amen to that. I'm 53 with enough tinnitus (right ear) to last a lifetime; that's that way it goes anyway in life and we adjust. It's annoying vs. debilitating.
Making it worse is an awful idea, don't want hearing aids at 60. Probably inevitable...and heinous. Like my dad before me. Funny about the 'dimmer' comment above, I'm eyeballing (bad pun) lens replacement probably when I'm c. 65 as cataracts are also inevitable. The tech will change a bit next 13 years so I'm waiting on that too. No way I know of at current to replace (so to speak) hearing.
I have a crate of Howard Leight MAX around, hundred pair at a time. I burn through a crate every couple years or so. Wear 'em often as not, during the day, in all the described activities and more. I'm a loner and ranger anyway, with not lots of interest in anything anyone else has to say outside of work. Motorcycling: goes without saying I have a fresh pair on hand always. Always! Usually several.
Nope on intercoms, radios, etc. My R1200RT has a nice stereo I guess (a '17 bought used in '20). I've never turned it on, and probably won't. Not seeing the point of it though who knows, maybe will find a use at some point.
It's the same as the guys I see that use earbuds or headphones while mowing the lawn. My hearing isn't great, so I wear earplugs when using the lawnmower, leafblower, power saws, really all loud power tools in general, in order to avoid hearing loss. So cranking up the tunes loud enough with earbuds to be heard over the noise of the motor is just "sauteed in wrong sauce". It makes absolutely no sense to me.
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