Posts Tagged ‘motorcycle helmet safety’

April is Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month

Posted: April 10, 2023 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety
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Might take some work to remove the dog smell.

With April being Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month, now is a good time to check your lid. Below is a simple checklist to make sure your helmet is still good to go.

  • Is your motorcycle helmet 5 years or older? Most manufacturers state that you should replace your helmet every 3-5 years.  Many folks think that is nothing but a money grab. However, your head is protected by a Styrofoam like substance, called expanded polystyrene foam or EPS, that does degrade over time. You need to be the judge of how your head is protected.
  • Is there any visible damage to the helmet? Did you drop your motorcycle helmet that may have compressed the EPS liner? Is the shell cracked or scuffed nearly through the shell?
  • Does your helmet fit? A proper fitting helmet is critical to its ability to protect the rider. If the helmet moves around or slides back and forth it is a good idea to find a helmet that fits properly.
  • Are the straps and connectors still in good and operational condition?
  • Does the internal padding stay attach and is it in good condition?
  • Remove the padding and look at the EPS foam.  Is it in one piece? Is it cracked or dented?
  • Is your visor still in good working condition? Are there any issues that might obscure your vision?
  • Make sure there are no insects or animals living in your helmet. That is poisonous black widow spider in the picture below.

Ride On, Ride Safe

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Tips on cleaning a motorcycle helmet.

Posted: April 18, 2022 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety
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Your motorcycle helmet is your most important piece of equipment so keeping it clean is important.  Not just from an appearance perspective but as a method to ensure it is still in good working condition. Also, April is Motorcycle Helmet Awareness month so now is a good time to do the work!

While you are cleaning your helmet look for cracks in the shell, that the hard foam is intact and in good condition (this is the part that does most of the work to protect your head) and all the other parts are in good order.  

Before you start… read your owner’s manual on cleaning your specific motorcycle helmet.

1 – First thing is to clean the exterior of the motorcycle helmet. Using a wet microfiber cloth or a paper towel, lay it across the visor and helmet shell for at least 10 minutes. This will soften the baked-on bugs and cruds allowing them to be wiped away reducing the chance to scratch or damage the finish. You may have to repeat this step.

2 – Remove the visor after you have cleaned the exterior. Use warm soapy water to really get the visor clean inside and out. Rinse, dry and reassemble your helmet.

3 – The visor needs special attention. DO NOT use any products that have acid or ammonia!  Even products with citric acid can damage the visor.  Most glass cleaners have some form of acid or ammonia so pay close attention or just avoid them. Warm soapy water and microfiber cloth is the best way to safely clean your visor.

4 – Make sure you clean the visor mechanism.  Keeping the mechanism clean will ensure it works as designed.

5 – Does your helmet have a sun visor?  If it does clean it in the same manner, you cleaned the visor.  No ammonia or acid-based cleaners!

6 – Next up is the interior of your motorcycle helmet.  Most helmets allow you to remove the interior padding. Look at your owner’s manual for directions on removing the padding. Some manufactures allow you to use a washing machine and other recommend hand cleaning in warm soapy water.  If you use the hand method, I recommend using a baby shampoo.

7 – If your helmet’s padding is not removable follow the instructions your helmet manufacture provides. But, in my opinion, dunking the entire helmet into soapy water is not the way to go.  It takes forever to dry; it can mildew, and I am always unsure if it can damage the underlying foam.  My suggestion is to use a motorcycle helmet sanitizing spray.

8 – Check the air vents to make sure they are clean, and function as designed. A shot of compressed air, from the inside, might dislodge dried road grime and bugs.

9 – Put it back together, following the manufacturer’s instructions, if you still have them.


Ride on, Ride safe

What to do with old motorcycle helmets?

Posted: April 16, 2022 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety
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There are a lot of things you can do with old motorcycle helmets. Make planters or art with them for example.

But one of the most important things you can do with those old motorcycle helmets is to donate them to emergency services. Why? Because they need to train to deal with motorcycle accidents and how to handle the helmets is one of the things they need to practice.

This month IJustWant2Ride.com and The Dawghouse Motorcycle Radio show donated 10 old helmets to the Front Royal Fire Department. With April being Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month, it was the right time to get rid of the old lids.

