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2016 f800gsa newbie going deaf and broke over Wind Noise

jacart

New member
Hi,

I'm a new BMW owner as of July. Love the bike but, unfortunately, the wind noise at highway speeds is deafening. My head hurts and ears ring for hours after a ride. I'm 6' 175 lbs with a stock seat and stock windshield.

I've tried the following in order:
$600+ Schuberth C3 helmet (dealer recommended as quietest). - Slightly better than my old Shoei but not much

$20 earplugs - Little improvement

$80 custom earplugs - A lot better but ears still ringing after a long ride

$240 Puig Touring Windscreen for F800GS Adventure 13-16 - Directs the wind above my helmet but the windshield is not wide enough and wind turbulence hits the sides of my helmet.

I'm was going to try the Laminar Lip next because they have a money back guarantee.

I've checked out other posts and understand all the variables involved. However, I'm hoping someone in my situation has solved this issue or give me advise as I can't afford to try many more options. As of right now, if I can't find a solution, I'm selling the bike......better than going deaf.

Thanks!
 
You could stand on the pegs all the time :), my experience with loaner 800s with the stock windshield is that the airflow up high is undisturbed and a quiet helmet (I have a C3 Pro) really is quiet, just like the ads say. Sitting, not so much. My 1200 GSA is noisy but not turbulent and I always use earplugs. They don't make the ride soundless but do knock the sound down to a nondamaging level that I can easily tolerate for hours.

Foam plugs work well when properly inserted. Until I knew how, they sucked and came out when I put my helmet on, half the time it pulled the plugs out of position. I tried custom molded earplugs but they really only worked well when my jaw was in exactly the same position as when they were molded, if I swallowed or turned my head or anything they got noisy again. Just stuffing the foam ones in doesn't work: even though it's a low-tech device there's a proper way to insert them. Here's how to do it right:

 
Welcome to the forum! I hope others can give you some options to help with the wind noise! :wave
 
Welcome to the forum!
With a F800, you have question for the F-Twins section of the forum.
No worries, one of us will move this to F-Twins later on- don't want to loose you on your first post :)
Gary
 
I recommend 3M brand 1100 foam ear plugs for starters. They are the ones the firemen use here. I find they really cut the noise.
 
I noticed you listed the price of the ear plugs, but not the decibel rating. Look for 33-34 decibel foam earplugs. Hearos makes some good ones. Pura-fit are the others I use. The Hearos are a softer foam than the Pura-fit. Both, if properly inserted, will cut out a lot of wind noise.

Even a 3 decibel difference in rating is enough to notice. So getting earplugs that are rated at -27 db, is much louder than those at -33 db.

Chris
 
Hi,

I'm a new BMW owner as of July. Love the bike but, unfortunately, the wind noise at highway speeds is deafening. My head hurts and ears ring for hours after a ride. I'm 6' 175 lbs with a stock seat and stock windshield.

I've tried the following in order:
$600+ Schuberth C3 helmet (dealer recommended as quietest). - Slightly better than my old Shoei but not much

$20 earplugs - Little improvement

$80 custom earplugs - A lot better but ears still ringing after a long ride

$240 Puig Touring Windscreen for F800GS Adventure 13-16 - Directs the wind above my helmet but the windshield is not wide enough and wind turbulence hits the sides of my helmet.

I'm was going to try the Laminar Lip next because they have a money back guarantee.

I've checked out other posts and understand all the variables involved. However, I'm hoping someone in my situation has solved this issue or give me advise as I can't afford to try many more options. As of right now, if I can't find a solution, I'm selling the bike......better than going deaf.

Thanks!

I'm suspicious.......with good foam plugs your shouldn't be experiencing ringing. Is there any chance you have something touching the plug when your helmet is on? Otherwise, I'd look for some gap or edge on your helmet.
 
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Hi,

I'm a new BMW owner as of July. Love the bike but, unfortunately, the wind noise at highway speeds is deafening. My head hurts and ears ring for hours after a ride. I'm 6' 175 lbs with a stock seat and stock windshield.

I've tried the following in order:
$600+ Schuberth C3 helmet (dealer recommended as quietest). - Slightly better than my old Shoei but not much

$20 earplugs - Little improvement

$80 custom earplugs - A lot better but ears still ringing after a long ride

$240 Puig Touring Windscreen for F800GS Adventure 13-16 - Directs the wind above my helmet but the windshield is not wide enough and wind turbulence hits the sides of my helmet.

