Motorcycle Rides

New to the forum, and I have searched for info about motorcycle riding.

I have lived with tinnitus for a bit over a year. It recently ramped up a bit. I am an avid motorcyclist - street rider, I ride a HARLEY Ultra Classic.

I have been on several cross country rides, the latest after the tinnitus started. In the past, I did not wear ear plugs but, for the last year, I have.

I rode to New Mexico from Georgia and back in August. (Sorry, this is getting long).

I’ve read - “stop riding,” and “wear ear plugs and ride.”

I have read about spikes, after rides, that go down after a while.

When this first started, I did not think anything could keep me from riding.

Since this last ramp-up, that started about a week ago (and could maybe be tied to a ride), I am considering giving it up.

Talk to me! Especially any bikers on here. Thanks.

 

I don't ride a Harley, nor a motorcycle, but I do ride scooters here in SoCal and have asked myself that question many times. I don't wear a full helmet so my ears and tinnitus are bothered by the wind (yes it is possible to be affected by the wind on a scooter). My solution was to cut back on my rides but not out. I'm too invested and I enjoy it too much. I suffer from severe tinnitus but I won't be a prisoner to it. I just do things in moderation.

 

It would have been a good idea to take a 1 or 2 year break from riding (to give your ears a chance to recover) and then to slowly try introducing it into your life again. In other words - ride for 30 minutes - if there is no spike, then try riding for one hour, if there is no spike, ... you get the idea.

It is my understanding that motorcycles are quiet, but that riders deliberately make them loud. Can you find a way to make your motorcycle quieter? Get a better muffler, or find a quieter engine?

In any case, if you get spikes after riding, it is a signal from your body. It is not good idea to ignore this signal. The good news is that as your ears recover, there is a chance that what gave you a spike during your first year will no longer give you a spike. If an activity doesn't result in spikes for you, then it would seem it is reasonably safe to be engaged in that activity.

 

you should just take a break for 1-2 year until it settles, don't consider it "giving it up". It's not just the motorcycle noise but also the highway noise and other cars and trucks. Your piece of mind is not worth it. I've given up listing to music for the past 3 years. Hardest thing ever. But I know my tinnitus is wayyyy lower because of the change. So the sacrifice pays off over and over.

 

Just bumping this thread because it's that time of year again. Ride safe everyone, and I mean "check your brakes" just as much as I mean "use good earpro and know how loud your bike is".

Photo is from my ride home from a socially-distanced pickup of the bike at a shop that had been storing it.

 

I have no clue how loud a HARLEY Ultra Classic is.

 

Unless it's a Harley with a modified exhaust, it's the wind noise one should be wary of.

 

Since getting tinnitus I've developed a passionate dislike for motorcyclists. This made me actually research a bit if motorcyclists are susceptible to developing it themselves since they're around the loud noise very often.

Studies indicate that with good helmets the risk is actually quite small. The risk for noise induced hearing loss seems to be the highest for the low frequencies since they are conducted through the helmet and bone (so protection against high frequencies seems pretty good, though one should still carefully consider getting a good protection). But actual problems from low frequency conduction seem to arise only after years/decades of motorcycling, otherwise it would be a more known issue among motorcyclists. I have also seen that there are some new helmets that have additional noise protection, but I'm not an expert on that.

Since you already have tinnitus, I would be careful. If the hearing restoration medicines that arrive in a couple years really work, you should certainly be able to go back to biking after getting treatment. So your current tinnitus is certainly not a life sentence of not being able to bike again.

 

It's a very known issue among motorcyclists I know and have talked to at shops and stuff, and someone who was in the process of trying to sell me a $600 helmet known for being quiet was quick to point out to me, "hey, I have tinnitus too and I definitely wouldn't call any helmet quiet or a substitute for earplugs, or encourage riding without them".

Even with earplugs, at highway speeds you want to take breaks on a pretty regular basis. Wind speed is, indeed, generally a much bigger factor than engine noise with a stock exhaust. 90mins of 45-80mph riding is enough to cause a temporarily threshold shift that I notice as "fuzziness", which caused me to cut my ride times to 60mins, and now that I'm in the boonies I ride a lot slower so it's less of a concern.

The point is that motorcycles will absolutely deafen the shit out of you if you ride them any significant amount with no earpro, and this is not a mysterious idea to the riders I know. I live in a land of year round guns and small engines (chainsaws, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc) and it seems to me that the younger generation is pretty woke to hearing issues, I see plugs more than not.

 

Good to know, sorry for the misinformation. Maybe the sources I found were only concerned for regular frequencies (<8 kHz). I never expected it to be this bad, I mean 45mph is nothing. Another reason to never try out biking for me...

 

If you're tough enough to wear one of these, tinnitus will be too afraid to afflict you.