There’s some new and disturbing research about the level of noise exposure that we experience when riding at any speed.
“Even at 10 miles an hour you were up in the range that is potentially noisy,†he said. “At 10 miles per hour you get 85dB of noise in the left ear, roughly 85 in the right ear. At 15 you’ve got almost 90 … with no yaw , just head on. And it went as high as 120dB.â€
At 25mph (40km/h) a rider experiences a full 100dB of noise, and that’s enough to cause hearing damage if sustained for a length of time. There are a few tools out there that can reduce that noise, including better helmets (the Kask Protone is mentioned in the comments) and strap add-ons, and I’ll be investigating them after reading this.
My one caveat with this research is that their yaw distribution is unrepresentative of real-world conditions.
Even at Kona, wind yaw angles rarely reach beyond 15 degrees and are rarely above 20. Around 80% is spent at less than 10 degrees. On more typical cycle courses, that increases to around 95-98%. http://www.slowtwitch.com/...Yaw_Angles_5844.html
I damaged my hearing driving a Jeep wrangler with no top and doors removed. Started wearing foam earplugs in the jeep as soon as I figured it out. That was 10 years ago now. Never occurred to me that wind would be a hearing loss issue on a bike. GA2 covers the ears well and muffles wind noise but that’s only for racing…
That is total bullshit. 100dB is very loud. Riding at 25mph doesn’t create any where near that kind of volume level.
I’m former military, so like a lot of those folks, I’ve a fair amount of hearing loss. As a result I’m very careful with what hearing I have left and I pay attention to how much noise is in my environment. I also have a good feel for volume levels because my other hobby is racing cars and tracks often have a 99-103dB noise limit. They put devices around the track to measure noise and if your car is too loud, the flaggers will signal you to come off the track. 100dB is loud as f**k.
Jet engine taking off 140 dB
Thunder/Ambulance siren 119 dB
Hammer drill 113 dB
Chain saw/Earphones/Concert 110 dB
Bull Dozer 105 dB
Tractor/Power tools 96 dB
Hairdryer/lawnmower 90 dB
That is total bullshit. 100dB is very loud. Riding at 25mph doesn’t create any where near that kind of volume level.
I’m former military, so like a lot of those folks, I’ve a fair amount of hearing loss. As a result I’m very careful with what hearing I have left and I pay attention to how much noise is in my environment. I also have a good feel for volume levels because my other hobby is racing cars and tracks often have a 99-103dB noise limit. They put devices around the track to measure noise and if your car is too loud, the flaggers will signal you to come off the track. 100dB is loud as f**k.
I dunno about 100dB, which is yeah, CRAZY loud, but if you think about even being able to shout a conversation at the top of your lungs to the guy riding behind you while going 25+mph, it’s nearly impossible. So even if it’s not a full 100dB, it’s loud enough that sure, you probably should consider the impact to your hearing given how loud something has to be to make drown out even your full shout.
That is total bullshit. 100dB is very loud. Riding at 25mph doesn’t create any where near that kind of volume level.
I’m former military, so like a lot of those folks, I’ve a fair amount of hearing loss. As a result I’m very careful with what hearing I have left and I pay attention to how much noise is in my environment. I also have a good feel for volume levels because my other hobby is racing cars and tracks often have a 99-103dB noise limit. They put devices around the track to measure noise and if your car is too loud, the flaggers will signal you to come off the track. 100dB is loud as f**k.
So what you are saying is that article is really just paid promotion for Wind-Blox???
There’s some new and disturbing research about the level of noise exposure that we experience when riding at any speed.
“Even at 10 miles an hour you were up in the range that is potentially noisy,†he said. “At 10 miles per hour you get 85dB of noise in the left ear, roughly 85 in the right ear. At 15 you’ve got almost 90 … with no yaw , just head on. And it went as high as 120dB.â€
At 25mph (40km/h) a rider experiences a full 100dB of noise, and that’s enough to cause hearing damage if sustained for a length of time. There are a few tools out there that can reduce that noise, including better helmets (the Kask Protone is mentioned in the comments) and strap add-ons, and I’ll be investigating them after reading this.
My one caveat with this research is that their yaw distribution is unrepresentative of real-world conditions.
Even at Kona, wind yaw angles rarely reach beyond 15 degrees and are rarely above 20. Around 80% is spent at less than 10 degrees. On more typical cycle courses, that increases to around 95-98%. http://www.slowtwitch.com/...Yaw_Angles_5844.html
The PubMed study cited is so flawed from the experimental design approach, it isn’t even funny (e.g. "Microphones attached near the ears of the cyclist ")
Well, the jets taking off from the airport 20 miles away are an almost unheard 140dB from here.
Without being able to read the article, I’ve no idea whether it’s dBA, dbHL, dbSPL, at what distance it’s measured, or where the mic is - I suppose it should be where the eardrum is and with average hair growth in place.
As mentioned, too many unknowns to make it worrisome…
What’s wrong with the study design?
How did they filter out ambient noise in order to just pick up noise due to wind passing? Wind tunnels are noisy places.
You can’t just put a microphone in a region of air blast and say “that’s the noise due to the wind”. Wind noise is a product of the air flow on the exterior surfaces of the sound sensing device, be it a mic or an ear drum. So the wind noise caused by wind hitting the mic doesn’t tell you anything about wind noise hitting the ear drum. In order to do this correctly, you’d have to do something along the lines of fabricate a rubber ear on a dummy’s head. Put a helmet on the dummy and then put the mic deep into the rubber ear’s canal.
I know I’m going to get shit for this, but this is the reason I do training rides with earbuds. Because of the shape of my ears or helmet, the wind noise is louder than any volume I ride at.
With naked ears, anything over 12 or 15 mph the wind howls and I can’t hear anything. With earbuds, I don’t hear the howling any more.
I know I’m going to get shit for this, but this is the reason I do training rides with earbuds. Because of the shape of my ears or helmet, the wind noise is louder than any volume I ride at.
With naked ears, anything over 12 or 15 mph the wind howls and I can’t hear anything. With earbuds, I don’t hear the howling any more.
Kinda similar…I’ve been addicted to books on tape for 15yrs. But when I run with earbuds, I get a lot of windnoise from the earbuds themselves, and noise from the cable bonking on my manly chest.
The solution turned out to be bone conduction headphones. They don’t go into your ears, the go over the top of your ears and then kinda press on your cheekbones. So no reduction in your ability to hear.
Note that bone conduction is better for my books then your tunes. The “fidelity” isn’t going to be fabulous for those that are really into music.