I'm was going to try the Laminar Lip next because they have a money back guarantee.

I've checked out other posts and understand all the variables involved. However, I'm hoping someone in my situation has solved this issue or give me advise as I can't afford to try many more options. As of right now, if I can't find a solution, I'm selling the bike......better than going deaf.

Thanks!

I've used Laminar lips on several bikes I've owned and they work well. They can only be put on stock windshields. Also hand guards can cause buffeting as they direct the air up into the shoulders/neck area.

Do the following test to see where the problem is coming from. Going down the highway at speed, take your left hand off the bar and hold it across your chest. Move your lower arm up and down and around in front of you to see where it gets better or worse. Many times it is air coming from below that is causing the problem.

I think what you are describing is called buffeting. Bigger windshields are not always the answer and sometime a bit more air on the helmet does away with the problem all together, so lowering or going to a smaller windshield works better in most cases. Some of the quietest bikes for riding are sport bikes with lower windshields, that direct the air onto your upper chest and leave the helmet in clean air. You need to wear good ear plugs with these set ups.

Windshields are easy to cut down, so if you could get a used stock one to play with or use you stock one ( it doesn't work anyways ), that might be worthwhile exploring. Cut an inch off, go and ride and see what happens, repeat if required. Buffeting is no fun and it can drive you nuts before you get it solved.
 
The secret on decent ear plugs is inserting them VERY correctly. When you do this you can expect to get the rated noise reduction. The Howard Leight MAX I believe are 33dB NRR. The orange 3M's 29dB. I prefer the 3M which I can reuse several times before tossing. The Howard Leights are a little more effective but they are long so can get near the ear drum plus because they are smooth are subject to migrating out when you ascend in elevation w/ the pressure change associated.

Correction insertion: you need to roll them to a very small diameter in your fingers, very small, then retract your ear pulling back and up to straighten the canal as much as possible while at the same time inserting the plug pretty much as deep as you can. People might frown at this last comment but truly this is where you really get major noise reduction. Chances are you may not see I have them inserted whereas sometimes I see them half sticking out of other riders' ears at which point they simply don't work nearly as good.

I came off of an F800GT and the wind roar thru my shoei RF-1200 was prodigious until I learned how to do this right. Of note, and as weird as this sounds, I carry a blunt tip forceps to remove the plugs if they are in too deep. IMPORTANT: when you install these things deeply you MUST twist them out to break the seal else risk putting traction on the ear drum from the negative pressure created by pulling them out. I"ve done this now for 36,000 miles and have no tinnitus, no ear troubles whatsoever--just a very nice quiet cocoon-like ride and bonus, it really tames the thrashy engine noise you can get out of the Rotax motor. I am an avid music fan, play guitar and keyboards, and value my hearing practically above my sight!
 
The secret on decent ear plugs is inserting them VERY correctly. When you do this you can expect to get the rated noise reduction. The Howard Leight MAX I believe are 33dB NRR. The orange 3M's 29dB...
The 4 db difference is significant. Look up decibel on the Internet and you'll see it is rated on a logarithmic scale. If I interpret what I read correctly, that's half again the amount of attenuation in noise level between those two earplugs.

I've looked a lot at earplugs over the past few years. I spent 26 years in the USAF as an aircraft maintenance officer in a high noise environment, yet got out with good hearing. Some fit me better than others. Some are quieter than others. Harbor Freight has some good earplugs that might work for some people...but not for me. They are too narrow and are prone to not seal well, or need to go in too far. Get earplugs with the material too hard, and on a long day, my ears will hurt from the pressure. The Hearos earplugs might be the answer for me...but not necessarily for you. They are a soft foam and are rated to 33 db noise reduction. It takes some experimentation to find out what works for you. BTW, you can pick up 14 pair of the Hearos Extreme protection earplugs for $4.

Chris
 
The 4 db difference is significant. Look up decibel on the Internet and you'll see it is rated on a logarithmic scale. If I interpret what I read correctly, that's half again the amount of attenuation in noise level between those two earplugs.

