I love riding my bike. Long before I was a runner, I was a cyclist. One of my favorite things about cycling is that you get to spend hours and hours on the road with your buddies cranking out miles and talking about life.
But the biggest issue with talking to your buddies while on the bike is the small fact that at between 15 and 25 MPH, the wind noise becomes such an issue that you wind up screaming at each other – sometimes the most intimate details of a story are yelled out. This can be a bit embarrassing to say the least.
Noise Dampening Products
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to try out a few different products that help dampen the noise so conversations are easier and you’re not yelling at your cycling partners. Another benefit of the noise dampening products is safety. Not only can you hear your friends and have normal conversations (when not hammering in a paceline or mashing the pedals on a climb) but you can hear other cyclist coming up on you and even cars from behind so you won’t be surprised.
On some level, I’ve also found that they’ve made me a better cyclist. When I’m pulling in a line, I try to listen for the riders behind me changing gears. If I hear a lot of gear changing, I know I’m not riding at a smooth, consistent pace. The less gear shifting from behind, the better as far as I’m concerned.
As I mentioned, over the years I’ve had the opportunity to try a bunch of different products that claim to dampen noise. Most all of them work, but most of them are something you’d rather not be caught dead using because of how they look.
Wind Blox for the Win (see what I did there?)
So when I was given the opportunity to try Wind Blox, I was psyched. Not only did they work well, but they were pretty unobtrusive, looked good and were super easy to install.
See for yourself.
As I mentioned, they were super easy to install on my helmet and I didn’t have to readjust the straps, they integrated perfectly! Also, the loop and hook closures were so strong that no matter how much sweat poured out of my face, these things were going nowhere.
Super easy to use, inexpensive, unobtrusive and work well.
Helmets with shorter side straps will likely require you to slide the Wind-Blox wind blockers all the way to the base of the helmet shell, where they interfere with how sunglasses fit on your head.