What do you do with your helmet when it is not being used?

According to helmet suppliers (the guys that sell them to the stores) and to AGV reps that we have spoken to, it is best practice to store helmets in a stable temp/low humidity environment when not being worn. Big temp variations are not the kindest thing to a helmet.
For the vast majority of us, that means DON'T keep it in the garage.
My daily helmet sits in the living room on a shelf of the entertainment center, while the others (yeah, i'm a gear whore) live in the bedroom closet.

Real cold a problem?

For some years now I've felt that real cold (this is Canada, eh?) did bad things to most plastic. I've had both styrofoam and hard plastic duck decoys break with the slightest provocation after spending several years in an outdoor shed. So when my bike comes off the road in early November, I store not only the helmets but also the BMW plastic luggage in my basement which is cool but always above freezing. During my 7 month riding season, the helmets live in a hall closet.

Possibly someone who ACTUALLY KNOWS SOMETHING about plastic could tell us whether long freezing spells actually do something bad to helmets and plastic luggage. I've heard it occasionally freezes in the US too, so you would be doing many of us a favor.

Year round, the bike (and bicycles) live in a lockable 8' X 12' shed - possibly the best $1500 I ever spent. So far, no thieves and no mice, though have found bat **** from the little critters who can get in under the eaves.

In its helmet bag and stored in the bedroom.

Bckrider:

Thats a good question. I have the factory luggage bags that will be spending
their first winter in Oregon where it does freeze for 4 months of the year. The bike
was always in sunny S. California until I bought it in April. I will be keeping them
in the den for the winter. Even BMW's have plastic parts that will have to stay
on the bike through the winter, it would be interesting to know what effect
temperatures below freezing have on these parts. The new helmet will be somewhere in the house also.

KBasa said:

Kind of on topic: Lay your gloves out flat so the sweat evaporates out of them. Don't cram them in your helmet.

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Well crap. You just ruined my routine. Now what am I suppose to do with them. I gotta go think up a new routine and place to put them at the end of the day. Ignorance is/was bliss.

I made a shelf in the garage a few years ago that sits right beside where the bike gets parked. Figured that the helmet would be safe with no real distance to move it between the bike and the shelf. Of course as I was making the shelf, the helmet which was carefully placed on some cardboard on the garage floor and I managed to kick it while working on the shelf.

thompsonr said:

Mine are suppose to go in the cabinet I bought to put only Motorcycle related stuff in. Located in my garage.

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Very Nice...

88bmwJeff said:

Well crap. You just ruined my routine. Now what am I suppose to do with them. I gotta go think up a new routine and place to put them at the end of the day. Ignorance is/was bliss.

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The sweat will make them funky and will also rot the stitching. I lay mine on the seat of the bike or put them on the shelf with my helmet.

bikerfish1100 said:

According to helmet suppliers (the guys that sell them to the stores) and to AGV reps that we have spoken to, it is best practice to store helmets in a stable temp/low humidity environment when not being worn. Big temp variations are not the kindest thing to a helmet.

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OK, I gotta ask....

If an approved, quality helmet is purportedly compromised by storing it in a garage where the temperature ranges from very cold to very hot with varying ranges of humidity as the seasons change, does wearing it in even more dynamic temperature and humidity extremes also compromise the helmet????

Seriously, I ride to work year-round here in Atlanta, Georgia. So, my helmet's shell is subjected to temps as low as 15?? ambient in January & February to temps that are easily well over 100 in July & August. The humidity inside the helmet is always high (such is the nature of a human head) regardless of the ambient temperature and outside humidity, the latter ranging from 20% to 100% on any given day at any given temperature. To make matters worse, I take my helmet into the office where it is quickly warmed to 72?? in the morning and then take it back out to near or sometimes below freezing temperatures in the evening.

Check me here, but given the aforementioned highly dynamic environment that a helmet must endure just in normal use, what makes the 'average' garage environment so bad for a helmet??

Just asking....

TandemGeek said:

OK, I gotta ask.... Check me here, but given the aforementioned highly dynamic environment that a helmet must endure just in normal use, what makes the 'average' garage environment so bad for a helmet??

