Quiet Ride inserts

[Nails]

I believe that there are two kinds of helmets in the world, loud ones (expensive) and louder ones. I decided to install Quiet Ride ear muffs in my (cheap) helmet.

http://quietridehelmets.com/products/ I bought the "muff kit". The basic idea is to install ear muffs like the the kind that look like headphones. The kit includes an air bulb (mounts on helmet chin) to pump up a little air bladder that pushes the muffs onto your ear.

This required some surgery. Photos:

• - One (has three red snaps) shows how the helmet started out. The right side of the helmet, liner (and chin stuff) are removed. I had to ditch the pads on the chin strap.
  
  - Another (similar, but just one red snap) shows the foam I cut away (mostly cheek, but also crown), left side. There's also some ensolite I added to make a foundation to attach the air bladder (see next post). Because only one of three liner snaps survived, I had to use some glue with the liner.
  
  - A third photo shows how much I had to cut up the cheek liners. Like any surgery, it involved suturing.

And before anyone else brings it up, I can't really handle ear plugs. I used to live in them (ran a chainsaw for years), but now have recurring earwax accidents. I find muffs to be a lot more comfortable and easier to take off and on a bunch of times.

[Nails]

This is a little further along. Photos:

• - One photo shows the air bladder (under the scissors) that pumps up, to push the ear cups over my ear. The bladder is held to the helmet by velcro, and the ear cup is held to the bladder by more velcro. (I mean, the bladders have velcro on both sides.) On the helmet side, the velcro is attached to both the ensolite and the chin strap -- no help for it, that's just where the strap goes. Not sure how long that velcro will stay stuck to the helmet -- might have to use glue. (The glue I'm using is 3M "Black Super Weatherstrip Adhesive".
  
  - The other photo shows the ear cup in place, left side. These are super soft and comfy. Those black tubes near the chin hook to the little bulb pump that I'll stick on the helmet chin or somewhere.

I don't have a review yet. But I can say that this was a bigger PITA than I expected. There's no way I'd cut up a pricey helmet like this; and I'm still not sure I won't have to throw this helmet away.

But if it works, I think it'll be super swell. I'm already recommending that you just buy one of their helmets with the muffs already installed (see website). (Reasons I went for the surgery: My helmet has another mod that I like. It came with a drop-down "sunglasses" affair that I never used because the optics were heinous. I ground off the bottom of the "glasses" and put black tape over it. Now it's a drop-down sun visor, which is quite useful. Also, my head is crooked -- isn't on right. My helmet fits, few others do.)

So, stay tuned for whether this is a total bust or way bueno -- I think it'll be one or the other.

[Nails]

Here's the bulb pump. The button thing in front of the bulb is to release air in the bladders.

Waiting for glue to dry to try it out. It fits much snugger, both ears muffs and cheek pads (tubing is under them). It seems comfortable, and my ears aren't folded over. But I don't know how tight it'll be on a long ride.

It's obviously much quieter without even pumping them up. And if I need the room, I can take the air bladders out and blow them off.

[Nails]

These are seriously quiet -- a little too quiet for around town.

The air pump/bladder works except my muffs are already firmly against my ears. I'll remove all of that crap and sew some velcro back-to-back. Hopefully it'll leak enough sound to be good for local riding, and I can make some thicker fabric "shims" for long-distance.

If I had it to do over again (with 20/20 hindsight), I'd get the muffs with speakers and maybe rig up some happy noise. (I can't understand wanting to listen to a radio in a high-noise environment, but that's just me.)

I still recommend buying their helmets with the muffs already installed.

But either way, I give these pups a thumbs up.

[Barry]

I wasn't aware of this product. My bike has the factory CB radio, so microphone & speakers are mandatory. That being said, I hate how run down I get if I don't wear ear plugs. Many times I will start a ride without them and a few hours later I get a headache. A couple of years ago my headset cord broke, so I just removed everything. There's no one around here that I know to ride with, so there hasn't been a need to replace the headset ( I have a spare). Private aircraft have noise cancelling headsets that are amazing. I'd love to have something like that in my helmet when out on the highway. They still let some sound in, but after a few hours you arrive at your destination relaxed & feeling quite good.

Be sure to let us know what your long term test results are.
Thanks for planting another idea in ( on? ) my head.

[Nails]

I took the bladders out and they still seal just fine around my ears. I get noise leaks if I turn my head far to starboard or reef on the chin. They're perfectly comfortable now ... pending a long ride.

At freeway speed, there's a low frequency noise that was probably there all along but I never noticed over all the rest of the noise. It's still pretty loud, actually. I'll try wearing earplugs too -- I bet earplugs don't block it either.

