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I just recently begin riding on the freeway not for long maybe 30 minutes at the most. I've noticed that the noise level (wind) definately increases vs casual city riding. I've read and talked to some people and some wear and some dont wear earplugs. I want to get peoples opinions and experiences with earplugs. Along those lines should earplugs be worn during all freeway riding or maybe just during long distance riding? Your comments will be appreciated.

i started wearing ear plugs this month.

i believe you should wear them... hearing loss is permanent. it will happen gradually so you won't notice it until it's really bad already.

my hearing isn't that good as it is, so i got convinced to wear them.

also, it can help you concentrate since less noise.

I always wear them when riding freeways... and almost always on surface streets. It's just a lot more pleasant and relaxing to me.

Buy small quantities of a lot of different brands/styles of plugs... and put them in properly... and when you find some that are comforable buy a bunch of them.

I never wear them and am on the highway more often then not. I like to hear the sound of my bike. Although I may go deaf early but then I won't need ear plugs either.

BTW: Ear plugs don't prevent you hearing the engine... they don't prevent you from hearing anything... they just make everything quieter.

If I ride more than 15 or 20 minutes, even around town, I put in earplugs. They are cheap and my hearing is bad enough already. It also vastly reduces mental fatigue due to wind noise. Believe it or not, it takes mental energy to ignore the constant loud noises all around you. Do that for four or five hours and your brain will take more energy to concentrate on something (like that car that might take that left-hander and cut you off).

In my mind, it makes motorcycling an even more Zen-like experience. It feels like just you and the bike.

BTW... where in CA are you GloStreet? north or south?

VermilionX, I'm in northern ca in the bay area. Yeah just recently I started getting on the freeway and just wanted to know how people in here felt about earplugs and as I suspected wear them or eventually lose some hearing. Speaking about the bay area its been scorching here triple digits Recently most of my riding has been early in the morning on weekends. Its suppose to cool down a bit as the week progresses YaY! I've been thinking about experiencing some night time riding to see how thats like, temperatures are usally alot better, cooler then. As usual alot of great advice in this forum keep it up, it keeps us newbies out of trouble hehe

For your first night ride it would be wise to do a run down a road at dusk, to check for pot-holes, gravel, etc before the light fully vanishes... that way when going back, you may not know where all the hazards are (stuff being thrown out of cars, etc) but you at least know some of them, and the condition of the road surface.

Be careful of night time critters waking up though

+1 to what Nibs said there about doing a scouting mission.
+1 to earplugs. i need to wear them more than i do. anything around 40mph and above will start to cause hearing loss even when wearing a full faced helmet so that's a good reason to wear them