2Wheeltips

If we were to step into a time machine and transport ourselves to 2110, what would we see? How would the motorcycling landscape change in these 100 years? Well, let’s do some speculation, shall we.

Just as people have transitioned from hunters/gatherers into agricultural societies, then into industrial and eventually reached this technological age; 100 years from now, people would have realized that there is nowhere to go in terms of technology and that the next logical development level is internal. Allow me to elaborate.

I’m not saying that everything there is to be invented is already invented; far from it.
But to paraphrase what His Holiness the Dalai Lama pointed out in his book How to See Yourself As You Really Are .

Reaching technological heights and modern living standards did not make us any happier.

In fact, there is scientific research that points to the fact that people were happier 100 or even 1000 yrs ago than now, despite modern standards of living and other conveniences.

So now that I’m hanging out in 2110, and looking over the last 100 years of human development, I see that people have realized that internal development is supreme and the last frontier left to conquer.

I am purposefully avoiding words like “spiritual development” because of its negative or inferior connotations in some people’s minds. How do you view such phrases?

History books made 100 years from now will tell a story of unprecedented human collaboration, greater social awareness than ever before, and fearless exploration of the innerverse.

Street riding is faster and safer than ever since the roads are no longer congested (cars are now hovercrafts flying about 100-400 ft in the air, it’s pretty cool).
Of their own volition, bikers spend countless hours practicing their craft, and people are not in a hurry anymore since there are no corporations to dictate the pace of life.

The most famous biker is Condon Parks Hough. He is, to street riding, what Evel Knievel was to bone-braking. I have to point out however, that Condon Parks Hough does have an unfair advantage since he was grown in a lab from genetic materials left by the motorcycle greats, Lee Parks, Ken Condon and David Hough.

How do you see motorcycle riding hundred years from now?

Here is our latest poll. We are going to post it in the magazine to see how it works here.

 

By: Dr. Melissa E. Heche, AuD
Doctor of Audiology

Happy New Year!  Don’t you love this time of year?  I adore this time because we have a chance to take a step back and reanalyze our lives – to take stock of what we have and what we need and make appropriate decisions. What an exhilarating time it can be!  We re-connect with ourselves, with our loved ones and with the activities we love to do.  Which means…..

We take our bikes out for a New Year’s ride!

Part 1: Tinnitus

Tinnitus is the condition that millions of people suffer from that leaves them hearing a ringing in their ears or buzzing or chirping sounds.  It is the perception of a sound that has no external source. It can be constant or intermittent and is heard in one ear, both ears or in the head.  The most common cause of tinnitus is noise exposure. 

When loud noises interfere with one’s hearing or induce tinnitus, there is an indication that cochlear damage has occurred. The cochlea is the part of the inner ear that detects pressure and transmits electrical impulses through the auditory nerve, sending the sound transmission to the brain.  An increased number of cochlear damage cases stem from regular exposure to loud noise.

Though tinnitus is somewhat subjective and impacts people differently, there are many patterns that are seen within tinnitus sufferers.  First, thoughts and emotions are directly altered.  People often feel bothered, angry or anxious about the presence of the tinnitus.  In addition, tinnitus sufferers often demonstrate difficulties focusing; increased distractibility is prevalent.  Many tinnitus sufferers also feel depressed.  In fact, there exists a high rate of suicide in extreme cases of tinnitus.  Psychological intervention and, in some cases, pharmaceuticals are utilized to treat these symptoms.

Often tinnitus sufferers have difficulties sleeping.  The sound of the tinnitus in a quiet room may irritate the sufferer and cause bouts of insomnia.  Because of occasional interrupted sleep, the tinnitus sufferer is also at risk for developing sleep apnea.   Often a sound machine is necessary to provide external auditory stimulation and facilitate slumber.

Finally, because the tinnitus often masks speech or environmental sounds, the sufferer may have difficulties hearing because of the tinnitus – even in the presence of normal thresholds of hearing.  This is because the presence of tinnitus causes a decrease in signal to noise differentiation.  The brain typically can separate the signal (e.g, the speech) from the background noise.  However, a tinnitus suffer may not be adept in doing so.  This will result in decreased discrimination capacities, especially in the presence of background noise.   So, although a peripheral hearing loss may not be present – the sufferer may still present with difficulties in certain environmental conditions.  Amplification would be required to maximize communication, reduce concomitant stress and partially mask the tinnitus.  In addition, the sufferer may need to undergo programs such as Tinnitus Retraining Therapy to decrease tinnitus.

With initial and small periods of noise exposure, slight tinnitus episodes may be intermittent.  However, as the periods of noise exposure increase, there becomes a cumulative impact on the auditory system and the tinnitus may become chronic.  

The first occurrence of tinnitus should be a red flag of increased noise exposure.  This should be a reminder to wear hearing protection while riding your motorcycle.  The more you ride without protection, the greater your risk at contracting chronic tinnitus and having to suffer the subsequent impact on hearing, communication, social and emotional health.