At around-town speeds these are too quiet -- I can only barely hear whether the engine is really idling. (I could get used to looking at the tach.) There's definitely a sonic disconnect that isn't altogether desirable. But on superslab, give me the quiet.

Noise-cancelling would be the bee's knees, but I think only Shuberth makes them (silly expensive). I've found that cheap NC headphones don't really work all that well. But if I ever find some that do, I could see trying to fit them into the helmet.

In the end, this is $80 well spent. Maybe I'll make some fabric muff that isn't so quiet -- easy velcro swap.

[Barry]

Do you wear glasses? I was wondering if they would put pressure on the Temples? (Long arms on the sides of the frame that extend from the hinge and over the ears to keep the glasses on the wearer’s face)

[Nails]

My helmet already gives me too much pressure at my temples. I couldn't wear glasses even before these muffs. (But since I have the razor blade out, I might deal with that.)

The muffs are basically the same as what you can find at a chainsaw store and most hardware departments. (They look like headphones --check it out next time you're there.) Running a saw, I wear safety glasses with them just fine. (That's how I got into this in the first place.) And they don't seem to leak much noise that way.

My helmet muffs are still a little too tight -- functional and comfortable, but kinda trying to rip my ears off when I put the helmet on. I might glue a hook side of the velcro to my helmet, instead of having the extra layer of pile on both ends and back-to-back hook in the middle (if that makes any sense). I mean, it's a delicate shim affair. And right now, I'd have a minor hassle just pushing glasses on. (Again, I did with my helmet anyway.)

If they worked right (with the pump-up bladder), I think they'd be swell with glasses.

[SgtSlag]

I find custom molded ear plugs to be a simpler, and effective means of dealing with noise. I've lost part of my hearing due to road noise, riding in my youth without protection. I won't ride without hearing protection anymore. Getting a new pair of custom-fit ear plugs fitted next week. Best money I've ever spent. They're made from a casting of material injected into your ear canal, after a small piece of foam is inserted, to prevent the material from adhering to your ear drum, which would cause catastrophic damage. The injected two-part RTV fills, and conforms to, your inner ear canal, making a casting of it.

I am not a fan of do-it-yourself custom ear plug kits, sold on Amazon. The one-and-done kits from Amazon have you mix the binary chemicals injecting them into your ear canal. After it hardens, the casting itself is used as your ear plugs. This results in a very large plug to insert/remove each time.

Mine were done by medical professionals. They make the same casting, as the Amazon home kit, but they send it to a company who then make small, insert-into-your-ear, plugs based on the casting. They can be made with either pull-out tabs (not recommended), or strings attached to each plug (highly recommended). I tuck the string onto the top of my head, pull up my Zube-Tube over it, then put my modular helmet on, followed by my eyeglasses. Has worked well for me and my wife (sunglasses only), for 4+ years.

The custom plugs will cost around $130, but they do a fantastic job. They come in different NRR ratings (Noise Reduction Ratio). Talk to your healthcare professional about which NRR rating will work best for you. Our first pairs were too low on the NRR. Wife got the next level up, and she says they're perfect! My new pair is in, and I get them fitted at pick up, next Wednesday. Looking forward to it. Cheers!

[Nails]

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but I have an update. I've been screwing with this setup, finally settling on gluing 1/8" foam to the outside of the cups, and gluing that to the inside of the chin strap and anchor. The foam was to dampen noise directly (physically) transferred from the helmet to the muffs. Note that my 2XL helmet isn't large enough to fit the air bladders like I'm supposed to use. I can barely squeeze my head between the muffs, even without the bladder and a couple layers of Velcro that they come with. Even now, the muffs fit tight, but not uncomfortably tight. I seriously doubt there are noise leaks -- the chin strap pulls them even tighter.

I thought this was working because I couldn't hear the engine shift-points or even when I was about to stall it from a standstill. I did report a loud low-frequency noise, which is much like sitting in the back of a 727 (near the engines). I thought this was always there, just masked by the noises the muffs were blocking.

Due to bad star alignments, I haven't been able to test more than about an hour ride, but yesterday I took an all-day ride in this helmet. I came home much more deaf than normal. I couldn't hear things that I could that morning; and the things in the house I did hear were oddly distorted. My hearing seems to have mostly recovered last night.

I haven't been that bad after wearing no noise protection at all. I think these muffs actually amplified some noises, and my ears didn't like it. I'm about ready to declare this effort a failure. I still haven't tried with ear plugs too, but what's the point? And I still won't hear shift-points.

> I hate how run down I get if I don't wear ear plugs.