Just asking....

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I've been surprised while reading this thread that I haven't read about the effect of the gasoline fumes compromising the styrofoam in our helmets. I thought that I had read (somewhere) that storing helmets in the garage was not good for that reason. It must have had some impact on me as I only leave my helmet in the garage during riding season, never during the winter.

TandemGeek said:

OK, I gotta ask....

If an approved, quality helmet is purportedly compromised by storing it in a garage where the temperature ranges from very cold to very hot with varying ranges of humidity as the seasons change, does wearing it in even more dynamic temperature and humidity extremes also compromise the helmet????

Seriously, I ride to work year-round here in Atlanta, Georgia. So, my helmet's shell is subjected to temps as low as 15?? ambient in January & February to temps that are easily well over 100 in July & August. The humidity inside the helmet is always high (such is the nature of a human head) regardless of the ambient temperature and outside humidity, the latter ranging from 20% to 100% on any given day at any given temperature. To make matters worse, I take my helmet into the office where it is quickly warmed to 72?? in the morning and then take it back out to near or sometimes below freezing temperatures in the evening.

Check me here, but given the aforementioned highly dynamic environment that a helmet must endure just in normal use, what makes the 'average' garage environment so bad for a helmet??

Just asking....

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to be honest, i don't know. i figured it was no big effort to NOT store in teh garage, so why bother?
Same suppliers indicated that a helmet has an indefinite shelf life if kept in a (relatively) stable temp/humidity environment (like an indoor closet). i think "proper storage" is about mazimizing the lifespan of the helmet as opposed to minmizing it.

bikerfish1100 said:

to be honest, i don't know. i figured it was no big effort to NOT store in teh garage, so why bother?

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Because, at least for me, it makes a lot more sense to keep my riding gear next to my bikes in the garage instead of trundling to and from the house with it. As it is now, I walk out to the garage, gear-up, ride away. Ride in, take my helmet off and put it on the shelf and then hang-up the rest of my gear before heading into the house. This makes even more sense when it's raining. Now, why would I want to drag all of that outdoor apparel into the house?

bikerfish1100 said:

Same suppliers indicated that a helmet has an indefinite shelf life if kept in a (relatively) stable temp/humidity environment (like an indoor closet).

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Sounds like the supplier wants to have his cake and eat it too, i.e., no, no... shelf life is indefinite so don't worry about how old my inventory is. However, once YOU own it it's a ticking time bomb: so long as you don't drop-it, knock-it, get it too hot or too cold or place it on a shelf next to the very vehicles it is designed to be used with it will be safe to use for five years. But, after that, regardless of how it's used or stored, you'll need to buy a new one.

bikerfish1100 said:

i think "proper storage" is about mazimizing the lifespan of the helmet as opposed to minmizing it.

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I think it's all much ado about nothing. Common sense will go a long way towards establishing how to care and store a helmet that's designed to deal with a lot of light-duty wear and tear as well as environmental extremes while still being able to perform it's primary function.

Again, my helmet gets a lot of wear and tear since it's used every day and for that reason alone it will be replaced on average after about 3 years. However, I typically replace it with my wife's barely used 3-year old helmet and get her a new one so I'm on what is essentially a 6-year replacement cycle instead of the recommended 5-year cycle.

In regard to the latter, I would note that I have a couple Shoei helmets that are in like new condition that have been sitting on the shelf in the garage for about 9 years, where the EPS and all the other bits are still soft and pliable. I also have a couple of low-cost DOT-labeled helmets that are 4-years old that came with my '04 RT and they are completely ratted-out. So, there is something to be said for how the quality of the original materials, assembly and design influences service life.

Bottom Line: I have no concerns about doing any harm by storing my helmets on a shelf well off the floor in my garage.

P.S., with regard to gas vapors, me think's that's a non-issue as well unless you make a habit of storing your helmets on the garage floor. After all, even gas-fired furnances and water heaters are routinely located in garage spaces, albeit on elevated stands or platforms.

Well-said TG .I would suspect we get more gas fumes on our helmets while peering into the tank while filling. Watching so as to not over fill. Than we ever do in our garages.

