Do helmets go bad over time?

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Rick

Dear Rick,

Ignoring whether it does any good or not, Bell recommends that you buy
a new Bell helmet every 3 years:

WHEN SHOULD I REPLACE MY HELMET?
How often should a helmet be replaced under normal wear and tear?
Bell has a general recommendation of replacing a helmet every three
(3) years. If you have any questions as to the condition of your
helmet please call us for information or to set up a free inspection.

http://www.bellbikehelmets.com/helmet101.asp#6

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

No, but their detractors do.

<eg> :-P <eg> :-D <eg>

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Boat payment.

Helmets might get some wear and tear over the years with heavy use just
from being handled and tossed about, but I've never seen one "crumble".

I've got one in the hall that I wear for charity events where they
insist that my jaunty Italian cap is out of place. It's 12 years old
and shows zero signs of breakdown.

Ask the LBS if you should replace your beer coolers every 3 years to
keep your brew safe.

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Rick

Years ago (like '93 or '94) my Garneau rep went to great lengths to
explain why their zowie new technology extended the life of a helmet
from three to five years. No idea if it was all bull or not but if it
was bull he wasted a lot of time.

My helmet is going on 13 years old .. it is one of the zowie ones
mentioned above that I was comped..

I had the soft foam inserts crumble in my helmet. Not the whole helmet
styrofoam structure.
Lots of old foam rubber perishes over time. It doesn't need to be sweated on
all the time to do it. It just does.
Regards Wilfred
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Rick

Years ago (like '93 or '94) my Garneau rep went to great lengths to
explain why their zowie new technology extended the life of a helmet
from three to five years. No idea if it was all bull or not but if it
was bull he wasted a lot of time.

My helmet is going on 13 years old .. it is one of the zowie ones
mentioned above that I was comped..

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Maybe.

Some foams (polyurethane in particular) will degrade with age; others
do not. Many types of foam are used; their characteristics vary, and
few 9if any) helmets are marked as to what kind(s) of foam(s) were
used in their construction.

My opinion, which isn't guaranteed to be well-informed in any regard,
is that if the foam seems squishy, sticky, or softer than it was
before, or if the surface has begun developing a grainy power-like
consistency, the foam's probably degrading and the helmet would be
best replaced.

None of my cheap helmets have displayed any degradation thus far.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
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RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

I'm not sure about the life expectancy of cycling helmet foam, but the
foam in my '70s era Bell Star (See:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3/racing/BMW03.gif ) has lost all
integrity.

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Rick

Snell standards recommend replacement after 5 years or a severe blow.
Bell suggest 3 years.

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

landotter said:

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Boat payment.

Helmets might get some wear and tear over the years with heavy use just
from being handled and tossed about, but I've never seen one "crumble".

I've got one in the hall that I wear for charity events where they
insist that my jaunty Italian cap is out of place. It's 12 years old
and shows zero signs of breakdown.

Ask the LBS if you should replace your beer coolers every 3 years to
keep your brew safe.

Shoot, don't you run over your beer cooler with your boat trailer at
least every two years??

Pat Lamb said:

landotter said:

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Boat payment.

Helmets might get some wear and tear over the years with heavy use just
from being handled and tossed about, but I've never seen one "crumble".

I've got one in the hall that I wear for charity events where they
insist that my jaunty Italian cap is out of place. It's 12 years old
and shows zero signs of breakdown.

Ask the LBS if you should replace your beer coolers every 3 years to
keep your brew safe.

Shoot, don't you run over your beer cooler with your boat trailer at
least every two years??

Amateur. I have a Snell rated beer cooler. It's a hard shell rated for
four sixpacks from a drop of 3 meters. :-P

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

ISTR one very pro-helmet (actually, pro-mandatory-helmet) website once
paid to have an ancient Bell Biker put through the current impact
certification test. The helmet was roughly 20 years old. It passed.

The soft foam fit pads do nothing. Is the hard styrofoam still hard?
Unless you've stored it in a small room with open bottles of acetone,
it almost certainly is. It's probably as good as new.

Not that that's saying much.

(BTW, the impact absorbing bumper on any modern car is made of the same
stuff. I note that Ford doesn't tell you to replace your bumpers after
5 years.)

- Frank Krygowski

"RS" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years old
and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new helmet.
Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment coming
due?

Rick

Yep, my helmet goes bad over everytime I bash my head on the pavement.
Therefore, the pavement should be replaced every three years, preferably
with polystyrene.

Quoted message said:

(BTW, the impact absorbing bumper on any modern car is made of the same
stuff. I note that Ford doesn't tell you to replace your bumpers after
5 years.)

