After years of fooling with foam ear plugs I finally decided to splurge and pay the big bucks for a set of custom ear pieces. I bought them from a company called "PlugUp". When I received them, they looked good, but I soon found out that riding with them was unbearable. It felt fine wearing them around the house, but with the helmet on they were Painful! I think part of that problem was my Arai helmet putting a little too much pressure in the wrong place. I'm now using a Shoei and it's a lot better.
The bigger problem is the noise while riding! Wearing these things actually creates more noise than without. It sounds like I'm sitting inside a drum, and it's maddening. What seems to be happening is that the plug is actually transmitting sound into the bones in my jaw. Cocking my jaw one way or another eliminates the noise, but of course I can't ride that way.
What's really annoying is that I can't even get PlugUp to respond to my emails, so I've given up trying to resolve this with them. At the Salem rally, another company making custom plugs offered to brush some kind of silicon filler on them to, in effect, tighten them up. Although it was a very nice gesture, it didn't help. Now I'm starting to wonder if maybe they're just too tight. I realize that they need to be tight enough to seal, but with this drumming, roaring sound I'm experiencing, they're really worthless to me. Has anyone experienced this kind of problem with custom ear pieces? Do you think maybe using some fine sandpaper I can reduce them somewhat? At this point I'm not too worried about ruining them, as they're really unwearable, at least on a motorcycle. I'd appreciate any ideas you all may have.
The bigger problem is the noise while riding! Wearing these things actually creates more noise than without. It sounds like I'm sitting inside a drum, and it's maddening. What seems to be happening is that the plug is actually transmitting sound into the bones in my jaw. Cocking my jaw one way or another eliminates the noise, but of course I can't ride that way.
What's really annoying is that I can't even get PlugUp to respond to my emails, so I've given up trying to resolve this with them. At the Salem rally, another company making custom plugs offered to brush some kind of silicon filler on them to, in effect, tighten them up. Although it was a very nice gesture, it didn't help. Now I'm starting to wonder if maybe they're just too tight. I realize that they need to be tight enough to seal, but with this drumming, roaring sound I'm experiencing, they're really worthless to me. Has anyone experienced this kind of problem with custom ear pieces? Do you think maybe using some fine sandpaper I can reduce them somewhat? At this point I'm not too worried about ruining them, as they're really unwearable, at least on a motorcycle. I'd appreciate any ideas you all may have.