Motorcycle Helmet Noise

Note: Some of the content on this page was originally published on the webBikeWorld Motorcycle Helmet FAQ page.

One thing's for certain: If a webBikeWorld review reports that a helmet is relatively quiet, we can count on getting an email from someone telling us that it's the noisiest helmet they've ever tried. Conversely, if we think a helmet is noisy, we will surely get emails informing us that we're dead wrong.

The lesson here is that the perception of noise and the individual owner's tolerance for noise levels varies greatly. It varies so much, and is so hard to quantify, that it's almost not worth the effort of describing in a helmet review, but we'll continue to offer our opinions.

Don't forget that we always wear earplugs and a separate cotton or silk helmet liner when evaluating helmets, so the noise levels we experience will probably be different than yours. For more information on choosing and wearing earplugs, and a listing of several webBikeWorld earplug reviews, please visit the webBikeWorld Earplugs and Hearing Protection page.

For the record, it's our opinion that riding a motorcycle is a very noisy endeavor. The noise that is generated is always loud enough to be dangerous to human health and can easily cause permanent hearing damage.

We believe that high quality, correctly fitted earplugs are essential for motorcycle riding, and we wear them on every ride without fail. High levels of noise are proven to be very stressful and can cause a loss of concentration, and the noise can quickly and permanently damage your hearing, and hearing loss is irreversible.

How do we know this? Two members of our staff have indeed suffered permanent hearing loss and moderate to severe tinnitus, due to exposure to unhealthy noise levels. Hearing loss is permanent, and we urge you to take the utmost care in protecting your hearing.

So there's no getting around the fact that motorcycle riding creates high noise levels, and the discussion isn't about whether a helmet is noisy or quiet. There is no such thing as a quiet helmet, period.

It is our considered opinion, based on many years of evaluating dozens of different motorcycle helmet of all types and talking to experts in the field that there are basically only two types of motorcycle helmets: loud and louder.

It's essential to note that every rider and every motorcycle will have a different experience and comfort level when it comes to acceptable noise levels. Our experience has demonstrated that there are basically three types of helmet noise: low frequency, or "booming" noise; mid-tone, "wind rustling" noise; and high frequency "whistling" type noise.

Individual tolerance for these noises vary with each rider. Our opinion is that the most annoying noises are the low frequency or "booming" type, which are usually caused by turbulence around the lower portions of the helmet around the chin and neck area.

This noise can be greatly exacerbated by certain types of windscreens and fairings, especially on sport bikes where the wind is dumped on the rider in a way that can cause turbulence around the lower and rear portions of the helmet.

We've found that careful design of the neck cushioning and the the amount of space between the padding and the neck/head in this area is crucial to noise control. Unfortunately, most manufacturers have yet to address this problem.

In the meantime, we've found the Windjammer helmet wind blocker to be a very effective and inexpensive device that can be fitted to any full-face helmet to help prevent low frequency, turbulence-induced noise that enters the helmet from the bottom of the helmet around the neck and chin.

We're also in the process of evaluating the NOJ Quiet Rider helmet wind blocker, which fits more completely around the bottom of the helmet and the rider's neck. This product is intended to eliminate drafts but may also serve to lower ambient noise levels.

We've also discovered that riding a "naked" bike can actually cause less turbulence and lower noise levels. This may seem counterintuitive, and many riders don't believe it. But helmets that are out in the clean air stream and not influenced by "dirty" air and turbulence caused by a windscreen can provide much lower noise levels. Don't forget that turbulent air isn't always directly felt by the rider.

The aerodynamics of the motorcycle can cause lots of turbulence behind the rider that isn't necessarily felt as a buffeting, but can still be the cause of noise levels because of the way the turbulent air affects the back of the helmet.

Motorcycle Helmet Noise Reduction
It is sometimes possible to reduce the amount of noise that is experienced by the rider. But first it's important to understand where and how the sound is generated and how sound is propagated.

Sound is transmitted in waves. The basic components of a sound wave are frequency, wavelength and amplitude. In the graphic of a sound wave shown below, the period of one cycle of this wave is 0.5 seconds, and the frequency of this wave is 2 cycles per second or 2 Hertz (Hz) (Courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

A real example of a sound wave graphic be seen in the noise frequency charts shown below, taken from actual sound recordings during a motorcycle ride. We have been experimenting with recordings of helmet noise levels with stereo microphones placed next to the rider's ear as we conduct our helmet evaluations. The goal of these recordings is to provide you with an actual sound sample that can then be used as another data point when deciding which helmet to purchase.

