[spirilis]

TBH, the music is a sketchy topic with motorcycling, and it's definitely one of those "do so at your own personal risk" kind of things. Just like riding a motorcycle in the first place. I keep the volume on the low side and hit the pause button the moment I know or detect I need utmost heightened attention. Sometimes you don't have the luxury of knowing that ahead of time, and that's where music becomes a problem.

Wearing earplugs (w/o music), OTOH, is pretty much mandatory if you're going above 45MPH. It will seriously degrade your hearing if you don't wear them. When I first started riding I tried my daily commute a few times without earplugs, and I had concert-ear for 3 days afterward. You need to make sure the plugs aren't *too* effective (to the point that you can't hear cars coming up from behind) but they need to protect well enough. Around 20dB is ideal for me. 30dB makes me feel like I'm in an isolated bubble but ~10-15dB still hurts after 2 hours worth of riding.