Age of helmets - when do you change?

[RedRick Esq.]

I tend to change mine with the bike

Mainly as different helmets work differently

Arai helmet RX was fantastic on the Multistrada but terrible on the Streetfighter ( loud and shook whereas the Shoei XSpirit was brilliant on the street fighter but not so fantastic on the KTM

I now have a Alpinestars which is just superb on the SDR and may or may not suit my next bike in 3 years

 

[wessie]

Regarding this, I was told that putting the gloves inside the helmet is a bad habit. As they help with the degradation because they are impregnated with exhaust fumes, etc.

Not 100% if that is real, but I tend to avoid it nowadays.

The exhaust fumes sounds like a crock of shit to me. Treatments you or the maker apply to the glove tend to be oily and these might not be good for the organic polymers used in the helmet.

The other thing that putting gloves in will do is encourage more micro-organism growth. Two mechanisms. Firstly, the gloves might be a vector for new bugs e.g. from the residue from that insect exploding on your knuckle armour. Secondly, the gloves will mean the helmet does not dry out, thus providing a nice environment for the bugs to procreate.

 

[er-minio]

Tend to agree with you.
I'm not really that bothered to be fair. I tend to change the helmets regardless.

The exhaust fumes might come from polystyrene dissolving in fuel and people somehow associated fuel/fumes.

 

[SBD]

The exhaust fumes sounds like a crock of shit to me. Treatments you or the maker apply to the glove tend to be oily and these might not be good for the organic polymers used in the helmet.

The other thing that putting gloves in will do is encourage more micro-organism growth. Two mechanisms. Firstly, the gloves might be a vector for new bugs e.g. from the residue from that insect exploding on your knuckle armour. Secondly, the gloves will mean the helmet does not dry out, thus providing a nice environment for the bugs to procreate.

I do tend to store my lid on a shelf with the visor open to allow it to air. It’s out of the sun and unlikely to get knocked off. I never put it in the bag.

The gloves get left on top of the radiator…

 

[Smartbazza]

Storage methods will help. As a bit of useless information I change all construction hard hats in our business (around 500) at 5 yo max as it’s the manufacturers recommendations and a bit like a bike lid - do you really want to risk it? Each to their own.

Barry

 

[rovert57]

Think we are living in the age of helmets .just look at the people what are governing the world .

 

[Rusty]

I have a 10 year old BMW yellow helmet with comms in. Never dropped, used a bit, not damaged etc .. stored on a shelf in the garage visor open etc. I love it and won't be changing it soon.

 

[Zoton]

some arai helmets like the tour x 4 are for sale must be 2 years old on some of the smaller sizes that don’t sell well doesn’t mean they have a 3 year life. So I’d go for 5 years from date of sale.

 

[Dave56]

Surely some of these so called “lifespan” recommendations from manufacturers will be ultra conservative if only from a marketing point of view.
The more people they can convince to change after x number of years the more product they shift.

 

[Steve398]

I’ve just bought an Arai RX7 EVO FIM spec. A really good helmet, comfortable and has lots of air flow. Dunno about the 10yr thing though, it’ll get replaced in 5 years as normal for me.
A sobering thought, it’s just occurred to me that I’ll also be 80 yrs old by then!

 

[Berin]

some arai helmets like the tour x 4 are for sale must be 2 years old on some of the smaller sizes that don’t sell well doesn’t mean they have a 3 year life. So I’d go for 5 years from date of sale.

Otherwise they are going to have a very short useable lifetime.

Most of the discount lids, especially at places like the bike show, I reckon are at least 3 years old at point of sale.

 

[Motocentral]

Good question, even as helmet retailers we don't have a specific answer for this one. Legally speaking there is no expiry date on a motorcycle helmet - in theory there should be some major research done on this but the honest answer is there's too many varying factors which will affect this.

As a general rule of thumb we'd suggest 5 years from date of purchase / 7 years from date of manufacturer but this isn't a specific set in stone rule.

How you store your helmet, how often you wear it, how sweaty you are as a person, if you put your gloves inside your helmet, if you put your helmet on your mirrors, if you lend your helmet to other people, if you knock / drop your helmet - all of these are factors in how long a helmet will last...

More importantly how good the helmet is made will factor it's longevity. Cheap £50 helmets often look 10 years old after 1 year of use where as a decent helmet will often look brand new after 5 years.

The interior of your helmet is the most important factor, how well that's lasted. Certain Arai/Shoei models are painted black on the inside on the EPS liner so you can start to se signs of wear / cracks in the EPS where it's been worn over the years, that'll give you an OK indicator but not every manufacturer does this and even still there's no rule of "if you can see 10% white EPS showing you now need to change"

Everyone has a different level of safety too so some people change their helmet very regular where as other people don't for 20-30 years as we see sometimes. It's definitely a personal thing so if you're thinking about changing I guess the answer for your own conscience is soon but it's entiely a decision only you can make and no one can tell you when as it stands at the moment.

Hopefully this is a useful / also incredibly useless answer for you from someone that's been selling motorcycle helmets for 13 years of their life