We used a pair of very high quality Sound Professionals cardioid stereo microphones (SP-CMC-20) connected to an iRiver IFP-899 MP3 player and a few other tweaks to try and capture helmet wind noise as an MP3 file. The mics were placed right over the rider's ears in an attempt to duplicate the exact same sounds as we experience during our helmet evaluations.

The recordings were made at 32KHz at 128KBPS and converted from a native iRiver format to MP3 using the iRiver Music Manager software. We then used the free and open-source Audacity Sound Editor software to edit the sound files by saving just the relevant information.

We still have lots of work to do before we can determine the optimum settings for best results, but our initial trials have at least proved interesting. We are in the process of completing a comparison review of the AGV Ti-Tech and the Suomy Extreme helmet (the article will be posted very soon), and we used those helmets to record these MP3 files. Each file is approximately 1 minute long.

We invite you to listen to each of these admittedly crude first attempts and see if you can notice a difference. Listen for a difference in volume and also in the quality or type of sound (frequency). We may include individual sound files with each helmet review in the future for reference.

See also the wBW review of the NOJ Quiet Rider helmet wind blocker. This article also has MP3 files comparing the helmet noise with and without the Quiet Rider on the Bell Sprint and Arai Quantum II.

Notice that the right speaker is picking up less volume in both recordings. This is probably due to a location issue with one of the microphones; however, it is virtually impossible to record the exact same volume and sounds through two separate stereo microphones place on either side of a motorcycle helmet.

We have labeled the various points on the graph that correspond to the speed of the motorcycle. The rider's narration will point out these marks, but his voice is muffled due to the placement of the microphones.

Note also the yellow arrows, indicating the beginning and the end of that portion of the sound recording where the rider's head was lifted out of the turbulence caused by the Tiger's half windscreen. The sound levels at this point drop noticeably due to the reduction in wind noise caused by the turbulence.

Conclusion
In our opinion, motorcycle helmets will not always reduce noise levels significantly, and, in fact, they may actually cause higher levels of noise in more harmful frequencies than might be expected. Riding without a helmet is definitely not an answer, both for reasons of safety and because of the extreme volume of noise when riding without a helmet. Some claim that riding without a helmet allows the rider to hear other vehicles more clearly, but this is usually not the case when riding at higher speeds without a helmet.

There are many variables that can cause helmet noise, including helmet design, motorcycle design, weather (i.e., cross winds), turbulence and also the configuration of the motorcycle's fairing or windscreen. Some helmets are intrinsically quieter than others, either due to their design, the liner, the aerodynamics or how the helmet fits the rider's head.

We strongly suggest wearing high quality, correctly fitted earplugs whenever you ride a motorcycle. This can help minimize the risk of hearing loss, reduce stress and make the riding experience more pleasant.

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From "B.D." (5/09): "Human heads must be still evolving because there are so many different shapes. But for mine, simply tying a bandanna around my neck and tucking it up into the helmet below my ears seems to help attenuate wind noise a bit, when riding with my HJC helmet. Sure, earplugs are best, but with or without them, this helps me.

I have another helmet fitted with a Windjammer. It's snug and quiet, but too damn hot for summer use, and donning it with the Windjammer installed stirs up some infantile memory of a trip down the birth canal!"

From "G.C.": "I'm convinced that the poor vent, visor pivot, and neck roll designs are what make modern helmets so noisy. When I started riding 15 years ago, I got a cheap US$105 Bieffe B89 full-face. It was so cheap it didn't have ANY vents and the visor was permanently attached! The visor pivots were a thin flat black disk that didn't catch the wind. It had a continuous vinyl neck piece w/o the split that's usually under the ears. The bottom of the helmet shell also came down a lot further (over an inch) than my Shoei RF200.

It was the quietest helmet I've ever had. It was literally like sitting in a car. Nothing else has even come close. If it's quiet level is a 1, then other helmets would be 6-10. One helmet I had (RF700?) had a neck roll with a split that scooped up turbulence and piped it right to the ears. I had to use duct tape to keep the thing quiet enough to wear, even with ear plugs.

I miss that piece 'o crap! I'd trade my Schuberth Helme Concept for it in a heartbeat."