Alpine MotoSafe ear plugs

[stromonoff]

Has anyone used these?  What do you think?  

I like the idea of the two settings so they could work for lower speed stuff, then choose the high setting for motorways and long journeys.

Did the web trawl and most places are around £22 but found this:

http://www.ascenthearing.co.uk/products ... _motosafe/

Making them a more reasonable (if still expensive) £15.98 by the time they add VAT and postage.

Anyone tried them?

[petestrom]

No haven't tried them or heard of anyone using them, found a review on them which didn't really impress me enough to get them.
I use the yellow disposable ones which I find very good if inserted correctly.  I do reuse them too and to be safe I take a small nick out of the left one so I know which is which and dispose of them when they look a bit manky.
To insert correctly I roll the part to be inserted between finger and thumb until it is as thin as possible, then insert in each ear whilst pulling the ear back to straighten the ear canal.  When the plugs expand they work really well and don't pop out.  

Pete

[stromonoff]

Yes have used the foam ones before, but would like to hear a bit more and these seemed like a good option.

May order some and give them a try.  Its a lot for plugs, but if they work as described could be worth it.

[Fatbelly]

I know this is extraordinarily stingey but...

I always end up with loads of manky old foam ear plugs, they get very dirty when you roll them. So I collect them up and put them in the little mesh bag that came with the washing powder tablets - I chuck the little bag of plugs in with the laundry and ..Hello presto! fresh plugs. This way I always have a little bag of clean ear plugs in my top box.

I know, it sounds like "top tips" from Viz comic.

[jonH]

I was using alpine motosafe earplugs. I bought them from earplugshop.com and they only came with the green inserts, no yellow ones, despite me expecting both.

I got bored with them after about 9 months as they just kept coming out of my ears after about 20 mins, despite providing a 'nice' level of noise deflection.

I've now gone back to laser lites and although they block out too much noise in my opinion, they stay in my ears

[Juvecu]

IIRC the Laser Lite ones are rated SNR35, I've used them and they are great for long distance riding, comfy and you can reuse them all day. I have narrow ear canals so I searched for a better fitting earplug and came accros the Bilsom 303L ones. They are made by the same company that makes the Laser Lite earplugs - Sperian (Howard Leight.) The Bilsom 303L plugs are rated at SNR29, they are very similar to the laser Lite ones, but I find they are much easier to insert. Because they have a lower rating I can hear better while still having good enough protection not to notice any bad noise on my 1.5 hour commute. They also make a Bilsom 303S, which is a smaller plug, same specs, they are too small for me, but work great for my wife. The Bilsom 303L plugs are tapered, they can be put in your ear with either the small or big end first. This effectively gives you two different sizes and is great if you have ear canals that are different in size (mine are pretty much the same, but a lot of people have it different enough to notice it.) Here's a pic to show what they look like:

[petestrom]

Well done FB good tip!

Pete

[stromonoff]

Well, ordered the Alpine's at 5pm and miraculously they arrived 9am the following morning.... doesn't happen often !!

Anyway, just been testing them and used the highest (quiet) setting on the Alpine's in one ear, and then used a Howard Leight Max in the other ear just for comparison.

The Alpines have a lower NNR/SNR rating anyway even on the higher setting, so no problem hearing the engine or traffic just rather lower volume.  The Howard Leights definately more numbing in that respect, to the degree you can hear youself breathing a little too much as well.  Comparison not entirely fair with different ratings, but I would have to say I prefer the Alpine's.

Other differences:

> Alpines more comfortable when in place.
> Howard Leight's much easier to remove.  

The Alpine's sit deeper in the ear so are a little more fiddly to get out. I guess it helps with isolating them from contact with the helmet but still fiddly to get out.

I will be using the Alpines from now on.... are they worth £16 ?  Well yes if you have the cash to spare, I guess it depends how long they last of course.