rumble in my helmet

[CODan]

Last summer I put a Cal Sci Large on my 08 FJR.

I am 5'10", sit at the front of the seat but sit very upright (back problems) so my wind profile is probably more like that of someone that is 5'11".

I'm wearing an HJC helmet and foam ear plugs.

I like everything about the CalSci except - when I raise the shield high enough to push the wind high enough to get the high pitch wind sound diminished, a lower pitched rumbling sound comes in. This sound give me a mild headache after a while.

I'm about to try a Cee Bailey, but before I do that I thought I'd ask if anyone had any thoughts about this sound.

Thanks.

 

[Rolavine]

My experience with HJCs (CL14, CL SP and AC12) is that they don't fit me well, but are fairly quiet helmets, if you're hearing a lot of high pitched noise from the helmet with wind over it, maybe your technique with the ear plugs is not good, or you're using ear plugs that don't work for your ears?

Getting earplugs to work really well is hard, I've develped a routine that works for me but is not perfect, I had to use the needle nose pliars to remove my earplugs this morning, I carry a pair for just this purpose. My ear canals are different on each ear, and I have to use a different insertion technique on each. If I use an earplug that has a large outer part they tend to work loose, however if I use a non tapered plug they tend to dig in requiring the use of the pliars. When my plugs are in right I can't hear the high pitched noise from the top of my Arai RX7 RR4, and that is the most whistling, hissing, venting and whooshing helmet I've ever worn (yeah its my favorite one too). From my experience with HJC they never even came close to making that sort of noise, nor did they come close to blowing that much cooling air over my noggin either.

There is a lot of info on the web about motorcycling and ear plugs.

Bad insertion could account for the low pitched noise too. That is usually attributed to poor fit at the bottom of the helmet and I created that once by modifying a set of cheek pads on an HJC.

Good luck, I'm currently using the cheap blue Heros because they don't hurt after an hour like the large orange Leights I was using last time. I'm thinking use the Hero in the left ear and the Leight in the right now, I'll try that maybe tonight.

 

[Bluestreek]

My last helmet was a HJC I found that with the top vents open the helmet was very noisy. With them closed it was one of the quietest.

 

[blackarrow]

I HATE that rumble. I've been riding well over forty years so a recent discovery really surprised me. I was evaluating the V-Stream. In the process I flipped up my visor and was astonished the rumble/roar just vanished. Same for my open face helmet. Both HJC's.

When I put my Yamaha Touring shield back on I ran the same experiment with the same results. We all know how humorously deafening the unexpected belch can be when reflected back by our face shields but I had no idea how much the wind rumble (externally sourced) was also apparently amplified.

For this summer, anyway, I'm removing my visor and running up my windshield just enough to get the bulk of the airflow to the top of my helmet. I do wear glasses so there is still some wind protection for my eyes.