_______________
Dr. Heche is a Doctor of Audiology and Clinical Voice and Swallowing Pathologist. She is dually certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and licensed in NYS in Audiology and Speech Pathology. In addition, she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and is Board Certified in Audiology. Dr. Heche is also a NYS licensed Hearing Aid Dispenser.

Dr. Heche runs the NYC-based private practice New York Speech & Hearing and can be reached at:

http://www.2wheeltips.com/members/profile/640

mheche@newyorkspeechandhearing.com
www.newyorkspeechandhearing.com
Office: (212) 260-1414

 

Everyone at 2wheeltips.com wishes all of you a very happy, healthy New Year! 
Oh...and our New Year's resolution for 2010:  to work as hard as we can to help support and improve motorcycle safety and education!
Ride safely, everyone!
Your friends at 2wheeltips.com

So you took the BRC…you either passed it and got your motorcycle endorsement or you are licking your wounds because you failed the class.  Now what?  Well, if you passed, you may be thinking to yourself: 

• Am I really ready for public roads?
• What do I do now to expand on what I learned in class?
• How do I continue my path to becoming a really proficient motorcyclist?
• Who is willing to ride with a newbie and help mentor me?

And, if you failed the class, you may be thinking:

• What do I do NOW if I really want to get my license?
• Who will help me get myself motivated and prepared to try again?

Thanks to 2wheeltips member, Thundurburd, we have added these topics to the site.  Thundurburd pointed out to us how important it is to continue the learning process even after the BRC is over.  Anyone who took the BRC without ever having sat on a motorcycle before knows that, even once you have successfully graduated from the class, you are far from experienced.  You are a newbie, a novice with lots to learn.  After all, you learned to ride on a protected range, and public roads have all kinds of realities that the range cannot simulate (inclines, tight curves, all kinds of road debris and impediments).  Here, we offer videos, blogs and forums that will help you as you continue the learning process and make your way to becoming a proficient motorcyclist.  And, if you failed to pass the BRC the first time around, we understand that, too.  Not everyone passes the first time they take the class.  Perhaps there are issues that you need to understand better in order to complete the class successfully. 

Either way, watch our videos, read our blogs, send us your questions and link up with other bikers who can also help guide you on improving your ride!

My grandpa bestowed a few words of wisdom on me when I was a kid. 
He said “son, don’t get caught with your pants down; don’t wait to shit your pants before buying an extra pair of underwear and go tell grandma to iron my pants.”
I don’t know what his obsession with pants was all about but once, while in Prague, he traded his Levis for a car. Or was that just a commercial I saw?

What does this have to do with motorcycling? Glad you asked.
Turns out, everything.

Don’t Wait to Get Caught in the Rain

If you never rode in rainy conditions, perhaps you want to do a practice run on a drizzly Sunday afternoon. This will give you a chance to get the

By Dino Dogan

First time I rode a motorcycle I knew 3 things. Don’t eat the yellow snow, don’t piss against the wind and don’t up-chuck while wearing a full-faced helmet . Only one of these pertained to motorcycling.

My high school girlfriend got a brand new motorcycle for her birthday. I am pretty sure I’ve spent more time on that thing –the bike, not the girl- than she did. I believe it was an Italian-made step-up from a scooter that was good on the gas and soft on the ass.

I was unconscious-incompetent when it came to riding a motorcycle. In other words, I had no idea what I didn’t know and how much there was to know; but I managed to get around town and even survived to tell about it. Later, I rode on my friend’s 150cc Suzuki and 400cc Honda. Yup, schooldays were fun but then it came time to focus on career and leave this motorcycling nonsense behind. Yeah right.

In my twenties, I kept going back to the idea of actually getting my own bike for once; my procrastinating nature and the high entry cost kept derailing me but I didn’t give up. However, I had to wait a good 10 years before I would actually sit on my own bike...but I’m jumping ahead.

The “high entry cost” is something that many new riders don’t consider. You might put aside a few grand for the bike, but there are a slew of other

The previous article was written entirely from memory; so I decided to open up Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell and re-read the chapter on airplane accidents and once again I was amazed at how similar the accident-factors of a plane crash are to the accident-factors of a motorcycle crash. So with that in mind, let’s pin few additional tails on this donkey.

Profile of the captain:
The captain of the Flight 801 had been employed by Korean Air for four years. Prior to that, he was a pilot in the Korean Air Force with a combined flight time of 89,000 hours, including thirty-two hundred hours of experience in jumbo jets. A few months earlier, he had been given a flight safety award by his airline for successfully handling a jumbo jet engine failure at low altitude.

In other words, he was an experienced and seasoned operator with years

In his 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell recounts the story of (South) Korean Air Flight 801 which tragically crashed due to multitude of factors.
What is even more unfortunate is that this could have been a story of many Korean Air flights during this time (1980s) which also resulted in a tragic demise. The problem was so great that Korean Air was about to lose it’s federally granted flight license and came very close to going out of business entirely.