9 Checks to make sure your motorcycle helmet is safe.

Posted: April 13, 2020 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety, Uncategorized
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April is Motorcycle Helmet Safety month and the supposed start of the riding season in the Northern Hemisphere. So, if your riding season is just beginning or coming to an end you should check your helmet for any issues that could risk your safety.

What do you look for when performing a safety check on your motorcycle helmet? Different manufactures state similar and different things to check, please referrer to your helmets makers directions for the best information.

However, there are some generic checks you can do that will cover many areas to make sure your helmet is still safe. Here are the a few things you need to look for:

1) Is the shell all in one piece? No cracks or splits?

2) Are the straps and connectors in good shape, no adverse wear or tear?h7

3) The internal padding is connected and stays in place?

4) Remove the padding and check the foam.  Is it dented or have cracks?

5) While looking at the foam, most companies place a sticker printed with the helmet’s birthday. Is it over 5 years old?

6) Does the rest of the internals look in good operating condition?

7) Check the visor for damage that might obscure your vision, can you see clearly?

8) Are the screws or other visor attachments tight?

9) Make sure that insects/creatures are not living in your helmet, see the photos below!

Checklist item 5 is the 5-year rule.  Most manufactures recommend that after 5 years you replace your helmet.  While the cynical among us will cite the “more money” theory of why they want it replaced there is evidence that the foam lining (the part that does most of the work in a crash) does deteriorate over time. It is your head, so it is your decision to replace or not if everything looks good.

For more you can check out HelmetCheck.org.

Look! A cat!
Check your lid! That is a Black Widow Spider!

 

9 Considerations to make your motorcycle helmet last

Posted: April 8, 2019 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle safety
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April is Motorcycle Helmet Awareness Month so we are doing a series of posts to try and do just that… provide awareness! This post is about “things” you should consider in order to make your helmet last and protect you longer.

1 – Keep the exterior clean. After your ride take a moment to clean the helmet shell of bugs and road grit. If you use an open face helmet also brush your teeth.

2 – Keep the interior clean. Yup sometimes your helmet can get funky. BUT you must be

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Might take some work to remove the dog smell

careful about cleaning the interior. Follow your owner’s manual on cleaning the inside of your helmet.

3 – Don’t use odor masking or sanitizing sprays on the interior of your helmet. Some sprays can degrade the foam under your padding, which will degrade its ability to keep you safe.

4 – Clean your visor. You must see right, so follow your brands instructions on cleaning the visor. But, be careful when working on the inside of the visor, most come with an anti-fog coating that needs to be properly handled….. DO NOT USE PAPER TOWELS on either side of your visor.

5 – Don’t grab or carry the helmet by the visor. Yes, we all know not to do this, but we all have. Really, try not to do this as it will damage the visor and possible the hinge point.

6 – Don’t hang your helmet from the mirror. As you should know the main part of the helmet that protects your head is the foam liner. Hanging your helmet from the mirror can cause the foam to compress where it sets on the mirror. Also how are your going to admire yourself with only one mirror.

7 – Keep your helmet ventilated. No, do not drill holes to get better air flow LOL. After you ride store your motorcycle helmet in a manner that will allow a good air flow to dry things out. Don’t just toss it in the helmet bag and into a closet…. Let it breath like a good wine!

The last two I had never thought about until researching this post.

8 – Don’t store your gloves in the motorcycle helmet. A couple sites stated some obvious things like….The gloves will restrict ventilation and not allow the padding to dry. Also the gloves will add their own “STINK” to the lining.

9 – Don’t slide your arm though the eye hole. The idea is that if you do this a lot, in order to free your hand for a task, your motorcycle helmet will get worn faster. That your jacket sleeve will cause undue wear an might also damage the inside of the visor.

 

Have any additional ideas on how to make your motorcycle helmet last longer? Add those ideas to the comments below.

9 Checks for you old motorcycle helmet

Posted: April 5, 2019 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety
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motorcycle-helmet-after-accident

It is time to check you motorcycle helmet.  At least once a year you should check your helmet to make sure everything is right and correct.  As the month of April is Motorcycle Helmet Safety month, now is a good time to do the checks.

What are the things you need to check?  Here are the minimum things you need to look for:

1) Is the shell all in one piece? No cracks or splits?

2) Are the straps and connectors in good shape, no adverse wear or tear?

3) The internal padding is connected and stays in place?

4) Remove the padding and check the foam.  Is it dented or have cracks?

