Your 'norm' is significantly below what most normal people consider as their norm. Its up to you what risk you are prepared to take. I'm not prepared to take any risk with my head where a helmet is concerned. Besides its nice to buy a new lid. Like I said I had a twin wheel axle roll over my head. The helmet coped with it admirably. It was only a year old. I wouldnt like to take that test again with a 10yr old one. Having something drive over your bonce is a sobering experience. It happened so quickly too. Bloody van indicated right, went into a right hand lane that was for a right turn only into Horley then turned left across my path into his drive. I stoppied into its side and fell under it. Smashing my shoulder, collar all the ribs on my LHS and for some reason a toe. My T595 was a write off. My head was wedged against the kerb as he rolled over it. Only afterwards did I realise what happened. Holy shit. There will always be arguments for and counter arguments against and its the judgement of the individual concerned whether to heed the advice or not. It is unlikely a van will drive over anyones head but if it did I'd hope i was wearing the best I could be wearing. My argument is that you should always wear the best protection you can at any time. A 10yr old helmet is better than a 20yr old one. If thats all you can afford. I neither advocate sticking rigidly to the 5yr guideline or not. Just wear the best you can coz shit happens and it happens in a heartbeat.
Indeed and the penny only really dropped afterwards when I looked at the tyre marks on my lid and recollected the whole experience as they put me back together at hospital. I also wondered if there was an upside down imprint of me on the side of the van.
I think the recommendation to change your lid every 5 years is to keep the market going otherwise we would all keep our lids indefinitely. If it hasn't been used, stored in sunlight etc it wouldn't bother me, but there again I am a tight git when I can be.
That's the only boobie crash helmet I could find. Clearly there is a gap in the market. Get designing Exige. How about the Indian all in one protection suit
People have to make their own decisions on what they think is the correct way forward. An equivalent new helmet is always going to be better than a ten year old one (used or not) however you look at the argument.
Jury's out for me in the OP's original question it has been stored correctly (from what I gather) sweat, bodily fluids, hair etc etc don't really play a part in the equation. I will said from not personal experience but a friend of mine years ago (20 years ago) passed his test along with the rest of us and proceeded to use his dad's bright orange simpson bandit that was used for an age for powerboat racing (Bright orange in colouring as that's what you had to have by law to stop people driving over your head if you left the boat.) So, he got to use it and after a couple of years of use finally yielded to a 70 mph tank slapper on his RG250 - his head rattled down the road at quite a pace - he was supposed to meet us in town to go watch the club racing at Hullavington and we were all cursing him when he didn't turn up....got round his house that night to have a right go at him - he answered the door with both legs in plastic bags and one arm in a plastic bag from road rash....the lid performed admirably - it was a right mess but in one piece....and that was after spending most of its life wet with either sea water or fresh water and it already had one power boat related accident before he got it! Read into it what you will....
Having said that id buy a new one - not from a safety point of view but because I rarely get to buy a new lid and the more often I could the better....reckon at next years TT I may take the plunge and get a spec edition Arai....quite a leap of faith as the last one I had 20 odd years ago was shit - hopefully they've had time to sort themselves out...!
