I have been looking at the Shoei GT-Air. Folks tell me it is quiet.

 

Any FF (FullFace) helmet should provide you with the maximum windnoise resistance possible...best fit=best noise reduction, as well...just as WCKevin mentioned...

I've grown accustomed to highway rides with my Speed and Strength 3/4. Between the stock windshield on the bike and it...wind noise is more than tolerable for me. (That may be due to the fact that my hearing may have decreased due to playing long hours of headbangin' noise back in the day at levels beyond 11. Wore zero hearing protection back then...)

When I was sporting a half helmet on a bike with a smaller Wshield...which both were retired last year...the spongy earplugs were my noise suppressor of choice. Dampened windnoise while still allowing traffic sounds...Kept'em in a little plastic box in the bags...

 

HI DG

Foam earplugs with a modular RPHA by HJC helmet. The earplugs are a must. I have a short windshield on my V1700 Classic so not full wind protection, but I'm in Florida and it's hot. Also I put lowers on and they made a big difference with eliminating wind blowing up around the tank.

WEG

 

Hi DG,

Like the others have mentioned foam ear plugs worked well with my old 3/4 cheapo helmet and are the most cost effective. I also use ear buds with the music on low or off to allow me to hear traffic and not deal with wind noise. I now have a HJC 3/4 with a shield and a Nolan modular helmet, both are very quiet and comfortable without ear protection.


Ron

 

I had an oversized full face helmet and I had wind noise. Once I purchased one that pressed against my cheeks, it was much quieter.
And yes at my MSF course ear plugs were suggested. Not sure which would be best.

 

Ear plugs ... all the time, both on the bike and when sleeping ... my other half's snoring is worst than the wind noise.

 

Earplugs. I use the kind you can buy a box of 200 for something like $20 at a hardware store. My current bike is very quiet, so it's the wind noise that gets to me.

 

FF helmets can be as loud or louder than half and 3/4 helmets. You have to pay big bucks to get a FF, modular or not, that has both good air flow and low noise.

With a noisy helmet, closing the vents may help. Putting something around your neck to block air flow from there might also help (some of the most quiet helmets do that), but both will make the helmet a lot hotter. I've tried both with my helmet and it only made it hot, not quiet.

This guy (Quiet Ride Ear Muffs Helmet Speaker Installation | Quiet Ride Ear Muffs made some "ear muffs" to encase helmet speakers and quiet his helmet down. You could do that without the speakers, too. Otherwise, pay $$$$ for a premier helmet, or use ear plugs are probably your best bets.

 

Get louder exhaust. They tend to balance each other out.

 

Active noise cancelling earbuds. Work great!

 

i have begun using the foam ear plugs over last season. They work good and are pretty inexpensive. blocks out a lot of wind noise and actually allows me to hear the radio and surrounding traffic a little better

 

What about reusable ear plugs over foam ones? I've got some surefire plugs I use for shooting and I was planning on getting a set of those for my bike. Has anybody used them and found them not comfortable? Or do people recommend foam ones simply due to cost?

 

It mostly comes down to how comfortable they are for you. Trial and error is the best way to discover what will work best for you.

Personally I prefer the foam plugs if it's going to be warm. And sometimes it gets warm inside that helmet. Which, by the way, is the reason it's important to choose a helmet with a good ventilation system!

 

The buffeting bothers me not noise per say. Once I put the Memphis lowers on it really reduced it.

 

The voices in my head.

 

It starts with a good helmet that is properly fitted to the wearer.

Next comes wind deflection. We all want our bike to look cool (I know I do). Depending on what is 'cool' to you will determine how well it deflects wind and buffeting from the wind. Lowers help the buffeting a lot.

I have a HJC FF modular helmet with a SENA system installed. I am able to use intercom and voice commands with zero issues. I make phone calls and people tell me how amazed they are when they discover I am riding my bike talking from inside a helmet.

Oh, and my bike has Cobra Slash Down pipes.

