Moulded Ear Plugs

[Noggin]

No worries. It was a set of clips from every night of a theatre production. View from offstage in one wing across to the other, as an actor did his damndest to make the actor on-stage corpse.

Anyway, earplugs.

My earxperience is that foam and custom moulded ear plugs sound different but both do the job.

The price of custom plugs covers a lot of reusable foam jobbies. Just keep them clean (and clean fingers), and know how to insert them correctly.

Less concern over loosing one, too!

I get that about the foam ones. But I've never been able to get them in each ear properly - one would be right but not the other. And now I have a spazzy arm I'm not even going to try!!

[Horse]

And now I have a spazzy arm I'm not even going to try!!

That's a fair point.

Ideally, reach over your head, with the opposite hand (ie right hand, left ear), gently pull ear out. Which, I understand, could be difficult.

This gets the ear canal straighter.

Roll into a narrow thing (earplug, not you), insert, gently keep pressure on as it expands.

Done that twice?

Your mates with custom made earplugs have given up waiting

[Noggin]

And now I have a spazzy arm I'm not even going to try!!

That's a fair point.

Ideally, reach over your head, with the opposite hand (ie right hand, left ear), gently pull ear out. Which, I understand, could be difficult.

This gets the ear canal straighter.

Roll into a narrow thing (earplug, not you), insert, gently keep pressure on as it expands.

Done that twice?

Your mates with custom made earplugs have given up waiting

Yup. I tried for years with the foamy things and just couldn't get them right - hence buying the original moulded ones!

Nowadays, I can't get my right arm over my head, so that's a non starter

[Whysub]

I had several sets made when I was working (paid for by work), ostly for communication. Never had a set that were comfortable for more than a few hours.

I used to cut off the bit that sat in my ear canal and gust had the part that sat in my outer ear. The comms were as loud as before.

But that was for work. For my own use, I've been buying foam ones since the 80's.

One thing to consider if riding in Spain. Riding with in-ear speakers is illegal. Across the ear speakers, such as those built into a helmet are fine. Never heard of anyone beinf fined for it, but a stroppy Traffico officer and an English registered bike could make it possible.

[Noggin]

I had several sets made when I was working (paid for by work), ostly for communication. Never had a set that were comfortable for more than a few hours.

I used to cut off the bit that sat in my ear canal and gust had the part that sat in my outer ear. The comms were as loud as before.

But that was for work. For my own use, I've been buying foam ones since the 80's.

One thing to consider if riding in Spain. Riding with in-ear speakers is illegal. Across the ear speakers, such as those built into a helmet are fine. Never heard of anyone beinf fined for it, but a stroppy Traffico officer and an English registered bike could make it possible.

So far I've not found the inner bit that bad, but I'm not riding for long at the moment. The outer bit I sometimes don't locate quite properly - but that's the spazziness again

I'm not a fan of in helmet noise - when I first started riding (well, maybe a year in, so I'd done a lot of miles!) I had ear phones in and was listening to music, concentrated too much on the music and not enough on the road and very nearly missed a very simple but important corner!! So I've never had music or comms since.

I did get those decibullz ones and they arrived yesterday. But, I hadn't understood from the pics that there's a plastic in ear attachment and I really hate those!! So I'll probably send them back and just save up for some new moulded ones (apparently a few of the hearing places around here do simple moulded plugs so I'll find some

[ajlog]

Sadly no!

A friend has just recommended the Loop Earplugs -

https://www.loopearplugs.com/products/e ... country=FR

But I can't see that they would work better than moulded (might be worth a try for a bit as they'll be cheaper!)

I use these, the cheap ‘Quiet’ version and find them great.

Over the years I have had tried many types of noise reduction methods, starting with the yellow EAR barrel type, these work well but only last a couple of rides before getting dirty, and give me a aching jaw after a couple of hours.
Professional moulded ones worked well but as others have said they only fitted well for a year or so before the shape didn’t work so well for my right ear.
Self moulded ones that I could not get to work.
Foam ones with a harder core, these worked well for me but again get dirty so I bought a bag of about 100 pairs for about £25.

Then about 2 years ago I gave these loop silicone rubber ones a try, and they are the best I have used. They have a range of tip sizes that’s useful for me as I have a very narrow ear canal in my right ear, so I can use the smallest tip on the right and a medium on the left to get a good fit. The little rubber loop handle makes them easy to position and wiggle / rotate to get a comfy fit, then easy to remove, and they are comfy, they don’t expand, so unlike the foam ones they don’t put any pressure on the inside of my ear giving me jaw ache.

[Horse]

And if you get upset about something, you could spit a mini dummy