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So is the rest of me, but that's another story.
I was lucky enough to be given a new helmet for xmas. Question - my old one is approx 10 years old but no damage or impact, would you donate it or bin it?
Working on the same basis as a child seat in the car (7 years I think), I'd probably bin it.
I used the Specialized trade in scheme last year to take the decision out of my hands.
Bin
bin
Depends on the pads in it...if they're ok, then I'd hold on to it as a spare.
I keep my old one as a spare and the previous 'spare' to that, gets a hammer through it, and then binned.
UV damage is bogus, helmet may well be ok but no one will want it - 10 years is good going!
How to child seats age?
I keep my helmets until the bits fall off and they're unusable. Give it to charity
For me, the decision to retire a helmet is usually when I can no longer get replacement pads. I store them in the dark and don't leave them on the parcelshelf in the car. Luckily I have never seriously damaged one riding.
Speaking of cars, my 10 year old Doblo has a massive expanded polystyrene section inside the front bumper. It is totally exposed to engine/radiator heat and gallons of nasty salty road spray. Nowhere does it recommended replacing this at any point.
The foam in helmets lasts decades without deteriorating. They've test 100s, up to 30 years old, and they all passed the relevant safety standards....
https://helmets.org/up1505a.htm
Cheers all, I’ll give the pads a wash and hand it In somewhere.
hand it In somewhere.
I'll suspect they'd just bin it as they'll have a policy no 2nd hand PPE....
UV damage is bogus
Not on any exposed webbing component it isn't.
UV damage is bogus
Not on any webbing component it isn’t.
In the context of a bike helmet, where the actual load on the webbing is minimal, you'd need some seriously impressive UV damage to compromise the helmet so it couldn't stay on someone's head.....
Very different to say, a climbing sling or runner, where it is expected to take a decent load under a fall...
Most of my biking takes place at night so my 22 year old helmet hasn't suffered from UV degradation 🤔😀😉
UV degradation is real as is exposure to heat and sweat vcusing degredation. How much it degrades and how long they remain safe for is debatable
However no charity should touch second hand PPE. the liability on selling or giving away second hand ppe is too much
Maybe not then.
I tried to give a medicine ball to a charity shop, wouldn't accept it as second hand fitness kit. No chance they'll accept an old helmet as they aren't qualified to see if it's damaged/degraded of not.
Keep it as a spare.
The bike charity I volunteer for won't take any used bike helmet (we'll take anything else if anyone's got owt going 😉 ). This is for exactly the same reason you should replace it - while it may look fine, and regardless of your view on UV and sweat damage, in ten years it's probably had enough knocks in storage, taking it to the car, when you've accidentally dropped it, when you've clonked it on a low hanging branch and so on that it's no longer useful.
while it may look fine, and regardless of your view on UV and sweat damage, in ten years it’s probably had enough knocks in storage, taking it to the car, when you’ve accidentally dropped it, when you’ve clonked it on a low hanging branch and so on that it’s no longer useful.
and yet when they collected up 100s of old helmets (some over 30 years old) and tested them all against the relevant safety standards, they all passed.....
Testing of helmets is pathetic. No relation to the real world and does not test what it needs to test. Not fit for purpose
How to child seats age?
The structure is broken down by ingrained chocolate.
How to child seats age?
The structure is broken down by ingrained chocolate.
and the piss. Oh the toxic piss.
and the piss. Oh the toxic piss.
And the vomit.
Mine get replaced somewhere between 3 and 4 years after purchase, unless I’ve crash damaged…. (I don’t go by date stamp as they may have sat in a factory warehouse for 6 months before purchase/dispatch)
The outgoing ones get a sledgehammer then bin, wouldn’t dream of passing on for all the reasons above.
I have ordered new MTB and road ones for 2023 in the past few days, last ones were ordered Christmas 19.
And the vomit
Any idea how crumbled up biscuits and cheese straws affect them?
Back on topic, my helmets usually last a good few years with minimal use - last replaced a tree damaged one (low branch, lack of attention) in 2020 and I noticed today the “new” one has a chunk of polystyrene missing on one of the low bits at the back. Not likely to be a problem except I don’t know how it happened, and assuming the worst, I.E it fell off a shelf and someone else put it back, I’ll replace it.
My helmets normally get replaced within their prescribed lifespan as they start to stink.
^^^ do you not wash it after use ?