Hearing Protection

   Does anyone know where I can get form-fitted earplugs like the Indy
car racers use?

 
Try googling for custom fitted ear plugs.   Plenty of sources.

 
This is a bit off of your request, but what is your rationale for the
form-fitted ones?

I use the standard foam ones (28 - 30 dB) and they work fine for me, but
maybe there are issues I'm not aware of.

I buy my standard foam ones at Lowe's.  $15 for at least 50 pairs.

DF

 wrote:

I was thinking that form fitted would not go so deep into the ear
canal, but instead rest in the ear opening. I have ear wax problems
and I don't want to force it deep into the ear canal.

 wrote:

I don't remember seeing your posts here before, so (not knowing your
background), I'll just throw the whole spiel at you ...

Motorcycling, even with a full-face helmet, generates wind noise in the
100 - 110 dB range.  This will damage your hearing, probably in a matter of
tens to hundreds of hours (depending on a lot of factors, including
genetics).

You are of course right to seek earplugs.

There is a tradeoff between noise reduction and loss of situational
awareness.  I have foam plugs in, and sometimes I don't hear cars near me.

As best I know, the only way to preserve your hearing and situational
awareness both would be some electronic DSP device that heavily manipulated
and filtered the sound.  This may exist.  But with earplugs, as best I know,
noise reduction = loss of situational awareness.

Decibels (dB) is a logarithmic scale.  That this means is that if you have a
110dB noise and your earplugs attenuate by 30dB, you can just subtract to
get 80dB.  This comes from the fact that ln(a/b) = ln(a) - ln(b).

My foam plugs attenuate by about 28 or 30dB.  I've not been able to find
plugs I like that attenuate by, say, 10dB, 15dB, 20dB, 25dB, etc.  It seems
to be "all or nothing" in terms of earplug selection.

I do have problems with my foam plugs going in too far.  I have horrified
McDonald's patrons by fishing them out of my ear with a car key.  I've
learned to insert them just far enough, but even then ...

Let me know what you find that you like ... I may buy a few pair and see how
well they work.

DF