Wind noise reduction

[Daley1]

So i,m riding home from work,its sunny,21C and on a nice flat rode i know well.No traffic,so i,m carving the SxxT up and flowing beautifully and i,m riding into a slight headwind.Everything is perfect except for the incessant wind noise driving me crazy. Ive got the Fox proframe on which has great airflow but doing little to reduce noise.Has anyone solved the droning noise problem without using earplugs that block out every other road noise that would lead to decreased situational awareness???? 

[Darrell Wesh]

On 8/29/2020 at 7:40 AM, Daley1 said:

So i,m riding home from work,its sunny,21C and on a nice flat rode i know well.No traffic,so i,m carving the SxxT up and flowing beautifully and i,m riding into a slight headwind.Everything is perfect except for the incessant wind noise driving me crazy. Ive got the Fox proframe on which has great airflow but doing little to reduce noise.Has anyone solved the droning noise problem without using earplugs that block out every other road noise that would lead to decreased situational awareness???? 

Drive a Mercedes if you want no wind noise at speed. Really though, what do you expect riding a vehicle that isn’t a car? 
 

Wind noise is also dependent on temperature as colder temps create more resistance and more wind.

[BoseHeadphones]

I've tried quite a few solutions to reduce wind noise (various styles of cat ears, helmet angels) on my BMX helmet (TLD Stage). At the end of the day most of them made almost no difference in wind noise, and were generally fairly uncomfortable. To their credit they all did work alright on my bicycle helmet. I attribute that primarily to the strap placement on the BMX helmet not having enough space in front of my ears.

At the end of the day, if I'm going to be cruising >20 mph I reach for a full face helmet. My TSG Pass cuts down on wind noise far more than it cuts down on ambient noise.

[UniVehje]

Try covering some of the holes around your ears and chin. First with your hand while riding to see what helps. Then put some foam or cloth over them to have more permanent solution. I just switched to a Bell Super Air R and it doesn’t really have a wind noise problem. But my earlier helmet, Cratoni C-Maniac, had a bad problem and I got it fixed by adding cloth To the holes and foam between chin bar and my cheeks. I don’t know about your helmet but very likely it’s the same. 
Another helpful piece of technology is noise canceling headphones. Personally I use AirPods Pro and they work well. 

[Daley1]

 

21 hours ago, Darrell Wesh said:

Drive a Mercedes if you want no wind noise at speed. Really though, what do you expect riding a vehicle that isn’t a car? 
 

Wind noise is also dependent on temperature as colder temps create more resistance and more wind.

What i expect is some educated response to a real issue and not a neanderthal, trolling people for their own  amusement.!

[Darrell Wesh]

1 hour ago, Daley1 said:

 

What i expect is some educated response to a real issue and not a neanderthal, trolling people for their own  amusement.!

Alright he’s your educated response: ride slower. Wind noise problem solved. It’s a silly question when you realize we are riding open air vehicles, with a simple solution: go slower. There is no “spot” treatment for wind noise. Anything that mutes wind noise will decrease your situational awareness. Someone said TSG Pass but I beg to differ; just look at all those NYC cut out videos because they couldn’t hear the beeps with it on. 

Your options are full face visored helmets, ear plugs or ear phones. Riding with your head turned to the side the entire time (great for hearing beeps) is about the only option that cuts strictly wind noise and nothing else. But then you won’t be able to see what’s in front of you...

Edited September 1, 2020 by Darrell Wesh

[Willy510]

Earplugs like these  https://www.amazon.com/EarPeace-Motorcycle-Ear-Plugs-Motorsports/dp/B076VST3SH  

do a pretty good job of helping with wind noise but still let you hear whats going on around you. 

[UniVehje]

4 hours ago, Darrell Wesh said:

There is no “spot” treatment for wind noise

What’s your problem with someone asking a real question? There absolutely is a treatment and it is a real problem with some helmets. I just explained above how I solved it. 

4 hours ago, Darrell Wesh said:

Anything that mutes wind noise will decrease your situational awareness.

Wrong. Decreasing the turbulence around your ear will let you hear surrounding sounds better. Lowering speeds will lower the turbulence also, but you can also lower just the turbulence. Noise will always increase with speed but it doesn’t have to be as bad as with some helmets. 
 

Also, testosterone fueled idiots showing off and relying only on beeps has nothing to do with this topic.  

[Darrell Wesh]

55 minutes ago, UniVehje said:

What’s your problem with someone asking a real question? There absolutely is a treatment and it is a real problem with some helmets. I just explained above how I solved it. 

