JUST THE FACTS MA'AM
JUST THE FACTS
W
here is most of the damage coming
from? Well if you ask someone who does not
ride then they may well think that it comes
from exhaust noise. Anyone that does ride will
tell you that it is the wind buzz that makes the
major impact on hearing. Now we as explorers
tend to ride longer hours and at various speeds
in all kinds of conditions so we do get a greater
exposure to the elements. Here are the figures
that the Health and Safety people cause legal
action against a company for noise levels and
what we can expect to be exposed to riding a
bike.
At 70mph, the legal limit in the UK (at the
moment) then the noise level can get to
105dB. If you’ve been on the German
playground where all bets are off then you can
expect to get 110dB at 100mph and at
120mph you may be looking at 115dB. If you
are doing 120mph then it’s also a good idea to
check that anything strapped to the back is still
there when you get to the border!
So we have 105dB at 70 but if you had that at
work then the law in the UK would say that if
you’re exposed to a noise level of 80dB as a
daily or weekly average then you must have
Aircraft carrier deck = 140dB
training and make hearing protection available,
at the company’s cost.
At just 85dB average for the day or weekly
exposure then the law states that the employer
must take reasonable action to reduce the
noise. The use of hearing protection becomes
mandatory for all.
Then the upper limit accepted by the Health
and safety body is down as 87dB, above this
level no worker can be exposed (taking hearing
protection into account).
But there we are running along all day with no
protection and exposed to upward of 105dB of
noise that is generated from wind turbulence.
There can be no doubt that this is going to have
a detrimental effect on your hearing. The big
thing is that it builds up, each tour could make
you a little more deaf and there is no ‘cure’ for
this, once your hearing is gone, it’s gone!
Leaving you with a snazzy hearing aid and
perhaps worse… tinnitus!