5) While looking at the foam, most companies place a sticker printed with the helmet’s birthday. Is it over 5 years old?

6) Does the rest of the internals look in good operating condition?

7) Check the visor for damage that might obscure your vision can you see clearly?

8) Are the screws or other visor attachments tight?

9) Make sure that insects/creatures are not living in your helmet, see the photos below!

Checklist item 5 is the 5-year rule.  Most manufactures recommend that after 5 years you replace your helmet.  While the cynical among us will cite the “more money” theory of why they want it replaced there is evidence that the foam lining (the part that does most of the work in a crash) does deteriorate over time. It is your head, so it is your decision to replace or not if everything looks good.

For more you can check out HelmetCheck.org.

Look! A cat!
Check your lid! That is a Black Widow Spider!

How to Recycle or Dispose of Old Motorcycle Helmets? Guest Post by Sarah Kearns

Posted: June 23, 2018 in Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety
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Whether you’re just replacing one helmet due to age or degradation, or if you’ve found a stack of old helmets in your Dad’s garage, figuring out what to do with them after they’ve outlived their usefulness can be tricky. Motorcycle helmets can’t be resold or given away for future use as their safety can’t be guaranteed. So what can you do? Here are a few possibilities for dealing with old helmets.

Donate to Emergency Services

Perhaps the best way to dispose of an old motorcycle helmet is to find an emergency services department that might be interested in using intact helmets for training. They can use them to teach first responders how to safely remove a helmet from an accident victim who may be injured. Removing a helmet from a patient who might have a head, neck, or back injury can be difficult, as helmets are heavy and unwieldy. Emergency personnel responding to an accident need to learn to remove helmets without risking further injury to patients. However, there may be more helmets available than they need, and if you can’t find a department in need, there are still several other options.

If you aren’t donating the helmets to such a group, you should immediately cut the chin strap off completely to prevent someone from fishing it out of the trash and attempting to use it. Used helmets can be dangerous to use.

Upcycle as Decorations

Some creative types have found creative ways to use helmets as decorations. You can set up a decorative display of your old helmets on a wall, especially if they were custom painted. Others have taken motorcycle helmets and turned them into flower pots and planters for the garden. You can also buy a lamp kit and turn your old helmet into an interesting desk lamp or outdoor lantern. 

Check with Local Recycling Center

You can call your local recycling center to see if they accept motorcycle helmets for recycling. Don’t be surprised if the answer is “no.” Due to the different chemicals and materials used in manufacturing safe and sturdy helmets, many recycling centers are not equipped to process them. Those that are may request that you disassemble the helmet before recycling, so be prepared to pull out the padding and foam before you drop if off.

Dispose in Regular Trash

It’s not ideal, but if you have no other options, you can dispose of the helmet in your regular trash. Just make sure that you bag it appropriately, and that you have destroyed it before you do. In addition to cutting off the chin strap, you can also cut it in half with a saw or have some fun with your friends and try to beat it up with an axe or sledgehammer. Just be warned that trying to break a helmet with sheer force is sometimes impossible. After all, they are designed to withstand traumatic impacts at highway speeds.

Haul Away Service

It’s probably not cost effective if you have just one or two helmets to get rid of, but if you have a collection, you could call a rubbish removal service to come and pick them up. This is especially useful if you’ve discovered the helmets while cleaning out an old garage or barn; there’s probably a mess of other stuff you need to get rid of as well, and these services will pick everything up, and then they will do the work of sorting the items for recycling and proper disposal.

Perhaps someday there will be an accepted standard for what to do with used motorcycle helmets, but we’re not there yet. In the meantime, any one of the above methods is an acceptable way to dispose of an old helmet that is no longer safe to wear.  

Sarah Kearns is a hard working mother of three daughters. She is a Senior Communications Manager for BizDb and Populationof an online resources with information about businesses and demographic statistics of world population. She loves cooking, reading history books and writing about green living. Her dad was a motorcyclist and he passed that passion on to her. Sarah loves to travel the world on her motorcycle and she hopes that one of her daughters will become her partner in the near future.

 

Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month: Fitment

Posted: April 17, 2018 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, motorcycle safety
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With April set as Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month I thought I would write a few different posts on the subject.  I am going to try and cover several different areas around helmet safety just for us to think about.

FITMENT

I am not going to try the case of wearing or not wearing the helmet.  But if you do wear a helmet you should make sure it fits properly.

