I actually found it on vtxoa.com found it here

I have been a licensed rider for nearly 36 years now and I have tinnitus and some hearing loss from all the wind noise riding without protection. If you get a system like this you get not only all the wind noise but the sound pressure of the system turned up to be even LOUDER than the wind noise.

Save your hearing and get ear bud type headphones if you want to listen while you ride. You can get something like custom ear sleeves fairly cheap or use noise blocking ear bugs like the Etymotic ER-6. Sounds better too!

You should wear earplugs when you ride, either simple "shooter type" or headphone type, never ride without ear protection or compound it by blasting a stereo OVER the wind noise. Or you will end up like me, saying "what?" a lot .

Dennis

Dwynne said:...
You should wear earplugs when you ride, either simple "shooter type" or headphone type, never ride without ear protection or compound it by blasting a stereo OVER the wind noise. Or you will end up like me, saying "what?" a lot .

Dennis

What??? Can you tell I am a motorcyclist too?

VTX1800c for me, along with a GL1800/A

Dennis

scubasteve said:am I the only one left that thinks radios don't belong on motorcycles?

Why is that?

landtony said:why not just lower the music?

The wind noise is what hurts your hearing. You can google up lost of studies and reports on it, like this one.

It turns out that wind noise does the most damage to your hearing. It is constant, loud, and very difficult to get away from.

On most bikes, even with a helmet on, the wind noise can be 90db on up to well over 100db at highway speeds. Levels this high WILL damage your hearing and do it pretty quickly. This is WITHOUT any music turned on. So you get a speaker system and you have 100+db wind noise you need to overcome, so you crank it up LOUDER than the wind. Now you are hitting your ears with even higher levels. Got loud pipes? You have to crank the stereo up even more to hear it over the winds and pipe noise.

Much, much better to block the wind noise to an acceptable level and then set your tunes level to something that will not damage your hearing. Sounds better too.

Now, if you are getting tunes on your bike to "show off" and force everyone else to listen to your music then you would not be interested in protecting your hearing. But trust me, you will wish you had back when you could still do something about it.

Dennis

For wind noise, get a good helmet.
Won't completely eliminate, but will prevent damage.

Then for audio, I use Scala Q2 Bluetooth motorcycle headset with built in 6 preset FM radio.
Now I can choose in helmet FM, or Bluetooth to my phones MP3 player.
Plus adds bike to bike to bike intercom as well as cell phone or GPS communication.

By placing the speakers inside helmet, you don't need to blast the music, and no damage to hearing will occur.

BTW, my ST1100 came with a stereo and speakers installed by previous owner, but after a couple months, ripped it all out and upgraded to in helmet method.

One thing you need on a bike is a feature that automatically adjust volume as outside noise increases or decreases. Devices like the Q2 have this. So when you are crusing at 100+, all still sounds just as well as when you are stopped on side of the road for speeding..