Discussion
tollytuff said:
i always thought you only needed to buy a new one if it had taken a hard knock. as the structure could have been compromised....
Exactly. Mine is 6 years old now and still good. You should replace it after any knock though!
Many companies offer cheap replacements following a knock so may be worth seeing if yours will do so.
alfaman said:
I don't believe they decay from UV - as its the polystyrene stuff under the "skin" that absorbs impact.
But the hard "skin" (Assuming your helment has this) spreads the force over a greater area of the polystyrene stuff meaning you can have a thinner layer to absorb the same impact and look cool. If the skin has degraded due to UV etc then it might not do that as well as it should.
they do slowly degrade i'm afraid - between wear/tear/knocks/sunlight/sweat. very old ones (which tend to use the white polymer) are much worse than more recent helmets which use a denser cell (which tends to be grey). Note also that newer helmets are designed to protect your head in stages of compression, rather than just presenting a barrier to impact....
...in short, its worth replacing your lid every few years...
...in short, its worth replacing your lid every few years...
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