Hearing Protection

    There's lots of jokes about deaf old riders... but I haven't heard one in years! 😄


    Seriously though, hearing protection is no joke. I'm sure most of us wouldn't go shooting without hearing protection, but lots of us ride without it! I started paying more attention when I started having trouble hearing people at work. Had my hearing checked, found out I needed hearing 👂 aids. Pricy little buggers at $5K for the pair.


    (Basic safety gear for riding!)


    I started wearing silicone ear plugs when riding (and shooting), but I wasn't satisfied. They were comfortable, blocked the noise just fine, but I couldn't hear much of anything when wearing them!


    Did my research, paid my money 💰 and ordered a pair of electronic ear plugs from OTTO. These are highly thought of in the LEO community and get lots of good reviews from cops 👮‍♂️ who have to wear them all shift, and cannot sacrifice either good hearing or situational awareness. These let you hear normal sounds but block out dangerous sound levels and frequencies.



    These fit well and have two modes, regular and enhanced hearing. Both modes let you hear normal noises. Riding Ruby, I hear the exhaust note, wheel noise, normal sounds of a sling driven hard. I can HEAR if something sounds wrong. I can hear other cars, coming toward me, approaching from behind and in my blind spot.


    Went to the grocery store and the transition from the Slingshot to the grocery cart was seamless, no need to adjust them or remove them to shop & hear normally. Tried the enhanced mode in the grocery and was able to hear conversations two aisles away!


    Are they "pricy"? Depends on how you look at this. They cost less than 1/10th of my regular hearing aides - but I wish they had these years ago, I might not have needed the others! Don't go to Amazon for these, saved $65 by going directly to the manufacturer's website! Look for Noizebarrier micro.


    http://www.otto-comm.com

    The smarter you get, the funnier I am.

    Like some of us I wear hearing aids. Years of artillery, high frequency turbine engines and transmissions I like the noise.

    For me there are two settings on volume, off and 100%. I have WP exhausts and they are fine for me.

    I also use sound adjustable attenuation muffs for shooting. For you lucky folks protect those ears. We only get one set.

    Just a short update...

    I've been using these for a few days now. I find them very comfortable, haven't worn them for more than 3 hours at a stretch, but very comfortable over time. Don't think I would have any trouble wearing them all day.

    One of the best things is being able to hear music in all its glory, even at highway speed or when driving hard. Its also great to be able to stop, chat with folks or go into a store without removing them. One of the big problems I had with silicone ear plugs was having to remove and reinsert them frequently (insert Tripod joke here!).

    Definitely worth the ticket price!

    The smarter you get, the funnier I am.

    I worked in a steel mill, played tons of loud music, tried to make all the loud explosions I could....now I have a significant hearing loss.....

    I got a notice about our company giving away free hearing aides to retirees...so I got a $5000 pair for free.

    I asked the audiologist ..why the company was doing this.....he said it’s not the company, it’s their insurance company......(Shocked the hell out of me) ...he said they found a direct correlation between hearing loss and dementia and the insurance company figures it’s cheaper to prevent dementia than to pay for dementia patients...In the long run....