Wind-blox

[FitzChivalry]

A few weeks back I bought a pair of Windblox from Amazon.com. I've used them on 6-8 round trips (each round trip = 42 miles) to work. As I've used them, I've found the trick to making them work the best, which is to twist your helmet strap and Windblox around a couple of revolutions, which causes the Windblox to stand out from your cheekbone, keeping a tight fit and blocking the largest amount of wind noise.

Prior to using Windblox, I was using a handlebar stereo and could listen to music, but not audiobooks and podcasts. You can lose 3 seconds of sound from a song, but losing that much from a podcast or, worse, an audiobook makes for a very frustrating experience.

I've now been able to start listening to both audiobooks and podcasts (today, I listened to a few chapters of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, and on the way home I listened to a couple of Freakonomics podcasts. I have an earbud in only my non-street-facing ear so that I'm not unduly sacrificing safety. The fact that I can listen effectively to audiobooks/podcasts with only one earbud is a testament to how much wind noise the Windblox blocks.

As anyone who has ridden at 18-25mph (my usual speed range for sustained cycling) on an electric bike knows, wind noise is an even bigger deal on an electric bike than a standard one. So, I think that this accessory is particularly suited to our needs.

 

[James]

Yeah I've been using them for a few months as well. They do work best when stuck right next to your cheek as you alluded to.
Pretty cheap too!

 

[Aushiker]

Interesting. Wind noise here is a problem because Perth is a very windy city ... might have to look into these further.

Andrew

 

[calvin]

Ordered mine.

 

[gskbrew]

I recently bought a pair and they work great.

 

[calvin]

I received my pair of Windblox from Amazon. I would guess that the noise reduction is about 60 percent, depending upon how you fit them on the straps and how far away the Windblox are from your ears. For me, they actually need a third strap extending down from the helmet to just in front of the ear I think.
I still believe that there is way of almost completely eliminating wind noise, since like I stated in another post, I can cup my ears with my hand and all the wind noise stops. Perhaps a mod of some sort. I'll experiment.

 

[FitzChivalry]

Do share your experimentation results!