Cumulative Wind Noise Damage from Cycling?

Hey All: I just posted my first thread earlier this week. I experienced an acute onset of tinnitus while on a mountain biking vacation a few weeks ago. It started as loud sounds of crickets/cicadas mostly in my left ear. I thought this sound was external, but when I stopped and covered my ears I realized that the sound was coming from inside my head. I think I have had very mild tinnitus most of my life (very gentle hiss in totally silent rooms), but this is the first time I ever confused an internal sound for an actual external sound. Freaked my out enough to end up here and to be seeing an ENT and audiologist soon. Two weeks in and not much improvement.

As you can see from my avatar I am an avid cyclist and ride maybe 6-8 hours per week. Turbulent air passing over the irregular surface of the ear pinnae can cause a lot of noise, by some studies 80-100 dB at 18-20 mph. Sailing is another sport where exposure to wind could be significant. And motorcyclists experience much greater noise traveling at highway speeds combined with engine noise, especially if they aren't wearing a helmet. I never use to even notice or think about wind noise when cycling, but for about the past year or so this noise has started to bother me. I have tried a few products on the market that attach to you helmet straps and supposedly create a wind barrier or interference, but they seem pretty much worthless. Recently, I have been using silicone EarPeace ear plugs designed for motorcyclists. They do cut the wind noise pretty well, but I have trouble hearing approaching cars and other cyclists, making cycling in traffic much more dangerous.

So I am asking the forum to share your experiences with wind noise and thoughts on how to better protect ears from it when doing sports like cycling, sailing, motorcycling, etc. Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

I agree, wind noise caught me out on a motorbike trip and I came back with ringing ears in June. Didn't even think it would be something to consider but I paid the price. I now use high grade foam earplugs. You will know if what you buy works as you should hear no reverberations and it should not alter if you move your head around etc. I would opt for quality foam ones mainly because once in they encapsulate the ear canal very well and are soft on the skin.

 

Thanks for reply man. I have been using these Ear Peace ear plugs and they are working pretty well. They cut wind noise and I can still barely hear cars approaching. so not perfect but better than no protection. Still dealing with big time T going on three weeks. WTF?

 

I have the same problem and use customised earplugs when cycling and running. I do notice my ears become very sensitive afterwards but does go down after a few days.

 

Sorry to hear about your situation. Although a few weeks have gone by since the initial incident, I don't think it'd hurt to speak to your GP as soon as possible about starting oral steroids for the ringing, as well as taking generally approved anti-inflammatories such as curcumin in capsule form and fish oil - of high quality.

Oh, and I would really go easy on your ears so they can heal and recover, take a break from the cycling for at least a few weeks. That's just what I'd do, personally. You could try wearing concert-type ear plugs throughout the day, on and off, to give your ears a break but without making yourself overly sensitive to normal noises. And definitely wear foam plugs loosely while walking down city side walks, etc.! Just avoid really noisy places when you can! I hope you feel better soon.

 

Thanks Lyris, appreciate the concern and advice. Not sure I can take a few weeks off as I think exercise really helps with stress, but I am wearing my ear plugs when riding which makes it so much more pleasant.

 

I know some helmets have wind breakers on them. You can try a combo of that and ear plugs and it should work.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PCTOBC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I simply wear a buff or something fabric like a bandeau over my ears (things I use to keep hair out of my face when I run). It doesn't offer hearing protection so much as just blocks the wind from directly hitting my ear. Of course I'm not running as fast as you are cycling, so I'm not sure it would hold up to the wind sounds you are experiencing.

 

Hi, I'm a motorcyclist and skier and sometimes biker.

Motorcycles, through earplugs and under a helmet, don't have to be that loud, you can keep exposure in the upper 70 dB range. I find wind noise from downhill skiing can be as bad or worse, mostly I do fairly slow glade skiing but if I am doing open mountain speed stuff for a whole day I will wear plugs. For bicycles they make things called "Cat Ears" that help deflect sound away, but honestly, if I were you and determined to keep biking and sailing I would start wearing earplugs.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have tried the "Cat Ears" and "Wind Blox" devices while cycling, and they provide minimal wind noise reduction. So, yes, I now cycle with EarPeace high fidelity ear plugs all the time. They really do block a lot of the extraneous wind noise but allow me to hear cars coming from behind.

I now firmly believe that cumulative wind noise exposure led to most of my high frequency hearing loss. It is an issue that I see very little discussion of in the cycling community, so maybe I am just particularly sensitive. There is a family history of age-related hearing loss on my mother's side.

 

I've been looking to block out wind noise and so far unsuccessfully. Earplugs I have tried don't protect me, I think it's something to do with the occlusion effect. The wind noise seems to bypass or travel through the plugs because it's hitting all parts of the ear and head. Windblox and Cat Ears are useless products imo... Fluffy earmuffs block the noise, but not enough for riding speeds.

 

I may not take the bike at the same speeds as you, but I've taken it to the office daily in some periods of time despite severe reactivity and really bad loudness hyperacusis. When I use deeply inserted foam earplugs with a pair of earmuffs on top, I get very good protection and are rarely affected by the wind. What made a quite big difference was upgrading the earmuffs to Peltor X5A; now I barely hear cars going by right beside me in the city.

Wishing you well,
Stacken