#1

Hi all, I am new to the forum. I do not have hearing aids yet. I was looking at the iHear Max which is a BTE with RITE. Does anyone ride motorcycles with this kind of hearing aid? Do you leave them on? I was wondering about wind noise, feedback with a helmet on. Any advice on this of any other related hearing aid issues would be welcome.

Mike

#2

Mike - I ride, but I do not wear my hearing aids when I do. In fact, my audiologist said to me “please don’t ride with your hearing aids.” I wear custom molded ear protection when I ride to cut down on the damage from the wind noise. i have never found that I missed having my hearing aids on when I am riding.
Ride safe.

#3

Keep the HA’s off when riding and use ear protection to protect the hearing you have left. Attached is an article that explains what riding the bike does to your hearing. Motorcyclists are at special risk for perminent hearing loss if they don't test and protect their hearing.

#4

Wow, another reason I can’t hear.

#5

I never wear mine when riding.

#6

So now you know!

#7

Why wouldn’t you? A modern digital HA will cut off too much noise. In fact, my Widex reduces any engine and wind noise considerably with its NR. I’d never consider leaving my house without my HA on, regardless of how I leave. Only thing I can think of is how a BTE might not work well with a helmet.

#8

At 103 dB or more of wind noise, it doesn’t matter what the hearing aid is boosting or not boosting. The best you can say about wearing a hearing aid in that situation is, it probably makes it only a little worse.

#9

My hearing aid will actively attenuate overly loud noises, don’t they all?

#10

The aids might attenuate but loud noises might still be as loud.
I cycle not motorbike and I use my aids when cycling. I have open domes and the domes offer very little attenuation. I’m sure they offer very little hearing protection.
I’m new to wearing aids and when cycling they are a real help. I can hear cars behind me much better and I can now chat to cyclists behind me :slight_smile:

#11

I wear a CIC, no vent. I only hear what it passes, and it actually shuts off all sound when things hit a certain DB level.

#12

Biggest issue for all cyclists/motorbikers seems to be the amount of moisture that gets capilliaried into all aids. Can cause real problems.

#13

They don’t boost loud sounds, but they are not rated for hearing protection. Even if 103 dB (or more) doesn’t sound too loud to you, it is still capable of further damage.

#14

I don’t wear mine when riding. If I forget to remove them my helmet does it for me.:slight_smile: I use foam earplugs riding on the highway but not for short trips in the city.

#15

I’ve been riding bikes for over 45 years. I used to wear my HA back in the day when helmets had a looser fit. I would turn down the volume all the way. About 30 years ago when I switched to full face helmets I found that the HA would not clear the helmet easily when pulling helmet on. I then started removing HA before putting on helmet. I store the HA in a small plastic container with a bit of paper towel to cushion the HA and place in my inside pocket of my riding jacket.

#16

I wear Siemens CIC hearing aids, and in opposition to some of the views here, I wear them ALL the time whilst riding. The advice not to can only be related to BTE or set and forget’ types that don’t have a remote controller, but mine, like most other modern HAs, can be muted, or in my case put on the ‘noisy’ program which then very effectively filters out all that droning noise. I have my controller mounted on the handle bars in a little bracket I made, and in practice always switch to mute, and mute it does, very effectively.

Now this is all because I have CIC type HAs, and I doubt any kind of BTE type could be feasible at all, let alone effective at blocking wind noise.