What I found fascinating is how similar flying and riding is in terms of accident-probability. The author suggests that accident-probability is related not to a single factor – say bad weather for example - instead it’s

By: Dr. Melissa E. Heche, AuD
Doctor of Audiology

Once armed with the knowledge regarding the potential hearing damage to motorcycle usage, motorcyclists are typically very motivated to actively protect their hearing while riding.  The ultimate realization that custom earplugs offer the best protection precipitates most riders to be proactive about getting a pair.  When the opportunity is presented to the rider – such as at a motorcycle show – it would appear to be an easy way to ensure a safer ride.  Obtain hearing protection, without the hassle of going to a doctor’s office.  Perfect solution, right?  Not so fast…you should know all the facts.

From my experience at the motorcycle shows, there are several vendors who are present and have booths where they offer to take ear mold impressions immediately and generate a hearing protection plug right there for you.  It is a great way to increase awareness and ensure that motorcyclists who would not typically be wearing protection while riding have begun the process of protecting their hearing.  I have been asked numerous times if this process is an adequate means of protecting hearing, and there are a number of different variables to consider when trying to ascertain whether this is a satisfactory method.

The short answer is that it is certainly far better than not wearing any hearing protection at all.  In fact, the vendors at these conferences take an ear mold impression – much like is done in an audiologist’s office – and generate an earplug that is presumably adequately sealed in the ear.  With that, the motorcycle rider is being protected by using the plugs that took merely minutes to construct and cost just a few dollars.  But how much hearing protection is the rider actually getting, and is this there a better method? 

Obtaining ear mold impressions for the purposes of fitting molds is both an art and a science.  First, there is a risk involved.  Should the silicone based impression material accidentally come too close to the eardrum, its removal might become a small but not unimportant medical procedure.  In addition, if there are otologic conditions in the person’s ear (such as a perforated eardrum) then special care must be taken with the material when it is placed into the canal.  The vendors at the shows may know this information and take appropriate precautions – but they may not.  Further, if there is a condition such as Eustachian Tube dysfunction or a retracted eardrum, then insertion and removal of the material into the canal needs to be done with care or the material will get stuck and severe discomfort will occur.  The fact is that none of the vendors will know if any of these conditions exist in the client sitting in their chair at the show – because testing for these conditions can only be done by an audiologist.  These are facts that you must be aware of when considering obtaining your hearing protection plugs through them.  The vendor may be quite experienced and may be well skilled at taking earmold impressions – please do not misunderstand my words as a statement that none of the vendors are capable.  I do not know any of them well enough to make an assertion in either direction; however, I do know that ear anatomy and physiology plays a large role in the successful ear mold impression.  Without the necessary education, the practitioner is unnecessarily risking the client.

Another variable to consider is the type of material that is utilized.  Typically, the Westone hearing protection plugs are comprised of a soft silicone that adheres to the canal and forms a complete hermetic seal.  I have no direct knowledge of the materials that are used by the vendors, but it would be important to have an understanding of this.  I am certain that each vendor is different and may offer different information about the materials utilized.  What I can report is that I have seen several pairs of plugs that were formulated onsite at a motorcycle show, and I did not feel that the material was dense or sturdy enough to offer the NRR that was claimed.  Therefore, I have to emphasize the importance of the research and development of the company that generates the hearing protection plugs.  The bigger laboratories work towards the constant development of materials and earmold structures that are best suited for the purpose.  These companies have the research to substantiate their claims.  Can all of the vendors say the same thing? 

Finally, there is a very important component to the hearing protection process that is missing at every vendor stand.  The process of hearing protection is more than just being fit with an earplug and wearing it under your helmet.  The process of hearing protection is very much rooted in audiology.  It involves a complete evaluation to ascertain baseline audiological levels and to depict the rider’s audiological profile.  Assessing anatomy and physiology to rule out any conditions that might present a complication to ear mold impressions is an important part of the procedure.  Finally, the hearing protection process should not end with the fitting of hearing protection earplugs.  Rather, ongoing assessment, follow-ups and checks are necessary to monitor function and ensure ongoing healthy hearing; this process can therefore not be complete without the advisement of a Doctor of Audiology.

When you choose to wear hearing protection plugs while riding a motorcycle, you are choosing to take an active role in maintaining your hearing health.  Make certain that the path you are traveling on does not offer a short-cut.  Maximize the hearing protection process to ensure that your overall hearing health will not be compromised.

——————————

Dr. Heche is a Doctor of Audiology and Clinical Voice and Swallowing Pathologist. She is dually certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and licensed in NYS in Audiology and Speech Pathology. In addition, she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and is Board Certified in Audiology. Dr. Heche is also a NYS licensed Hearing Aid Dispenser.

Dr. Heche runs the NYC-based private practice New York Speech & Hearing and can be reached at:

http://www.2wheeltips.com/members/profile/640

mheche@newyorkspeechandhearing.com
www.newyorkspeechandhearing.com
Office: (212) 260-1414