Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Helmets and Gear 5 yr helmet replacement

Our dealer told us today, that helmets should be replaced at about the 5 yr mark. He said the foam starts to breakdown. We wear shoei helmets so they're not the cheap ones.

We have a great dealer and they're not the type to try to sell us unnecessary items. But we've never been told this before. Anyone ever heard this?

I've heard that, but I'm not buying it. But then I'm cheap, I'm not replacing my Arai every five years, otherwise I'd buy much cheaper helmets.

About everyone I know from dealers and the helmet industry itself says to replace your helmet after five years of use due to the reason you already put down. I have four different helmets that I rotate periodically when I ride so I don't strictly follow the five year rule because of that but I do swap out my helmets. My noggin' is worth a couple hundred bucks. Who remembers the old Bell ad..."If you have a $10 head, then buy a $10 helmet"

I usually go by the stink test between the helmets I rotate out. I know it's not the most scientific but rotating helmets decreases the amount of wear on them. Definitely trash a helmet if you go down on it.

To be REALLY safe, I'd replace them every two years, what with acid rain 'n' all.

What price would you put on ATGATT!??

Thanks a lot for all the info. Guess we're ordering new Shoei helmets. They have a newer model the "qwest" that we both like. Fits very nicely.

I bought a new Shoei this Spring, and it had a date of manufacture of November, 2010. It was special ordered through a Cycle Gear store, as it is not a model they carry in-store. So it was 18 months old when I paid the retail price for it. What to do?

According to my SHOEI instruction/use manual:

THE SNELL MEMORIAL FOUNDATION RECOMMENDS A HELMET LIFE OF FIVE YEARS. SHOEI AGREES, AND RECOMMENDS DISCONTINUED USE OF THE HELMET FIVE YEARS AFTER IT'S FIRST PURCHASED AT RETAIL, and also refers to the ONE IMPACT RULE.

This was April, 2012, and I spent some time checking manufacture dates on store stock, at two different Cycle Gear stores...I may have seen two helmets with manfctr dates in 2012, while all the rest were from late 2010 to early 2011...

So where do all of the NEW helmets go? Japan? Europe? South America? Down Under?

But I am on my 3rd Shoei now after 8 years...might have gotten another year out of my last helmet, but could not find hardware for it anywhere ( without special ordering) due to the model changing from RF-1000 to RF-1100, and it had a manufacture date of 2006.... So I had an excuse.

As for the bang for the buck....

If I travel 60 miles, at 60 miles an hour (not likely), that's an hour with my head in the bell.

If I ride 10,000 miles a year, and I try like hell to, that's a lot of hours with my head in the bell.

It better fit, and it had better be quiet, and, it should vent well to counter shield fog that will occur....and, it should be fairly light weight.

I know I'm preaching' to the full-face crowd here, but I don't think that $150.00 helmet is going to make me try quite as hard to get in my 10,000 miles a year.

So if I bought a cheaper helmet, I might not need to replace my tires, chains, and sprockets so often. But I should still replace the helmet every 5 years, regardless.

I'll get my money's worth out of my SHOEI every time. Unless I drop it.

From what I understand the 5 year replacement is the approximate time it takes the helmet foam to harden enough that the helmet will no longer meet the DOT rating for impact. The 5 years starts the first time the helmet is worn. Most, but not all, of the aging of the foam padding is due to moisture and oils coming from the wearers hair and scalp. This causes a chemical reaction with all the various materials used inside the helmet. Once this process starts it does not stop (kind of like rust). I am sure the hardening process will accelerate the more the helmet is worn, and the manufacturers probably account for this in their recommendation.

When not in use it is best to store all your helmets in a cool dry place. Storing a helmet in a hot humid garage will only help deteriorate the life of the helmet even more.

I take this 5 year deal with a grain of salt. I think it's an quasi urban legend made up by a guy talking his wife into letting him buy a new helmet, which is brilliant. Of course the wife never put 2 and 2 together, never noticed 20 years later the guy had a great helmet collection and wore them all. A helmet ad-man picked up on this an ran with it.

I once used the same reasoning to buy a new 20 GA. O/U shotgun that matched my 12 GA. Told the wife that after 6 years use a shotgun gets dangerous to use. I still got that shotgun, but the wife is gone. Somebody ratted me out.

I agree that it has a bit to do with usage. I replace mine when I notice signs of deterioration like cracked neck curtain or a noticeable funk , or if something breaks.
It seems to be about five years.

In fact, it's time now so I guess I'll be shopping for a new one this winter. HJC no longer makes the Symax, I've had two of them the last being a closeout. So I have to consider something else.

Bill, I thought they still made the Symax III ?
I love the Symax series.

Yeah, I'm sure they kept the name for some successors. Just the original that I've had two of was discontinued. I'll be checking out the new ones.

In reality, your method of when to replace is pretty much mine. It's usually obvious, when the little things start deteriorating it's time to start shopping.