Music, Navigation and Intercom on a Motorcycle: How to Protect Your Hearing

You ride onto the motorway, your sat nav announces a turn and you can barely hear it. So you turn the volume up. Sound familiar? Under a motorcycle helmet it is much louder than most riders think. Most of that noise does not come from your engine, but from the wind. In this article you will read how loud it is under your helmet, why your helmet does little about it, what the rules are for earphones and headsets on a motorcycle in different European countries, and how to hear music, navigation and your intercom without damaging your hearing.

How loud is it under your helmet?

When you stand still with the engine idling, you mainly hear the engine. As soon as you speed up, the wind takes over. The air flowing past your helmet swirls around the chin bar, the neck and the edges of the visor, and that creates a constant, low roar in your ears.

Measurements by audiologist Alberto Behar come out at around 90 dB(A) at 60 km/h, rising to 110 dB(A) at 160 km/h. At motorway speed you end up in between, at around 100 dB. How loud it is for you depends on your helmet, your bike, your fairing or windscreen and your riding position. But even with a quiet helmet, on the motorway you are well above the level at which hearing damage starts.

The times follow the rule of thumb of 80 dB(A) for 8 hours, where every 3 dB louder halves the safe time. The treacherous thing about wind noise is that it does not hurt. You get used to it, and only after the ride do you notice that your ears are ringing or that everything sounds dull for a while. Those are signs that you have had too much. Why every few decibels count so heavily is explained in how many decibels is harmful.

Work out for yourself what a ride does to your ears. A two-hour tour on the motorway, without protection and with a filter:

Why a helmet does not block enough noise

A helmet is made to protect your head in a fall, not to keep out sound. Behar writes that modern helmets are very poor at reducing low tones, and wind noise consists mostly of low tones. Part of the noise is also created by the helmet itself: the wind hits the shell and creeps in along your neck and chin. A more expensive or quieter helmet does make some difference, but it will not get you below the limit.

On top of that, the speakers in your helmet have to compete with that wind noise. To understand your music or navigation, you set the volume higher than the wind. That sound then comes on top of the noise that was already there. So your ears do not get less to deal with, but more.

The most direct protection is therefore an earplug under your helmet. Behar also concludes that earplugs are still the best protection. How to combine earplugs with music, navigation and an intercom is explained below.

Music, navigation and intercom: what does the law say?

There is no single European rule for earphones on a motorcycle. Traffic rules are national, so what is allowed differs from country to country. Three examples show how far apart they are:

Other countries have their own rules, and they can change. Wherever you ride, these points help you stay safe and avoid trouble:

• put your phone or sat nav in a holder on your handlebars or tank, and do not operate it while riding
• keep the volume low enough to hear sirens, horns and other traffic
• do not let a call or playlist take your attention off the road; in heavy traffic, pausing is the safest choice

Combining earplugs and sound: two ways

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to protect your ears and still hear music, navigation or your mates on the intercom.

Which way suits you depends on your set-up. If you already have a Sena or Cardo system and often ride in a group, an earplug that plugs straight into your intercom is the logical step. If you only want music and navigation from your phone, wireless works. And if you mainly want quiet under your helmet and to hear your engine clearly, an earplug with a good filter is enough.

Our earplugs for motorcycling

Audinc Ride: on your intercom

The Audinc Ride is a custom earplug with a built-in speaker and a Kevlar-coated cable. Instead of the speakers in your helmet, you plug the Ride into your Sena or Cardo system. You hear music, navigation and your group through the earplugs, and you talk through your intercom’s microphone. Do check that your system has a 3.5 mm mini-jack; the product page shows which models connect directly or with an adapter.

You choose a 1.2-metre cable, which you tuck away under your clothing, or a short 60 cm cable for a compact set-up. There is a choice of a 6 mm speaker, clear and focused and good for navigation and speech, or an 8 mm speaker with a fuller sound and more bass for music. The cable is detachable, so for a short ride you use the Ride as an ordinary earplug. If you still want to use it wirelessly with your phone, you can do so with the Bluetooth transceiver from our shop.

