not ridden with a helmet fot 5 years. just dug my old giro zen out of the bottom of a wardrobe.
apart from looking pretty dated, will it be ok to use?
helmet do deteriorate do they?

They say you should keep them out of direct sunlight hard to do on a sunny day ride!!.They say you should bin them after 5 years cycle helmets and motorbike helmets?.Cant imagine people bin there £500 Arai or AGV helmet after 5 years.

Two things eat helmets, UV light and sweat. I guess your helmet won’t have been affected by either for a while….

What scotroutes said

a wash and new pads it is then..cheers.

3 years from date of manufacture is the recommended lifespan*. IIRC the styrene stiffens with age and becomes less shock absorbent. Beyond 3 years ‘on your head be it’ 😉

*recommended by the manufacturers

Quite a few research reports out there that show that there may be a mrginal degredation in performance with age, but that helmets would still pass the relevant bs en tests. The msin factor is crashes, and a build up of minor scuffs over a longer lifespan which may then lead to a critcal failure. If its old but looked after not a problem.

*recommended by the manufacturers

Met said 9 years last time I checked

I’d tend to agree with the above, I tend to ditch after 3 yrs as they have normally picked up lots of scuffs and scrapes by then. But if you’ve not used it much I’d probably not be bothered.

Iain

3 years from date of manufacture for a construction hard hat.

yes i know… completely irrelevant 😳

My roadie helmet was 10 years old when I stacked it this winter! Held up fine (although has since been binned, obviously…). I’ve always taken the ‘replace after x years’ with a pinch of salt. My motorbike helmets always lived a lot longer than that.

So far I’ve replaced due to a big smash, though last is about 4 years old now. Have to say the foam is looking tatty and has various dings and marks outside and in that make me wonder if it’s that effective now.

Thing about these type of helmets is a plain crack through in a crash can be from lower impacts and may even indicate failure. A good helmet will deform and compress the foam absorbing the impact but not necessarily crack in half. It may then look okay but it’s not going to absorb any more so is kind of useless for that. Though it could still prevent lesser scrapes.

anotherstan – Member
3 years from date of manufacture for a construction hard hat.

yes i know… completely irrelevant

I did see someone mashing around Gisburne in a hard hat the other week 😯

I did see someone mashing around Gisburne in a hard hat the other week

Protection against squirrels dropping their nuts?

scotroutes – Member

Two things eat helmets, UV light and sweat

Sauce?

I googled effects of light on EPS – couldn’t find a thing to support this, mfr BS AFAIC.

Sweat…really?

Just go get one of the pea green Bell stoker helmets from Halfords for £20 (I did) 😀 Large will deffo fit your big noggin

cynic-al – Member
Sauce?

Well Ketchup or curry sauce probably doesn’t do it much good 😀