An Australian couple, riding on BMW's and traveling with their dogs through South America, Mexico, and parts of the U.S., ended up at Quiet Ride Muff/Helmets headquarters in Grand Rapids, Minnesota for two days to install ear noise reduction muffs in their Arai helmets to protect their hearing.

The picture above was taken on the last unusually warm fall day (high 82 degrees) in Grand Rapids, Mn. on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015 after installing an ear noise reduction muff kit in each of their helmets. My wife and I, Patti and Al Halfaker are standing to the left of world travelers Stuart and Janell Clarke from Australia holding two of their three dogs that ride with them as they tour the U.S. on their BMW 650GS bikes. Stu and Janell started biking through South America 19 months ago and now have 54,000 miles on their BMW's.
You can imagine that they developed a well thought out plan of what to bring and the camping equipment they would need and the equipment needed to transport their extended dog family on their "Trip of a Lifetime."
There was only one problem: they didn't realize the effect of the excessive wind noise decibels at 60 mph over 4 to 8 hours per day they'd experience for many days over 19 months and 54,000 miles. Wearing ear plugs were not an option as they are painful to wear and eliminated the possibility of communicating with each other through their Sena intercoms. Stu and Janell clicked on our quietridemuffs.com website two months ago and discovered it would be possible to install noise reduction muffs in their helmets that would allow them to protect their hearing and at the same time allow for much better communication and enjoyment of music.
I received an email from Stu and Janell through the Adventure Rider website on Oct. 3, 2015. They were in southern Wisconsin and were planning to come through Grand Rapids, Mn. and wanted to stop at our home to install the kits. Their websitesite is thepacktrack.com, and their Facebook page is facebook.com/Thepacktrack. I highly recommend viewing their web page and following their facebook page as these two highly adventurous young people travel through the rest of the U.S.

Stu and Janell arrived Friday evening, Oct. 9, and set up camp in our front yard for two evenings while we installed the ear noise redution kits in their Arai XD4 helmets. In January 2016 they plan to bike through Europe, Africa and parts of Asia as they make their way back to Australia.
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