Although not a food, motorcycle helmets do have a "shelf life" one said, most of the helmets manufacturers will recommend that you replace the helmet after five years, such as Shoei. Of course, you can say that this is the vendor's sales strategy; but some of the more stringent recommendations from helmet sales and nothing to do with the third-party motorcycle safety organizations, such as the United States Motorcycle safety foundation, it is recommended to replace the helmet three years.
Why is there such a proposal? Helmet really in three years, or five years later one day suddenly "miraculous" loss of function? In the end when should replace the helmet?
Helmet manufacturers and the Snell Foundation agree that the glue, resin and other materials used in the helmet production will affect the material inside the helmet; headwear, sweat, cosmetics and daily wear and tear can cause helmets Performance, the oily detergent, paint, fuel and other daily exposure to the material may also affect the helmet material, thus affecting its safety performance; the same time, past experience that every five years, due to material, design, production Methods and safety standards, new helmets in functionality and security will have a leap. Therefore, five years to replace the helmet is a rational choice.
From the Snell Foundation more official statement, we can refine the two useful information: 1 daily use of the helmet material (especially the lining, fixtures) caused losses, thus affecting its safety performance; helmet research and development for five years a Cycle of the leap upgrade, making the new helmet compared to five years ago, the old helmet has a qualitative difference, only replacement.
How to determine whether their helmet should be replaced?The shell of the helmet is almost never worn out due to wear, and the parts that can be easily worn are EPA liners, comfort liners and fixtures.
EPA liner is one of the most important safety components of the helmet, assume most of the responsibility to slow down the impact. Check the EPA liner loss method is relatively simple: almost all helmets will be the EPA interior sprayed into black, remove the helmet comfortable lining, the helmet inside the black foam layer is the EPA liner. If you find EPA liner black paint off, crack phenomenon, or EPA liner loose, it shows the loss has reached its limit, need to be replaced immediately.