The most important detail that works for me is proper helmet fit. A well made quality helmet makes this possible. My helmet with accessories comes to almost $800 dollars! Well worth it for the comfort and serenity it provides. Plus, with the touch of a button on my grip remote I can switch to ambient mode which transmits from an exterior microphone making it seem as if I don't have a helmet on at all! That's for the times when I want to hear everything outside my helmet.

I've been riding since I was a wee lad. I've worn helmets that barley fit the definition of a helmet! I've had ill fitting FF helmets that made it seem like I were in a wind tunnel. Some of them were so bad I could still hear the roar for hours after the ride!

There are options that don't break the bank as previous posters have mentioned. Ear plugs are my favorite. I guess it comes down to how much you want to spend.

 

Easy, I just turn off my hearing aids :grin2:

 

My Shoei GT-Air is pretty quiet and I use foam ear plugs as well. If I'm just running an errand and the speeds will remain under 40mph I skip the plugs but otherwise I use the plugs. Gotta protect your hearing!!

 

Dye your hair gray. That way when you pull off your helmet and keep bellowing, "WHAT? EH? HUH?" you'll look perfectly natural.

:rimshot:

Okay, foam ear plugs it is, then. I tried the 3M soft plastic ones -- the ones you get at Home Depot that are orange and are attached to a string -- I just about gave myself do-it-yourself brain surgery when I tried to put on the helmet, but YMMV depending on your helmet fit.

 

Like others have said; helmet matters. If both have the same safety rating, an inexpensive full-face helmet and a high end one will be about the same in terms of protection. But the high end one will be a world of difference in comfort. What you're actually paying for with a $600 helmet, is thousands of hours of wind tunnel time and engineer time to develop a helmet that flows through the wind and doesn't make noise. The materials used are the same; it's the R&D they're trying to recoup.

A good windshield (and lowers, too) make the biggest difference. Together, they cut down on the wind in the first place. No wind, no wind noise!

Even with a full fairing, quiet exhaust, etc., I still tend to use earplugs on long trips. If your ears are ringing after a ride, you've damaged them, period. That damage accumulates over time until you're the guy with the squealing hearing aids yelling at the waitress that you don't understand what "alfredo salad" is and she's trying to say the special is "potato salad". I SHOULD wear them all the time on the bike, but at least I do wear them on long rides.

 

After a day of helmet off and on, I had sore ears. I bought one of those tube shaped things made of stretchy material. I put it around my neck and bring the back over the top of my head like a hood. The helmet slips on much easier and it made a noticeable reduction in wind noise.

 

There's wind noise? After riding on the deck of a cabless tractor for 50 years and firing thousands of rounds through rifles & handguns with no hearing protection at all......I hear very little, other than the voices in my head.:serious:

 

Arai full face are the quietest. And best made on the planet. If I need sound management I use custom made musician ear plugs from my audiologist or I use foam ear plugs. I find I concentrate better on the road with ear plugs.

I rode many years with loud exhaust on my bike. I am tired of the noise. I stick with the stock exhaust system to save my hearing.

 

I agree about the Arai for noise, also the two I've onwed have been the most comfortable ever, but both eventually broke the visor side pieces, and the related means of removing replacing the visor is a klunky PITA relative to every other helmet I've owned (at least a dozen). So, in short, there is no such thing as a free lunch!

 

I'm curious to learn more about your custom ear plugs. I bought a big bag from Oxford but I find I have a devil of a time getting them in no matter how tight I roll them down, particularly on the right side. Apparently my ear canals aren't the easiest to navigate and get those foam plugs to stay in.

 

My audiologist took impressions of each ear canal, the casts of the canals are sent to a company that makes the special musician's ear plugs. They have three different filters for them. You can pop them out, put in a different filter. One cuts out all soundwaves; the other two filter different levels of sound. You can wear these, use a power saw or an air tool, protect your ears and have a conversation with people. I use them when riding, when suing air or power tools, when I'm using my Tractor with the PTO finish mower, at rock concerts (I go to a lot of them) and at Seahawks home games when the 12s get really loud.

 

Very cool. Out of curiosity what does something like that cost?