Amen, Barry.

> I find custom molded ear plugs to be a simpler, and effective means of dealing with noise.

I might have to go there after all. But $130 is getting close to active noise cancelling.

A list of noise-cancelling earbuds: https://headphonesaddict.com/best-noise ... g-earbuds/. And here's the best reviews I can find: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews.

Here's a good m/c review of $240 buds: https://advrider.com/f/threads/bose-qc2 ... w.1157477/). At a much lower price point, Audio-Technica make a few similar models (ATH-ANC23, ATH-ANC33iS, ATH-ANC40BT). ATH-ANC23 doubled in price since the above list; Rtings wasn't too impressed with any of them; but some bikers have liked them (ATH-ANC23, but they all seem pretty similar).

"I use these when riding my motorcycle. These are replacing a 5 year old set of noise cancelling earbuds that has simply worn out from use. I am very satisfied with the old set, but they aren't made anymore. So, I bought these with high hopes. The battery case is much smaller that I anticipated (that's good!) and the wires are plenty long. It comes with several sizes of ear pieces including a foam set and I used the size that was the same as my previous set of earbuds. But, when I rode my motorcycle, the noise reduction wasn't near as good, so I was initially disappointed. After using these for awhile I was comparing the silicon ear pieces and the ones that came with these earbuds seemed very thin compared to my older set, so I changed them out. WOW! That made a huge difference and now I can say that these perform as good, or even better, than my old set. My advice is to change out the ear pieces with some after market or from an old set if you don't like the reduction as it comes."

Here's a review of dumb earplugs, dunno how old: https://www.earplugsguide.com/best-moto ... ear-plugs/

[cranky]

.. get a box of cheap foam plugs... they kill loud stuff and you can still
hear what's goin' on around ya... JM2C ... and they DO make a long
ride much more enjoyable!!!!

[Thud300]

X2 on the cheapo foam ear plugs, not as spendy and plenty effective. The ones I use a friend gets me from the industrial shop where she works. Squeeze and twist, stick em in, they expand gently and block out the loud noises.

[Nails]

I've used a million of those -- ran a chainsaw for a living. That's probably why I get earwax so bad now. (And maybe even something to do with why I can't hear fershit anyway.)

I went to ear muffs for the saw, and it worked swell. Tried to do the same with the helmet.

[SgtSlag]

We tried the foamies for the first couple of years. When we tour, riding 7+ hours each day, the foamies really hurt after 6 hours. A couple of days later, we can't wear them for more than a few hours. That is why we went the expensive route, with custom-fit, permanent ear plugs. They last several years, so the cost is easy to spread out.

When we ride on weekends, we typically ride 7+ hours. The only time we take short rides, is when we ride after work (not often), which yields around 2-3 hours on the bike. For us, custom-fit ear plugs are the only viable option. If your ear canals can tolerate the foamies for the duration of your rides, good for you. If you find them intolerable for longer rides, then consider the custom-fit. After wearing these for a week straight, we only have minor irritation in our ear canals.

With regards to noise cancelling ear buds, I've heard concerns about them. Not sure if there was any truth to them, but we went with passive plugs, just in case. That, and the passive plugs are typically less money than noise-canceling types. YMMV. Cheers!

[Nails]

I'm giving up on the Quiet Ride inserts. I couldn't install them as intended because there wasn't enough room in my helmet (a 2XL). I couldn't use the air bladder gizmos, and instead had to glue them to my chin strap and it's anchor. This dumped maybe 3/8" on each side (a bladder and four layers of velcro on each side). I did put 1/8" foam behind them, which my head appeared to pretty-much crush. I think that's where the noise was coming in, but nothing else I could do.

Besides still being dangerously loud, they also were too tight over my ears. Not a problem for short rides, but my ears hurt the day after a long ride because they were smashed. As I said, there just wasn't enough room for them in my helmet.

Today I had cause to wear my chainsaw earmuffs, and they work swell -- really quiet, and I can wear them all day no problem. I don't see why these Quiet Rides inserts should be different; and I could believe that these would work if there's enough room in your helmet. If you're interested, I'd have to recommend buying the helmet and all from them so you can send it back if it really doesn't work. And honestly, they were a hassle to install in my helmet (as well as I could).

Now I have a couple big holes in my helmet, but I'll be able to fill them with ensolite foam. I'll leave space for some pricey earplugs with active noise cancelling. (I'll be due for a new helmet soon enough anyway; and I have other use for the earplugs.)

My cheap helmet surely is on the loud side -- reviews generally say "a little louder than average".

Oh well. Seemed like a good idea, but a swing and a miss.