Helmet life

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Stevek76
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Stevek76 »

My old mtb helmet was getting distinctly whiffy towards the end, even after removing and washing the bits of lining of wouldn't take more than a few rides to return.

Trying to be a bit more proactive with the new one.
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John Holiday
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Re: Helmet life

Post by John Holiday »

Well, some interesting responses.
The general consensus seems to be that one can largely ignore the advisory dates, providing that the helmet has been carefully looked after & not been in a collision.
Thanks for the replies.
Take care!
ChrisP100
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Re: Helmet life

Post by ChrisP100 »

NUKe wrote: 3 Aug 2021, 9:00am Interesting that they worry it will UV damage the shell on most Cycle helmets is only a covering for the polystyrene inner. it is not integral to the effectiveness of the helmet. There are some exceptions that have a hard shell, which is part of the structure but most are just coverings.

Polycarbonate motorcycles helmets of the 70s suffered UV damage and were supposedly only good for about 3 years as they would shatter on impact. A piece of research proved though that the shattering was actually better for the wearer as it dissipated energy, this bit of info was quickly buried by the motorcycle helmet manufacturers.
In a lot of cases the webbing straps route through, or are mounted to the outer shell, so any impact to an already weakened shell could case the straps to fail. The webbing straps also suffer from sweat/dirt ingress, plus UV exposure which weaken their structure, and with continued use a buckle may become weakened.
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mjr
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Re: Helmet life

Post by mjr »

John Holiday wrote: 7 Aug 2021, 3:06pm Well, some interesting responses.
The general consensus seems to be that one can largely ignore the advisory dates, providing that the helmet has been carefully looked after & not been in a collision.
Consensus of whom? I think I had four helmets over the 15ish years I used them, so I was vaguely in line with the manufacturer recommendations (used to be 5 years when I started, more recently 3).

It seems reasonable to me. Some plastics age worse than others, especially going in and out of doors in all weathers. Anyone here not had a removable battery light mount fail? And I suspect those are intended to last longer than a helmet buckle or strap mounting when the rest of the helmet only has a 3 or 5 years design life.

The responses are interesting in that there seem to be a lot of cyclists who are cherry-picking which of their helmet manufacturer instructions they follow, based on pretty much no discernable logic. If it turns out that they would benefit from helmet use (as it's far from certain for cyclists in general) then I hope they guessed right about their helmets not failing due to age!
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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pjclinch
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Re: Helmet life

Post by pjclinch »

The whole thing is a bit of a game. Helmets are a limited form of insurance, and notably against unpredictable events. You can easily overwhelm a brand new EN1078 lid, and there will be plenty of minor incidents e.g. bashing aside low branches on singletrack where an old one well below spec will be perfectly adequate.
The degree to which a helmet is felt to "work" for its wearer is not as simple as its widely made out to be, and that's both amongst people who think they're wonderful and those who are more sceptical.

If you want to be reasonably sure your lid is close to spec (i.e., would pass an EN1078 test if subjected to it) then replace relatively often. If you're happy that an inch of polystyrene moderately well held on will be enough for the sort of prang you're mainly concerned about then you can be a bit less fussy. What is certainly not the case is that a full-spec EN1078 helmet is necessarily Safe in all situations and a sub par one is no use in any situations. EN1078 (and other standards) are simply lists of things a helmet must stand up to to get a box ticked. That doesn't necessarily correspond to whatever impact one might find oneself involved in.

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Mick F
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Mick F »

Helmets will take one heck of a bashing before they fail.

Read this:
I found the weight of my head by measuring, then used a bag of wet sand at the same weight and dropped the helmet vertically downward onto solid concrete.

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=79382&start=75
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pjclinch
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Re: Helmet life

Post by pjclinch »

On the other hand, I found an old one from one of my kids' racing days (never used "in anger" and not heavily used in any case) and around the lower margins easily broke off a chunk with my unaided hands. Dropping it on to the crown is pretty much perfect from the point of view of making the helmet work optimally, deforming rather than snapping.
If only we could pre-decide what wort of impact we were going to have...
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Mick F
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Mick F »

:lol:

If only we could decide!

Same as in all things eh?
Mick F. Cornwall
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Helmet life

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Good thing your head isn't attached to anything else when it would hit the ground.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
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Sid Aluminium
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Sid Aluminium »

Stateside, this has been studied in a systematic fashion:

https://helmets.org/replace.htm

So, I was looking at helmets at my local bike shop. The staff asked how old my present helmet was, and I said 'Seven years.' The young man was appalled and said I must replace it immediately. He explained helmets degrade with time and must be replaced after no more than five years. I pointed out the build date sticker in the helmet I was holding indicated that the helmet was already six months old, and asked if he would prorate the purchase price. He paused, blinked, then told me that helmets age differently before and after they are sold.
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Sweep
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Sweep »

Sid Aluminium wrote: 13 Aug 2021, 2:04pm He paused, blinked, then told me that helmets age differently before and after they are sold.
:)
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Sweep
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Sweep »

thanks for that link sid.

I liked this bit in particular:

"The Italian company MET said in their 2010 catalog that after conducting a test program they had found that "if used properly accordingly to our owner manual, our helmets will still do their job up to eight years after they have been made." Unfortunately they now say three to five years. Perhaps their helmets have changed."

If other companies are going that way, sounds like a good idea to hang onto older uncrashed helmets.
Sweep
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kylecycler
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Re: Helmet life

Post by kylecycler »

Sweep wrote: 14 Aug 2021, 6:04am thanks for that link sid.

I liked this bit in particular:

"The Italian company MET said in their 2010 catalog that after conducting a test program they had found that "if used properly accordingly to our owner manual, our helmets will still do their job up to eight years after they have been made." Unfortunately they now say three to five years. Perhaps their helmets have changed."

If other companies are going that way, sounds like a good idea to hang onto older uncrashed helmets.
I think it's more likely MET's suicidal marketing strategy that's changed, actually, courtesy of the bean counters...
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Sweep
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Re: Helmet life

Post by Sweep »

kylecycler wrote: 14 Aug 2021, 2:13pm
Sweep wrote: 14 Aug 2021, 6:04am thanks for that link sid.

I liked this bit in particular:

"The Italian company MET said in their 2010 catalog that after conducting a test program they had found that "if used properly accordingly to our owner manual, our helmets will still do their job up to eight years after they have been made." Unfortunately they now say three to five years. Perhaps their helmets have changed."

If other companies are going that way, sounds like a good idea to hang onto older uncrashed helmets.
I think it's more likely MET's suicidal marketing strategy that's changed, actually, courtesy of the bean counters...
I agree. I was being sarky.
My wiggle helmet is being changed no time soon.
Sweep
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kylecycler
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Re: Helmet life

Post by kylecycler »

Sweep wrote: 14 Aug 2021, 6:52pm I agree. I was being sarky.
My wiggle helmet is being changed no time soon.
Oh right, I see. Yeah, I knew you knew their helmets hadn't changed! :)

You do wonder, though, how much fake 'built in obsolescence' there is in the cycle industry. Five years for a helmet may or may not be an example of that (not sure it is, tbh), but there are plenty of examples of so-called progress being no progress at all; in reality it's just to keep folk replacing old with new.
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