The first thing, in my opinion, you should do is look at the sizing guides for the helmets you are most interested in. Every motorcycle helmet manufacturer has a slightly different way of sizing your head both in measurements and shape.

Sizing your skull

When you measure your head, wrap the tape measure starting about ½ inch above your eyebrow, loop around your head (at the largest point) keeping it above your ears.  I recommend that you have a friend help you with this to get the correct measure.  I also suggest doing it three times and then averaging the three to get the size of your noog’n.

If your melon falls between the two sizes, go with the smaller size.

 

 

Shape of your skull

This one is a lot tougher to deal with.  Most motorcycle helmet makers really, truly do not take into to account that our brain-cases are the same shape.

While all heads, for the most part, are oval some are rounder then others while some are more elongated.  The shape of your skull will impact how the helmet fits.  You will have to try on the helmets you are interested in to see how they fit your dome.

Trying the Helmet On

Does your new candidate helmet fill a little tight?  That is good!  Feeling a little tight or slightly uncomfortable is ok but if it should not be inducing any pain to the back of your gourd, your temples or your forehead. Any hotspots or uncomfortable pressure points will be a guarantee of a miserable ride.

Now try turning the helmet left and right and tilting forward and back.  If the helmet moves over your skin freely it is to big, try a size smaller.

If it seems to fit well, try to keep it on for at least 10-15 minutes.  Does it still feel ok?  When you take it off are there any hotspots or rub marks, if not maybe you have a winner.  If you are having comfort issues the helmet just might be the wrong shape for your head.

Try to Pull the Helmet Off

Last step, if everything else seems to be a-ok.  Reach over your head and grasp the bottom/back of the helmet.  Try and pull it over and off your head.  If it comes off, try a different size.

While these are my recommendation please do your own research on the fitment of motorcycle helmets.  There are many other suggestions out there, these are just the ones that I use. Just use these suggestions as a way to get started on assuring a good fit.  Look for other suggestions/recommendations on fitment of helmets.  Never trust just one website, look at as many as you can to make sure you fully understand. 

Also, you can use these fitment techniques as a starting point to determine if your current motorcycle helmet is still good to go.  Can you pull it over and off your head?  Might be a good time to replace your primary safety device.

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Example of bad fitment!

April is Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month – Part 2

Posted: April 7, 2018 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle news
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Here in North America and in many other parts of the world, our motorcycles are coming out of their winter hibernation.  Along with the all of our riding accessories including helmets.

So what does that mean to you and me, the average motorcycle rider?h7

It means that you need to perform the safety checks for your motorcycle (tires, brakes, etc.).  You also need to check the condition of your helmets.  Some ideas on checking your motorcycle helmet:

  • Is the shell all in one piece? No cracks or splits?
  • Are the straps and connectors in good shape, no adverse wear or tear?
  • The internal padding is connected and stays in place?
  • Does the rest of the internals look in good operating condition?
  • Make sure that insects/creatures are not living in your helmet, see the photos below!

While your helmet might look clean and shiny it does not mean that it not ready for replacement. Worse yet, a single drop to the ground might be enough to cause you to consider replacement, according to the manufactures.

Here are some industry guidelines regarding your helmet:

  • Helmet manufacturers recommend replacing your helmet every 3 to 5 years, h6depending on use, to ensure optimal protection.
  • Over time, UV rays, internal adhesive and component aging can deteriorate a helmet’s protective qualities by degrading the interior protection layer.
  • Exposure to gasoline, insect repellent, cleaning fluids, exhaust fumes and excessive heat can degrade helmet materials.
  • If a helmet has been dropped or suffered an impact, it should be replaced immediately.
  • A helmet is designed for only one impact, even a small one. An impact may fracture its outer shell as well as compress the inner liner, neither of which may be visible.

Now it is your head so you need to make the decision, but you should at least check out your lid to make sure there are no major issues.

April is Motorcycle Helmet Safety Month – Part 1

Posted: April 6, 2018 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle news, motorcycle safety
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When you get your lid out for the 1st time this year, or if you have let it set for while you might want to make sure nothing has crawled in there.  In the 1st photo that is a poisonous Black Widow spider.  How bad would it feel to get bitten at 50MPH?  Oh and in the second pic that is a miniature Mountain Lion, I am sure you can all see the danger in that!!!!

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Check your lid! That is a Black Widow Spider!

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Look! A cat!