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Equipping the Bike - what's the best gear? Anything to do with the bikes equipment, saddlebags, etc. Questions on repairs and maintenance of the bike itself belong in the Brand Specific Tech Forums.
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Old 18 Jun 2015
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Headphones
Any recommends for good in-helmet earphones that you can actually hear properly at speed? My Shure ones (which incorporate earplugs) are worn-out and they never worked that well - they poke out at get pulled out of place by the helmet. Or maybe it's about a quiet helmet or windshield??
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Old 19 Jun 2015
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I would not use in ear plugs for listening to music/satnav. (Personnel preference) I used to use the the big old walkman type ear phones which you can buy and they fit in side the helmet with with velcro. Most helmets have and indentation around the area of the ear so you can fit them in to place. Some helmets even have a small piece of removable padding near the ear so you can fit them more snugly. You can also work the wiring behind the remainder of the padding so that its all tucked away. I am not suggesting you buy one but my old BMW helmet was great for that. There are other helmets on the market which you can do the same with. The more quieter helmets are IMO the best for this.

Wayne
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Old 19 Jun 2015
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Get yourself a kit off evilbay that let's you mould your own earplugs. Take your earbuds of choice put them in your ears and mould the epoxy foam stuff round them. Wait ten minutes, you can listen to music, then pop them out. If the earbuds drops out, superglue it back into the cavity in the earplug.

Can't post a link from here, but if you Google threewheelguzzi and click on the comms tab there a bit more info and link to pictures.

Three quid bargain store earbuds boosted via a Scala Bluetooth works for me. Open face helmet so the pad type are useless unless you want to crank up the volume to 13 and only hear rock music drumming. Seal the ear and you can separate the music from the back ground. I don't get on with quiet helmets as they always seem to restrict vision, so always wear earplugs anyway.

Andy
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Old 19 Jun 2015
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Andy, just a quick question about earplugs. I'm a regular user of the disposable foam ones and find that if I roll them up tight enough and manage to get them properly into my ear canal they're very effective after they've expanded for a minute or two. However it's very easy (or hard) to get them just superficially pushed into the outer bit of the ear where they're nothing like as effective. Rolling them when they're warm means they expand before you can get them located and getting them into the inner ear becomes a trial of perseverance.

Presumably if you've moulded them with speakers in the mix we're not talking about something you roll up to use. Do they just sit in the outer ear area and if so how effective are they compared with properly inserted foam ones. I've seen (read) mixed reviews of kits for mould your own earplugs on e.g. Amazon and wondered if the bad reviews are from fumble fingered DIYers, disgruntled professional suppliers or whether the plugs are just not that good.
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Old 19 Jun 2015
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Wish I could post a link but phone bound just now.

The stuff is like plastercine that sets to rubber. Shove it in well enough and you get a mould that goes as far as something flat inside your ear which I've thought might be my ear drum. It about an inch down the hole. The speakers stop you getting this far so sort of seal on the funnely bit and their own expanding caps.

As plain earplugs without speakers these moulded type make me totally deaf, can't hear the wife at 2 feet away. ( not that i would ever get away with that for long ).


Does volume setting show effectiveness? With ear buds only I set my phone volume to 13 on the bike, 8 round the house. Helmet mounted speakers I can't hear set to 13 at 50 mph. Moulded in plugs I set my phone to 9 and can hear at 70 mph. I listen to classical music so the quiet bits are quiet and the loud bits loud. I am a little deaf from riding and music before we knew to protect ourselves.

Andy
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Old 19 Jun 2015
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Hmm - not hearing my wife from 2 feet away is kind of what this is all about she'll be about 2 feet behind me across the US in a couple of months.

We've been looking at intercom headsets but (to bring it sort of back to what Goo's original post was about) going deaf from roll ups in your ears and then trying to hear anything from headset speakers by boosting the volume seems like an arms race worthy of the cold war.

When you get a chance, if you've got a link that would be rally helpful
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