I've taken a number of impact-absorbing bumpers off of cars, and
pulled the remains of many more from the street, but I have only found
one that employed any kind of foam in its structure; the rest use a
remarkably different, generally non-sacrificial impact absorbing
technology.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
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On 13 Jun 2006 11:34:44 -0700, "landotter" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Pat Lamb said:

Shoot, don't you run over your beer cooler with your boat trailer at
least every two years??

Amateur. I have a Snell rated beer cooler. It's a hard shell rated for
four sixpacks from a drop of 3 meters. :-P

Four sixpacks wouldn't get a boat and two fisherman all the way to the
launch ramp around here. The standard beer cooler for a party of four
is the biggest one made by Igloo; the cooler for the bait is the only
one small enough to be carried by one person.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Werehatrack said:

Quoted message said:

(BTW, the impact absorbing bumper on any modern car is made of the same
stuff. I note that Ford doesn't tell you to replace your bumpers after
5 years.)

I've taken a number of impact-absorbing bumpers off of cars, and
pulled the remains of many more from the street, but I have only found
one that employed any kind of foam in its structure; the rest use a
remarkably different, generally non-sacrificial impact absorbing
technology.

You noticed that, too, eh?

How could the Infallible Krygowski be so wrong?!?

jtaylor said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

RS said:

So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years
old and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new
helmet. Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment
coming due?

Rick

Dear Rick,

Ignoring whether it does any good or not, Bell recommends that you buy
a new Bell helmet every 3 years:

'Course they do.

They're the ones that saw a way to make money from foam hats in the first
place.

They are not interested in saving lives, just in making money. If they
thought they could get away with recommending you buy a new one for every
ride, they'd do so.

If they thought they could get a law passed that forced everyone riding a
bicycle to wear one, they'd do so.

I would dispute that. My hard-hat for site work has a 'not to be used after
date' stamped into it. I would have no reason to suspect that my bike
helmet plastic would not be subject to the same UV degradation over time as
my hard-hat is.

Scrumpy Joe said:

jtaylor said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:35:39 -0700, RS <[email hidden]> wrote:

> So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
> sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years
> old and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new
> helmet. Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment
> coming due?
>
> Rick
Dear Rick,

Ignoring whether it does any good or not, Bell recommends that you buy
a new Bell helmet every 3 years:

'Course they do.

They're the ones that saw a way to make money from foam hats in the first
place.

They are not interested in saving lives, just in making money. If they
thought they could get away with recommending you buy a new one for every
ride, they'd do so.

If they thought they could get a law passed that forced everyone riding a
bicycle to wear one, they'd do so.

I would dispute that. My hard-hat for site work has a 'not to be used after
date' stamped into it. I would have no reason to suspect that my bike
helmet plastic would not be subject to the same UV degradation over time as
my hard-hat is.

Besides the pads in mine have always got quite grotty after about three
years so its new helmet time 🙂

Stan Cox

Stan Cox said:

Scrumpy Joe said:

jtaylor said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:35:39 -0700, RS <[email hidden]> wrote:
>
>> So I walked into a LBS today and while making a minor purchase the
>> sales guy looks at my helmet and says that it looks more than 5 years
>> old and the foam goes bad, it just crumbles and I should buy a new
>> helmet. Is this true or is the LBS owner have another boat payment
>> coming due?
>>
>> Rick
> Dear Rick,
>
> Ignoring whether it does any good or not, Bell recommends that you buy
> a new Bell helmet every 3 years:
>
'Course they do.

They're the ones that saw a way to make money from foam hats in the
first
place.

They are not interested in saving lives, just in making money. If they
thought they could get away with recommending you buy a new one for
every
ride, they'd do so.

If they thought they could get a law passed that forced everyone
riding a
bicycle to wear one, they'd do so.

I would dispute that. My hard-hat for site work has a 'not to be used
after
date' stamped into it. I would have no reason to suspect that my bike
helmet plastic would not be subject to the same UV degradation over
time as
my hard-hat is.

Besides the pads in mine have always got quite grotty after about three
years so its new helmet time 🙂

Stan Cox

Shells are affected by UV - although shells on modern helmets aren't
actually adding much to their crash-worthiness. The padding and foam are
both affected by sweat. Therefore, it's not so much the age of the
helmet as how much it's been used.

3-5 years is gonna be about right for most users.

druidh

Scrumpy Joe said:

I would dispute that. My hard-hat for site work has a 'not to be used after
date' stamped into it. I would have no reason to suspect that my bike
helmet plastic would not be subject to the same UV degradation over time as
my hard-hat is.

But one would assume that a work helmet expiration date must assume
that the helmet may be in use e.g. 10 hours a day 6 days a
week....possibly in sunnier climates ;-)

I think cycle helmets get a lot less exposure.