anirban13

Hearing.

One of the traditional 5 senses, and the one we rely on the most after our sight. It is surprising how few of us actually care about our ears! Through this post, I’d like to enumerate some causes of hearing damage, and suggest some remedies.

Almost all of us have a basic idea of how the auditory system works. Sound vibrations travelling through air enter the ear and strike the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. The eardrum transmits the vibrations to the fluid perilymph, via the bones of the middle ear. The vibrations in the perilymph are transmitted to hair cells in the organ of corti. These hair cells convert vibrations into nerve impulses, which travel over the cochlear nerve to the auditory cortex of the brain, and are interpreted as sound.

Besides hearing, our ears also perform an important function; that of helping maintain body balance. There are both position, and movement hair cells in our ears.
There are three semicircular canals in each ear, one to sense movement in each spatial plane. Depending on the plane of movement, endolymph flowing within the canals stimulates the appropriate movement hair cells. Different head positions produce different gravity effects on position hair cells.
Both the position and movement hair cells create nerve impulses, which travel over the vestibular nerve to the synapse in the brain stem, cerebellum, and spinal cord. There are no definite connections to the cortex, instead the impulses provide reflex actions for correction of balance. For example, a sudden loss of balance triggers reflexive arm and leg movements to restore balance.

As bikers, we are primarily exposed to wind noise and engine noise during riding. We may not realise it, but slowly our hearing can get permanently damaged.
Wind noise is quite significant, so it is better to use a balaclava to keep the wind off one’s ears. Even a full face helmet can allow wind to penetrate. At 80 kmph, the wind noise is equivalent to 90 decibels. A conversation is at an average 60 decibels.

Sound is measured in decibels on a logarithmic scale. This means a sound 10 decibels higher, is actually 10 times louder, 20 decibels higher is 100 times louder. So at 90 decibels, the wind noise is 1000 times louder than that of a conversation! That is the kind of punishment we subject our ears to!

Many bikers fit special silencers for a deeper roar, or a sporty sound. They seem to enjoy speeding through streets at full throttle, unaware (or unwilling to be aware!) of the damage they are causing to others’ hearing. Not to mention their own!

Heavy vehicles often have very loud horns which are quite annoying. Some people also fit wierd horns on vehicles, which scare the elderly and children, besides causing irritation to all but themselves!

Almost all of us enjoy listening to loud music on earphones. Not only is using them while riding dangerous, as our ability to hear outside sounds gets affected, but also in general, loud music over a period of time causes temporary and permanent hearing damage. Try and avoid listening to music on the road. We have all seen the class of road idiot who wanders right into your vehicle’s path with headphones blasting away, oblivious of everything around him! And being caught unawares when a huge truck pulls up dangerously close to you while riding, just because you couldn’t hear it over the music blasting in your ears!

Many of us must have experienced a temporary loss of hearing while standing with our ears unprotected too close to a loud noise, for example a chainsaw, lawn mower, grinder, aircraft, engine, speakers at a live concert, etc. Another common disorder is a condition known as "Temporary Threshold Shift," commonly referred to as TTS. TTS is caused by excessive noise exposure for a duration of time, which drops our actual acute hearing pattern to a lower level temporarily. Meaning, our hearing is less than what it was before the initial exposure. Continuous TTS exposure will result in permanent damage.

Here are some suggestions for improval of hearing:
• Turn down the volume. If you are used to listening to music at level 8/10, turn it down to 5. At first it will seem very difficult, but slowly your hearing threshold will come down and you can hear soft sounds better.
• Visit an ENT specialist and get your ears checked. Also ask for medication to improve hearing ability
• Wear a balaclava or soft comfortable earplugs inside your helmet.
• Sit silently and try to observe all the sounds around you. Slowly you will start hearing more and better!
• Keep your ears clean. Use proper cotton swabs and not those bought out of pity at a traffic signal. Consult a doctor for alternative ways if cleaning is difficult. And please, NEVER insert sharp objects into your ears.

This list is in no way complete. Please post your comments and suggestions on this article. The aim is to make everyone aware of what punishment they are subjecting their ears to!

Ride safe!

sunilg

topic moved and approved.

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yellowspunk

very nice write up.. very important too. wind noise actually hurt my ears i've continuous ringing in my ears which sometimes become louder than the traffic around me.. there is never a silent moment. the doc said i could nothing about it. now a days i wear a ear plug (only effective but also dangerous way since the sound you recieve will be greatly reduced). so people please take it seriously. hope the bazooka "horned" morons hear this over their horns and the people with "louder the bike the faster it is" syndrome !!

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xionite

don't push the earplugs rite into ur ears... just make sure they're snug.
works for me. u can actually adjust traffic n wind noise volume levels by adjusting ur earplugs.

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yellowspunk

i use industrial grade ear plugs which my friend got for me from TVS.
where do you get these? or what do you use?

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jd666

good information... thanks for sharing dude!

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KwokFist

You get 3M ear plugs similar to these for 15 Rs.

Good information dude! Thanks for sharing!

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Storm Rider

Wanted DoA

Thats a very nice piece of info you posted. Very important for a city rider like me.

@all BTW wouldn't using earplugs will reduce the ability to hear vehicles that are in blind spots e.g. behind the bike or just arround the corner?
How do we tackle that?

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hegdeanoop

^^^ The proper way of using earplugs is to snugly fit and not just stuffing them into the ear. That way the ability to hear vehicles will be marginally reduced, but you can still make out the sounds to a considerable extent.

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anirban13

Thank you Sunil Sir for approving this topic. And I'm glad my fellow xBhp-ians appreciate the write-up

Personally I find earplugs a little uncomfortable. A balaclava is a good option, but if that also feels uncomfortable then you could try making a 'headband' of sorts, using some soft cloth, that covers your ears and goes around your forehead, pretty much like the woollen headband you may have seen some people wear to cover just their ears during winter. By that, however, I don't mean the ones that resemble the big earphones covering both ears and going around the back of the head. Make sure the fitting is right, not too tight, and not too loose either. It will at least keep a major part of the wind off your ears and at the same time not cause much difference to hearing.