Yes, I've read about decibels awhile back, the logarithmic scale it is represented on, and its relationship to sound pressure vis a vis hearing damage. It's way more complicated and is downright dizzying if you read Wiki's article. Hearing damage is a function of sound intensity, frequency & duration of exposure.

Here's a good read about what NNR offers:

When hearing protection is worn, your level of exposure to noise is based on the NRR rating of the protection device being used. Keep in mind, however, that while the NRR is measured in decibels, the hearing protector being used does not reduce the surrounding decibel level by the exact number of decibels associated with that protector’s NRR. For example, if you are at a rock concert where the level of noise exposure is 100 dB and you are wearing earplugs with an NRR 33dB, your level of exposure wo:eek:ld not be reduced to 67 dB. Instead, to determine the actual amount of decibel deduction applied (when decibels are measured dBA which is the most common), you take the NRR number (in dB), subtract seven, and then divide by two. Given the previous example, your noise reduction equation would look like the following: (33-7)/2 = 13. This means that if you are at a rock concert with a level of noise exposure at 100 dB and you are wearing a hearing protector with an NRR 33 dB, your new level of noise exposure is 87 dB. If you are wearing a product with an NRR of 27 it would deduct 10 decibels (27-7/2=10).​

Using the above logic noise exposure w/ the 3M plugs is going to come it at around (29-7)/2 =11dB 33dB NNR will get you 13dB less exposure--so you'll see a 2dB difference. How does 2dB translate for hearing damage? Looking at the following OSHA chart on 'Permissible Noise Exposure' you won't be seeing a significant difference between -13 and -11 dB:

Screen Shot 2016-09-07 at 10.14.10 AM.jpg

By far then, I'll argue again, how they fit your anatomy, how you insert them, is far more significant than the 2dB difference between 29 and 33dB NNR plugs. Also, factors as I mentioned such as tendency to migrate w/ elevation changes etc start to matter as well.
 
$600+ Schuberth C3 helmet (dealer recommended as quietest). - Slightly better than my old Shoei but not much

There is no such thing as a quiet helmet. Wind roar around the base of the helmet is the problem and has to be blocked.

As others have stated, get some good NRR 33 foam earplugs and learn how to insert them correctly. I use the Howard Leight MAX. You must pull each ear back as you insert the ear plug. If you get on the road and still experience too much noise, then the ear plug(s) are not inserted correctly and you must stop and re-insert them correctly.

Harry
 
There is no such thing as a quiet helmet. Wind roar around the base of the helmet is the problem and has to be blocked.

As others have stated, get some good NRR 33 foam earplugs and learn how to insert them correctly. I use the Howard Leight MAX. You must pull each ear back as you insert the ear plug. If you get on the road and still experience too much noise, then the ear plug(s) are not inserted correctly and you must stop and re-insert them correctly.

Harry

Well said, and concisely too. The HL MAX I bought a case of a while back and they are truly the most effective for my ears but they were both too long [would get too close to the eardrum] but worse were prone to migration w/ elevation changes. I could take off and decent 1500' to the valley floor and all was well, then come back up the hill and on occasion the wind roar would commence and I concluded that was what was happening as they are very very smooth. The orange 3M ones are porous and stayed put better so I've moved over to them. Plus bonus I can reuse the 3M ones at least 2 time more.
 
I ride a F8GS too, the noise is not any more than similar faired bikes. But just buy these ear plugs. Roll them in you fingers to soften them and seat them properly and you will hear virtually nothing. I swear you can hear the contents of my stomach slosh around when I walk with them in. Wife can't chew gum, because the chewing sound she can now hear skeeves her out.

It may take time to get use to their use, and get them seated, but once they are wind noise will be gone!

http://earplugsonline.com/?gclid=Cj...sfnR4G4-t4JRIgQ9Klr409j0SFIzm-UufzxoCgN_w_wcB
 
I've used Laminar lips on several bikes I've owned and they work well. They can only be put on stock windshields. Also hand guards can cause buffeting as they direct the air up into the shoulders/neck.[/QUOTE
I'll half to disagree that you can't mount a laminar lip on stock windshields. I installed on on a aftermarket windshield on my K1200 RS (Parabellum, I think it was) in the past and now use a X-creen lip on my Givi screen on my F700 GS. Still not all that quiet, but stops my head wobble over 70 MPH. Best thing to do is experiment as the cost is really not all that much in terms of finding solutions.
 
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