Cycling UK Forum

Although I've had my Met helmet a long time it doesn't need replacing, it's just the foam/sponge bits that have gone flat. Just wondering if anyone has done something home-made as prices for the replacements are more than I am happy to pay for some bits of sponge.

You've seen the MET own brand pack at £8?

Jonathan

I've relined helmets eg old motorcycle helmets with foam and I've occasionally made pads for bicycle helmets too. Foams vary in pore size, pore percentage and interconnectivity of pores, amongst other things. Fortunately the kind of foam that is often used in many other applications (eg packaging) is also suitable for helmet pads.

Hook and loop tape (if required) is readily available and can be glued to the pads. The main problem is cutting foam rubber to size such that the the thickness is correct and the cut edges are smooth. If you are going to do lots then cutting the material into a sheet of a new thickness is required. If you want to do this and be fancy about it, a hot wire cutter is 'the way' but for smaller jobs holding the foam in the same way (eg held flat between two pieces of wood) and using a sharp serrated blade (eg good breadknife) between guides may work well enough.

Hours of fun!

The other option is to find someone that has kept the spare foam pads that came with some helmets; for example for years Bell helmets came in two shell sizes and adjustments within each shell size were made using pads of different thicknesses. Up to three different thicknesses were supplied so there used to be plenty left over.

hth

cheers

Brucey wrote:
The other option is to find someone that has kept the spare foam pads that came with some helmets; for example for years Bell helmets came in two shell sizes and adjustments within each shell size were made using pads of different thicknesses. Up to three different thicknesses were supplied so there used to be plenty left over.

hth

cheers

Hi Brucey, I'm in that position... old (but perfect) helmet with worn out pads. I've kept the box and everything that came with the helmet, including the foam pads but when I thought of renewing them there seems no logical position for that size and shape of pad in the helmet.



Alex

I'm not familiar with the kind of Giro helmet that uses those pads....anyone...?

cheers

This is the helmet, Brucey.

I never throw anything away if there's the slightest chance of it coming in useful.

I've several sets of the pads illustrated with the Giro helmet kicking around but whether the adhesive is still OK I don't know. I thought that they were "sizing pads." ie they are intended to be stuck on the pads in the helmet to help with the fit. My bonce is so large that I don't need additional padding to keep a helmet from rattling about.

Chucked mine out years ago.
Even when I had a helmet, the helmet was disposed of for a new one anyway, so the spare pads were useless.

Neoprene would probably be OK if you want to DiY. Do you know any good wetsuit manufacturers?

As an aside, I thought helmets should be renewed every few years. How long is your "long time"?

Chiropody foam padding works ok. Not the white thick felt like stuff, the thin pink one with foam sandwiched in the middle.

thirdcrank wrote:I never throw anything away if there's the slightest chance of it coming in useful.................

You must have a big bike-shed tc .

Don't laugh about this, but I buy replacement foam pads (or whatever they're called) from the LBS where I bought the helmets.

The Giro pads were very easily available until about three or four years ago, when some LBSs stopped selling Giro.
Someone told me that it was because the importer/distributer had changed, but I don't know enough to confirm that or otherwise.
I have a Giro and a Specialized helmet - the Specialized replacements are easy to get from one of my LBSs, but it takes a while.
I've learned to be a year ahead of myself with these.
I replace the pads about every year - depending on how much they've suffered from sweat in hot weather.
We've had a rotten year for most of this year, so they're not too bad at the moment.
A decent ride (150 miles-ish) in high summer can cause all sorts of long lasting discomfort on the forehead. I flush them out under the cold tap when I get home - and sometimes at a café en route

I've used the Effeto Mariposa Octoplus kit in a previous helmet. It comes with a central "octopus" pad and plenty of other smaller pads so it should fit most helmets. I found it very comfortable and quite easy to fit, though I ended up cutting two of the tentacles off the central octopus as they were superfluous in my helmet (a Kask K50). Not many places in the UK seem to sell it but search online and you'll find it for under a tenner. Well worth it for good quality pads. https://www.effettomariposa.eu/en/produ ... oplus-kit/