Audinc Ride Bluetooth: wireless with your phone

The Audinc Ride Bluetooth has the same flat custom earplugs, but with an ergonomic Bluetooth 5.0 cable with a built-in battery and control unit. The battery lasts 20 hours, enough for a long tour. You control your music with the buttons and take calls with the built-in microphone. Note: this version does not work with an intercom system. If you ride in a group with Sena or Cardo, choose the Ride with a cable.

The earplugs of the Ride and the Ride Bluetooth are always made of soft silicone. They do not stick out of your ears, so they are comfortable even under a tight helmet.

Custom Motor: quiet under your helmet

Want to keep your helmet speakers, or would you rather ride without music? Then the Custom Motor is the earplug for you. The motorcycle filter reduces wind noise, while you keep hearing the traffic around you. You choose the strength: from SNR 17 to 19 dB with the medium filter up to 28 to 34 dB with the strongest filter, depending on the material. In the first 3 months we swap the filters free of charge, so you can match the attenuation to how and where you ride.

The Custom Motor comes in soft silicone and hard acrylic. Under a helmet, soft is usually the most comfortable, because there is no hard edge pressing against your ear. The difference is explained in hard or soft custom earplugs.

Custom Pure Tones Motor: natural sound

The Custom Pure Tones Motor has a flat filter that reduces low, mid and high tones by roughly the same amount. Everything gets quieter but still sounds the way it is: you hear your engine, your navigation and the traffic clearly, just not as loud. You choose from four strengths, from SNR 10 to 23 dB, and with the optional Click upgrade you switch to a stronger filter of SNR 28 dB with one press. Because the sound stays so natural, many people also use this earplug at festivals and concerts.

Audinc Bluetooth: on the go

The Audinc Bluetooth combines custom ear tips with the wireless JBL Tune 135BT. You get up to 25 hours of battery life, multipoint to pair two devices at the same time, and it is splash-proof (IPX4). It is made for everyday use, sport, the train or the bike, not specifically for under a motorcycle helmet. If you want to listen wirelessly while riding, the Ride Bluetooth is the earplug that sits flat under your helmet.

Still not sure? Answer two questions and see which earplug we would recommend:

How the fitting works

We take impressions of your ears at one of our locations in the Netherlands or Belgium, or in Paphos on Cyprus, where you book by phone or WhatsApp. Allow about 20 minutes for the whole appointment. Not near one of our locations? Have impressions taken locally and send them to us. What exactly happens at the fitting is explained in fitting earplugs: how does that actually work?

We make the earplugs in our own 3D lab in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The production time is 15 working days, and rush orders are possible. You get at least 2 years’ warranty on the material and a 6-month comfort guarantee: if they still do not fit well after you have got used to them, we adjust them free of charge. More tips to protect your ears, also off the bike, can be found in tinnitus prevention.

Custom motorcycle earplugsLess wind, but still your music and navigationFlat under your helmet, with or without speakers. Ready in 15 working days. View motorcycle earplugs

Sources

• Behar, A.: Motorcycle noise, part II, Canadian Audiologist (wind noise by speed, attenuation of helmets, earplugs as the best protection)
• Dutch government (Rijksoverheid): Rules for motorcycles (in Dutch; no holding electronic devices; hands-free calling and listening to music are allowed, without endangering other traffic)
• Dutch Traffic Rules and Signs Regulations 1990 (RVV 1990), article 61a (in Dutch; ban on holding a mobile electronic device while riding or driving)
• French Ministry of the Interior, Sécurité routière: Press release on the ban on earphones, earbuds and headphones while driving (in French; 18 June 2015; also applies to motorcycles, helmet systems remain allowed, €135 and 3 points; Spain since 2003)