[Prog Rock Man]

I use earplugs when out and about on my motorbike. I was wondering if I could start to use IEMs instead and would like some recommendations for ones that could act as ear plugs and be used with my Nano on longer journeys. Budget is a paltry £20 max. I would need to be able to take off the rubber part of the plugs to wash them occasionally.
 
Thanks.

 

[geegary]

Wow listening while driving a bike really seems to increase the risk of collision, no?

 

[seanmo]

meelectronics m6 or m6- over the ear design, comfy, cheap and decent sound

 
 

 

[RADI0HEAD]

Wow listening while driving a bike really seems to increase the risk of collision, no?

It's actually pretty common in the motorcycle community. You'd be pretty surprised at the amount of noise inside a motorcycle helmet at freeway speeds. You need at least 20-25dB of attenuation to preserve your hearing on a motorcycle. Earplugs are recommended to avoid hearing loss!

Etymotic ER-6i work great under a helmet, very popular with motorcyclists. I've been using them for years and feed music, radar and gps prompts through them. For cheapies, the JVC Marshmallows and (gasp) Skullcandy Inked earbuds, also very popular for their attenuating properties.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

It does get noisy, especially wind roar and even with earplugs I can still hear the engine and other noises, such as horns and sirens. The volume of the music would be background and not to drown out all other noise. If it was I would be asking for permanent ear damage!

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I like my AKG headphones and so had a look at the K324P which can be had for £11 off Amazon. They get excellent reviews here and on Amazon, but is anyone able to speake about their ability to isolate outside noise?

 

[Lempelig]

Used som low-end Denon at one point, which worked great. They were small, and had an ok bass response, and you can't really hear that much anyway, so you can at least enjoy the bass.

 

[drewrussell2011]

+1 for M6

 

[Good Times]

I use Shure E3Cs with either foamies or black olive tips with no issues. I can't use the over-ear routing with the cable, as it knocks them out when I put the helmet on, but is great otherwise.
 
Oh and for others curious about IEM usage on a motorbike, here's an analogy:
 
Riding without earplugs = driving a car with your windows down
Riding with earplugs = driving a car with your windows up
Riding with IEMs = driving a car with windows up and the radio on
 
You still hear the traffic / sirens etc with your car stereo on, so imo a fair comparison. So long as you're using noise-reducing tips and not just whacking in your stock ipod earbuds for example, as with those you'd have to crank your music louder to overcome the wind noise.

 

[Prog Rock Man]

Thanks for the suggestions, the winner due to cost and availability is the JVC Marshmallow.