Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Motorcycle helmets may be hard on hearing

|
|
 
  
Published: July 29, 2011 at 10:49 PM

BATH, England, July 29 (UPI) -- Motorcycle helmets may protect bikers' brains but they also may contribute to hearing loss, researchers in Britain say.

Researchers at the University of Bath and Bath Spa University in England say the distinctive roar of a Harley's engine is loud, but studies have revealed the biggest source of noise for motorcyclists is actually generated by air whooshing over the riders' helmets. Even at legal speeds, the sound can exceed safe levels, the researchers say.

The researchers placed motorcycles helmets atop mannequin heads, mounted them in a wind tunnel and turned on the fans. By placing microphones at various locations around the helmet and at the mannequin's ear, the researchers found that an area underneath the helmet and near the chin bar is a significant source of the noise that reaches riders' sensitive eardrums.

The team also investigated how helmet angle and wind speed affected the loudness.

The study, Aeroacoustic Sources of Motorcycle Helmet Noise, is accepted for publication in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Protesters, police clash at NATO summit Notable deaths of 2012 2012 Billboard Music Awards
The 137th Preakness Stakes Annual Solar eclipse occurs in U.S. Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S.
Additional Health News Stories
1 of 20
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Visited in Washington
View Caption
Veterans etch the names of their friends inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War on May 26, 2012 in Washington, DC. More than 58,000 names of the servicemen who were killed or missing in the war are engraved on The Wall. UPI/Pat Benic
fark
Andy Rooney's WWII scoop from Nov 7th, 1944: The day Nazi 'robot rockets' almost bombed New York...
Chances are, if you're growing a two foot tall marijuana plant in a pot outside your front door,...
Canadian hang-glider pilot says he's really sorry he dropped that poor tourist to her death, and...
In this day and age, the Golden Gate bridge would never be built, thanks to hipsters, enviro-nuts...
Dick Winters, a true American hero, immortalized with a statue in Normandy. It's about damn time...
Apparently Best Korean officials are suffering from contagious and deadly "traffic accidents"