Wrong. Decreasing the turbulence around your ear will let you hear surrounding sounds better. Lowering speeds will lower the turbulence also, but you can also lower just the turbulence. Noise will always increase with speed but it doesn’t have to be as bad as with some helmets. 
 

Also, testosterone fueled idiots showing off and relying only on beeps has nothing to do with this topic.  

Reading comprehension is key. He never said that his helmet had a problem with wind noise. He said that his helmet is doing “little” to reduce the wind noise which means it’s reducing it more than if he wore no helmet.

Beeps absolutely matter, not sure how you’re talking about EUC’s and Noise reduction for situational awareness and not including your only reliable safety measure in the same sentence. 
 

A full visored helmet like The TSG Pass mutes it a bit but also everything else. Your solution is not going to work; add foam to reduce wind noise but will absolutely reduce high frequency information (because that’s what foam does, it reduces high frequency sounds: studio background don’t even argue this point with me). His main criteria was to increase his situational awareness while decreasing wind noise. It’s extremely hard to achieve that, with the best way being to just turn your head to the side which will noticeably abate the wind noise. 
 

Not even sure why you mention noise canceling headphones. Literally the opposite of what he wants to achieve. 
 

Btw the Mercedes rant was a joke; but with how you worded the opening post it seems you are asking for a solution to defy a particular acoustical law of physics. 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Darrell Wesh

[Mike Sacristan]

Yesterday as soon as I started riding and hearing wind noise I started thinking about this thread. Sadly I did not have my Mercedes with me but I did do some other tests:

- shielding my ears with my hands did help quite a bit but I was not able to hear around me as well (I listened to the cars around me)
- covering my ears was lovely
- turning my head is sort of okay
- expecting to hear wheel beeps amongst cars is not a good idea 

So we are in for some kind of decibel reduction when trying to reduce wind noise.

I will try my Happy Ears and push them in a bit further so that they don't seal as well. And I will bring tweezers so I can get them back out of my ears when I am done.

I remember a few months ago I was riding and it started raining. I put my hoodie on and it was just amazing lol.

[Tryptych]

On 9/1/2020 at 7:58 PM, Willy510 said:

Earplugs like these  https://www.amazon.com/EarPeace-Motorcycle-Ear-Plugs-Motorsports/dp/B076VST3SH  

do a pretty good job of helping with wind noise but still let you hear whats going on around you. 

Willy510 wins. These are exactly what the original poster is looking for. They have good reviews... has anyone here tried them? 

 

[Darrell Wesh]

1 hour ago, Tryptych said:

Willy510 wins. These are exactly what the original poster is looking for. They have good reviews... has anyone here tried them? 

 

Not quite. Those are designed for gas powered motorsport. If they can muffle the sound of a revving motorcycle how much would they mute a vehicle (EUC) that doesn’t even produce noise? 
 

I think it would be overkill and you would lose more than you would gain. Most of the reviews I skimmed did mention they reduce the volume of sound as well. My opinion, never tried em.

[Willy510]

43 minutes ago, Darrell Wesh said:

Not quite. Those are designed for gas powered motorsport. If they can muffle the sound of a revving motorcycle how much would they mute a vehicle (EUC) that doesn’t even produce noise? 
 

I think it would be overkill and you would lose more than you would gain. Most of the reviews I skimmed did mention they reduce the volume of sound as well. My opinion, never tried em.

 I have tried them   and they do work, Not a theory here. 

 They muffle things around you a little but you can still hear everything around you. Anything that is passive is going to reduce some of the sounds that you hear but there is a wide range to choose from and you can get version that target certain freq. with different filters. Active options would be Bose in the ear style noise cancelling and they do work but they are not cheap and they are a pain to get in and out of the helmet and if they shift when riding it's annoying. They weren't worth it for me. 

[Daley1]

Good work @Willy510,I have ordered these earplugs and will post down the track to see how these go.

[Willy510]

2 minutes ago, Daley1 said:

Good work @Willy510,I have ordered these earplugs and will post down the track to see how these go.

Thanks, Keep in mind that nothing works for everyone and everyone's ears are different shapes and sizes, you may have to try a few brands and sizes until you find what works best for you.  Good luck with them. 

[Tryptych]

Daley1: let us know how they work out. Darrell: quit acting like a troll.

 

 

 

[Darrell Wesh]

2 hours ago, Willy510 said:

 I have tried them   and they do work, Not a theory here

 

1 hour ago, Willy510 said:

Thanks, Keep in mind that nothing works for everyone and everyone's ears are different shapes and sizes, you may have to try a few brands and sizes until you find what works best for you.  Good luck with them. 

