Can riding a motorcycle without earplugs cause hearing damage?

Question

I've heard claims before that when riding a motorcycle, wind noise (especially on the highway) is loud enough that it will cause eventual hearing loss.

Personally, I ride a motorcycle, and I usually wear earplugs on longer rides, but I have no scientific reason to do so - I just prefer the decreased noise. Is there any reason to believe I'm actually protecting my hearing by doing so?

Here are some example claims:

• Based on several research studies, the major contributor to hearing loss in the motorcycle industry remains the "silent killer" known as "wind noise."
• That threat is to the loss of your ability to hear. As you read further you will find that it has already happened to you, it will get worse, and that your helmet is an inadequate defense against it.
• For the record, it's our opinion that riding a motorcycle is a very noisy endeavor. The noise that is generated is always loud enough to be dangerous to human health and can easily cause permanent hearing damage.

Answer 1

I found this study Hearing loss in motorcyclists: occupational and medicolegal aspects Andrew W McCombe, MD FRCS(ORL) 2003 to be most thorough, it also has links to six other studies which you could use as further reading:

However, over the past 10-15 years, as motorcycle development has led to quieter machines with radically improved performance, there has been increasing concern that riders are exposed to excessive noise through turbulent airflow around the helmet—so-called wind-noise. The seminal report on this topic (although not the first) was that of Van Moorhem et al. in 1981. Apart from the work of our group, there have since been only six published reports on the subject. (See article for linked references)

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All groups have used essentially similar techniques: a miniature microphone is placed at the rider's ear under the helmet and sound levels are measured in various riding conditions. All these studies show excessive wind noise around the helmet—about 90 dB(A) at 60 km/h and increasing linearly when plotted against the log of speed, to reach 110 dB(A) at 160 km/h.

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Modern helmets, we found, offered very poor low-frequency sound attenuation and we also demonstrated a phenomenon of resonance at 250 Hz. The source proved to be a turbulent boundary layer, vibrating against the outside of the helmet shell, with its maximum sound energy focused between 250 and 500 Hz.

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When we used more suitable controls, we did confirm hearing loss in motorcyclists. We also identified a temporary threshold shift after only 1 hour of high-speed riding and a corresponding subjective complaint of tinnitus. After long periods at high speed, riders commonly report other non-specific complaints such as fatigue, headache and even disequilibrium. Similar symptoms have been described in industry and elsewhere.

60 km/h is common on urban streets, but if you are regularly traveling along highways or touring you can be sitting at 100 km/h for reasonable stretches which means above 90 dB for an extend period of time. According to several sources this is sufficient to cause hearing damage.

Example sources for above claim:

• Hearing damage (over long-term exposure, need not be continuous) 85 dB
• Long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss.