This is for everyone who won’t wear earplugs because they hurt.

I was once just like you. I knew I should wear them, but I couldn’t find an earplug that I could stand for more than an hour. Every single one I tried, hurt me to wear, some more than others. But I already have tinnitus (without hearing loss) and I don’t want it getting any worse. Wind noise is brutal. If motorcycling were a profession, OSHA wouldn’t let an employer force you to do it for more than half an hour per day, because of the potential hearing damage. That damage is cumulative and permanent, so I set off on a quest.

I’ve spent a lot of years trying to find earplugs I can live with.None of these came to me for testing. I bought them all myself, and wasted a bunch of dough in the process. I have had custom foam plugs fitted, too, but those aren’t even worth a mention here except that I cannot wear them at all without pain.

小耳朵

It turns out my problem is, I have really small ear canals. Once I figured out they were even an option, I started hunting down small-sized earplugs. I don’t know if this is a gendered issue, that is, if women have smaller ear canals than men, or if it’s random. I think some people just have small ear holes and I’m one of them.

Corporations and their marketing departments must think women have smaller ear canals, though, because there is an abundance of pink “for her” foam earplugs. In this case, they don’t cost any more, on average, and they’re easy to find when I drop them so I tried a few of those out.

A while ago, I sprung for a set of “Eargasm” ear plugs (with a name like that, how could I resist?), as well as several iterations of EarPeace models. More recently, EarPeace released the “Moto Pro” so I tried those too. All of these came with me on a recent multi-thousand mile road trip so I could test them out side by side.

I found a handyonline DIY earplug test, and here are the quick and dirty, number-free results from that:

• Hearos “Sleep Pretty In Pink” NRR 32 – Pass
• Mack’s “Dreamgirl” NRR 30 – Pass
• Rite Aid Ear Plugs NRR 32 – Pass
• Howard Leight Laser Lite NRR 32 – Pass
• Eargasm “High Fidelity” (in small) “-21dB” – Pass
• EarPeace “Moto Original” (in small) – Fail
• EarPeace “Moto Pro” (“Max protection” in standard; these don’t come in small) 24dB – Fail
• EarPeace “Sleep” (in small) 26dB – Fail

That all said, the EarPeace plugs barely fail, and at a very low volume. When I swapped from one earplug to another during a ride, I could not tell which had a higher NRR; they all blocked noise well. And I heard voices and music through my helmet comm much better with them in, than without. So it came down to fitment.

Fitment, Worst to Best

Eargasm

Yeah, I expected better, but nope, these are seriously painful. They’re fancy and expensive, but they do not work in my ear canals. Total fail, waste of $40. Couldn’t make it 20 miles without needing to tear them out of my head.

Howard Leight Laser Lite

These are the plugs all my friends love. Everyone I know wears these or the green “Max Lite” plugs, but even those hurt after about an hour into the day’s ride. I could never get comfortable in them. They’re better than the Eargasms, though.

EarPeace Moto Pro

I think it’s because of the “standard” size, but after about an hour that solid plastic filter in the soft plug really makes its presence known. Especially so if it’s a very bright day and I’m doing a lot of squinting, which makes my ear canalseven smaller. Ow.

Mack’s Dreamgirl

这些都是更好的,但是泡沫仍然是一个小too stiff. A headache that originates in your ear canal is a total stinker. Maybe about an hour and a half without pain, but it ramps up fast.

Hearos Sleep Pretty in Pink

These are, oddly, too long. I discovered that if I snip a couple of millimeters of material off the outside edge so that the plug doesn’t make contact with the inside of my helmet (that is the WORST), they still seat properly, without pain and without that low-volume noise that helmet contact generates. Seating foam earplugs too far into your ear canal can inspire some really righteous headaches, turns out. Getting these seated just right is a chore, but if they’re in right, they’re great.

Rite Aid plugs

For an “oh shit I don’t have any earplugs left” emergency purchase, these turned out to be pretty fantastic. No trimming necessary, and hours-long comfort. Who knew? And they’re even purple. And cheap, if I recall correctly. I note that Rite Aid has now changed their packaging and the color of their ear plugs; the “ultra soft” plugs are available in what a friend rightly calls “rubber dong beige” but hey, better than pink, I suppose, for a lot of men.

EarPeace Sleep plugs

These are pretty comfortable, and reusable, and much less expensive than the “moto” branded EarPeace plugs. They do not have an attenuated filter, just a small squishy plug-within-a-plug that blocks noise. They work. Heck, I can’t tell the difference.

EarPeace Moto Original

Easily the most comfortable ear plugs I’ve ever used. Their published NRR, with the “max” filter, is only 19, which is fairly miserable. That said, earplugs I can wear all day without pain, and which are washable and reusable, count for a lot. Any hearing protection is better than no hearing protection, so I’m sticking with these (and the Rite Aid plugs for backup, even if I have to buy them in the RDB color).