Just looked at Plaides post re ear plugs:
My Marushin lid is ace, but its BLOODY NOISY in there!!! Mostly wind noise, but nonetheless, terrible for your ears. My commute to work is only 10 minutes, so I don't normally bother with hearing protection, but on a 2 hour weekend ride I use throw-away ear plugs. Very cheap in boxes of 200 from Screwfix or similar - designed for builders/machinists, & do a very good job. I had a pair of re-usable ear plugs, but every time I took my lid off, they almost became embedded in my ear drums!! So, foam throw away items are the way to go....

I do need to invest in some ear plugs!

Do people think that the ones you can get moulded to your ears are worth the cash...or would you simply suggest as mash says use the throw away foam ones?

Depends.
The moulded ones can be worse than the foam ones. To be sure you'd have to do a leak test. Some brands offer them for free and redo them if they leak.

The big benefit of the moulded ones are the filters you can have put in. These filter out wind and engine noise, but still allow you to hear human speech and other environment sounds.

Moulded ones invariably start leaking after 2-3 years, because the shape of the human ear canal changes over the years.

If you do go for moulded get soft ones. They are more comfortable, and the hard ones can transfer vibrations from the helmet right into your ear if they touch the helmet.

I used the moulded ones for a couple of years, but went back to the foam ones.

Alpine also make a nice compromise: http://alpineearplugs.com/prod_motosafe.htm Include filters, significantly cheaper than the moulded plugs, but still expensive compared to foam.

Specsavers do moulded ones now. I personally dont use plugs, i find they alienate me from the surrounding environment too much. When i do wear my fox mx lid things get loud!

Any ear plug is better than no ear plugs at all.

Most folk don't realise how important a good, working pair of lugs are until you start to lose your hearing. Trust me, I know a fair few old farts with a life time on two wheels who are now saddled with hearing aids because, like me, they didn't wear ear protection in their youth. Ironically the old boy whose Greeves I looked at was only telling me last weekend about how he ended up with (avoidable) permanent hearing loss.

Ta for the heads up mate. Do u chaps find the disposable foam ones cut out too much sound?

A good set of ear plugs should reduce noise to about 85db, which will still allow you to hear what you need to hear. In fact the HSE (yes, I know we all hate them!) recommend that too much reduction in sound is a bad thing, like you say you still need to be in touch with the environment. If you want to bore yourself silly there's some good info here...

http://www.soundadvice.info/thewholestory/san5.htm

Foam ones are fine, but I'd suggest you try a few types out to see what suits best, everyone will give you a different opinion, and everyones ears are a different shape. I'd always go for ones with a BS EN 352.2/2002 mark, because they'll have been tested and WILL do what they say/claim (many aren't though).

Some...ahem...sound.....advice there!

I think that hearing protection is important. Im going to obtain a handfull tomorrow from work.

Ill see how I get on with the foam ones and perhaps move onto the moulded ones. Ive been riding 6 years now and have never used hearing protection. Im going to start now before it gets too late!

+1.

I spent allot of money on custom earplugs with filters in them a few years ago. They are great, at first, then I found they become a little uncomfortable. I think the reason is they are quite solid, don't wick any moisture away and as duibhceK points out they are god awful if they touch your lid internals (such as a speaker pod).

I tried a good quality pair of music earplugs and they worked pretty well, but too much alienation from the outside world.

I've gone back to standard industrial SNR36's with the connecting string/tube so I can remove them while the lid is on by pulling the string - although it's a pretty uncomfortable manoeuvre. Something like these :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-Pairs-B...#ht_2401wt_905

Although I'll confess, I've never bought a pair.... advantages of my old man working in heavy industry.

Noise cancelling earphones
 

I've been using active noise cancelling headphones on long trips for a while now.
They sit snugly in the ear canal, but I like to tape them in place with micropore tape (can come loose when putting a helmet on).

They are fantastic. In fact they are so good, you won't notice much in the way of wind noise or engine noise. Spooky! There seems to be an amplification of some mechanical noises (gear changes etc.) which can be disconcerting at first.

Not sure about the legalities but works for me.... Boneman