For years now I have always worn ear plugs when riding, even on the shortest of journeys. This is because years of riding before that without protection has left me with partial hearing loss…eh, what was that you said???

However, while riding distances I also like to listen to music and the dliemma has always been that earbud earphones like I use (the bigger ones keep falling out) do provide the music, but they also don’t seal out the wind noise well, meaning that the problem of noise still exists. Added to this it also means that, to actually hear the music at over 100km/h is almost impossible as the wind noise drowns it out.

I bought a little inline amplifier that overcomes the volume problem, but it didn’t solve the underlying issue which was the bud earphones’ inability to seal off the ear canal sufficiently.

Well, talking about this one one of the forums I inhabit, a member suggested that he has solved both problems by doing this.

Well, isn’t it often the way that the best solutions are the simple ones? I trundled straight out to the workshop, performed the same bit of surgery on a set of foam earplugs that I have and, what do you know? It works BRILLIANTLY. The wind noise is almost completely extinguished and I can listen to my favourite music in peace and quiet. So effective is the solution that I don’t even need to use the inline amplifier, the .mp3 player having enough volume as standard.

If you’re looking for a cost-effective solution to music on the bike, here it is.

Oh, and don’t tell me that this or that set of earphones at $160 or $200 will do a better job, I’ve already been TOLD that (though I find it hard to believe). I’m sure any problem can be solved if enough money is thrown at it. But for the times that you want to ride and groove at the same time, my adopted $0.50 solution takes some beating.

And of course, once the earplugs get a bit “manky” you can just throw them away and set up a new pair.