Oh, so they do work but now that the OP’s took up your suggestion and is buying them you’re getting worried and admitting “nothing works for everyone”?
Doesn’t sound at all like a person whose confident in their recommendation. 
 

I hate to be a pessimist but the majority of the reviews are people who are satisfied with simply the reduction in engine noise and overall comfort, which any well fitting ear plug can do. That’s why the TOP rated amazon review calls it shady marketing. I would buy it just to test it out but any review I make here would be deemed bias despite my genuine honesty. 
 

The only credible add on accessory option is cat ears but since you’re wearing a full face helmet it won’t work with that. 

Edited September 5, 2020 by Darrell Wesh

[Daley1]

Sometimes its easier just to ignore the negative people and don't buy into their melancholic demeanour. Thx to the people looking to help and I,ll comment further down the track.

[Willy510]

2 hours ago, Daley1 said:

Sometimes its easier just to ignore the negative people and don't buy into their melancholic demeanour. Thx to the people looking to help and I,ll comment further down the track.

No worries, I have the same helmet and if you ever want to add music or a bluetooth headset the Aftershokz bone conduction headset actually fits under the helmet and has pretty decent sound quality.  

[Meserias]

I think Dropframe Fox helmet profile could help reduce wind noise (search on google)
but this one doesn't have chin-guard, you will lose some of your protection.....

[mike_bike_kite]

If you wear a bicycle style helmet then it might be worth looking at cat ears, a product not gene editing. They seem to get fairly good reviews though I haven't tried them. 

[Wonderwebb]

The only thing that I have found that's works is a big hoodie . If I put the hood up over helmet it kills all the wind noise completely up to 25mph .try it you will be surprised 

[BoseHeadphones]

On 9/5/2020 at 4:06 AM, mike_bike_kite said:

If you wear a bicycle style helmet then it might be worth looking at cat ears, a product not gene editing. They seem to get fairly good reviews though I haven't tried them. 

They are impressively effective as long as the bike straps are placed well in front of your ears. They start losing effectiveness >25 mph, but if you're going that fast a bike helmet isn't ideal anyways.

I've tried the Earpeace and I'll be a dissenting vote--they didn't work for me. They cut down on wind noise well, but cut down on ambient noise almost as much. They might've been okay with a lighter filter, but even their lightest filter was too much--it really cut in to my ability to hear nearby traffic. I reached out to the manufacturer to ask if they sold weaker filters and unfortunately no. I like the earplugs themselves for concerts, but not for EUC.

At this point I've settled on using a full face for high speed, which dramatically reduces wind noise/turbulence while barely impacting my ability to hear ambient noise. A pair of Aftershokz underneath and I can comfortably listen to music while still hearing people around me just fine.

[mrelwood]

There are two ways to look at this (or any) issue. 1) Randomly try random suggestions that work for someone. 2) Isolate the issue and find or ask for a more specific solution.

I also have the Cratoni C-Maniac that @UniVehje mentioned earlier. Exactly as he explained, this helmet has an issue in how the profile of the chin bar and the vent holes create turbulence. Earplugs would not touch the issue itself at all, as they don’t change the sound/noise ratio. Preventing air from creating the turbulence in the first place by blocking some of the holes solves the actual issue, and increased the sound/noise ratio by a huge amount.

 Even if your helmet wouldn’t be worse than going bare headed, a fullface helmet offers a perfect structure to install elements to block the turbulence that happens when wind reaches your ear.

I installed fluffy pads on my helmet that lean against my ears. They prevent 1) wind from creating turbulence at my ears, 2) the  vent holes of the helmet from creating turbulence, and in addition they 3) soften traffic sounds just enough for them not to be as stressful. Since the turbulence is nearly gone, the signal/noise ratio and my situational awareness is hugely increased.

On 9/2/2020 at 7:39 AM, Darrell Wesh said:

you are asking for a solution to defy a particular acoustical law of physics. 

You are funny. There is no law that tells high speeds to be loud. Air has to hit something for it to even make a sound. Not sure why you think studio background should help, as I’m pretty sure there’s no studio in the world that has needed to solve an individual issue of wind hitting your ear at 40+ km/h.

Edited September 22, 2020 by mrelwood

[Darrell Wesh]

2 hours ago, mrelwood said:

soften traffic sounds just enough for them not to be as stressful. Since the turbulence is nearly gone, the signal/noise ratio and my situational awareness is hugely increased.

You are contradicting yourself here. You can’t increase situational awareness “hugely” while saying you decreased “traffic sounds” which are a huge part of awareness on the street.