KBasa said:

Same here. Keep it away from ozone and chemical fumes as they'll eat the styro liner and weaken it.

Your helmet should come with a care guide that describes how to store it.

Kind of on topic: Lay your gloves out flat so the sweat evaporates out of them. Don't cram them in your helmet.

I'd be cautious of putting a helmet in a bag if that bag won't allow sweat to evaporate out of the liner. They can get funky quick if sweat builds up in them. Yuck.

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Slightly OT:
Thank god for Fabreeze!
I bought a lightly used (I thought) Schuberth from a rider on another site.He said it had no funky odors.Getting it w/i 6 inches of my head,I knew that wasn't the case.Removed the liner and washed it w/good results.But the side (cheek) pads stayed put.So along comes Fabreeze.......
What should have been a head's up,the helmet was in the helmet bag when it arrived and bag smelled as bad as the helmet.
Wish I could afford a new Arai or Schuberth.

I didn't know I was supposed to ever take it off....

TandemGeek said:

Because, at least for me, it makes a lot more sense to keep my riding gear next to my bikes in the garage instead of trundling to and from the house with it. As it is now, I walk out to the garage, gear-up, ride away. Ride in, take my helmet off and put it on the shelf and then hang-up the rest of my gear before heading into the house. This makes even more sense when it's raining. Now, why would I want to drag all of that outdoor apparel into the house?

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If I had an attached garage, I would seriously consider finding space for the gear near the bikes. However, ours is a 40 yd hike away. I might occasionally leave the gear there, usually in the summer when I get off the bike and head directly into the garden or the orchard. gardening in a 'stich ain't no fun.

I try to make a serious attempt to air out or dry my helmet between uses. Donning a wet sweaty helmet is not high on my list and I suspect that keeping it aired out may add to it's longevity. I have a Peet shoe dryer with a helmet attachment that helps with the de=humidifying from time to time.

Giving the inside a good wash and thorough drying as needed do make for a more pleasant riding experience.

Still no expert opinion

Clearly, we all care about our heads in the event of an accident, THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON we wear helmets. No need to repeat the numerous other reasons we wear them to the believers, and the non-believers will never read these posts.

We STILL have not heard from someone who really KNOWS the properties of the plastics in our helmets (especially, what I call -probably wrongly - styrofoam.) THAT is the part of our cared-for helmets that is most important in an accident as it absorbs and distributes force over a larger area. I think everyone agrees that it loses the ability to absorb and distribute impact over time.

The two big unanswered questions are: 1. Is this simply a matter of time, regardless of humidity and temperature, (and, if so, what percentage of original performance has been lost after 5 years from date of manufacture?) 2. If the "styrofoam" in our helmets can be seriously compromised by other factors (high or low temperatures, high or low humidity) to what extent do these factors limit the years we can get 90% of original protection from our helmets?

I'm asking for science, not just personal opinion. Perhaps some of you know people (or websites) where we can obtain this info and share it here.

There are a lot of riders who continue to wear old helmets. Are there really good reasons they should not do so?

"Back in the day..." when I used to build and fly R/C planes, a technique for building a fiberglass part was to carve the part from styrofoam/expanded polystyrene, then apply the fiberglass over the foam. When the 'glass had set up, remove the foam by chipping out the big pieces, then dunk the part in a container of gas to dissolve the rest of the foam. Just sayin'.

My helmet is in the closet with the rest of the riding gear, in the house. When not home, it's either in the side cases, trunk, or on a shelf at my workbench.

This is a link to an article on helmets by MSF. It's a long read, so did not copy it in its entirety.
http://msf-usa.org/downloads/helmet_CSI.pdf
however, here is a pertinent segment from it: (my italics)
"It is not wise to store helmets near gasoline, cleaning fluids, exhaust fumes, or excessive heat. These factors can result in the degradation ofhelmet materials, and often the damage goes unnoticed by thewearer. Read the information that comes with the helmet so you know how to care for it. Definitely read the instructions about painting, decorating, pinstriping, or applying decals to your helmet. Never hang your helmet on the motorcycle's mirrors, turn signals, or backrest. The inner liner can easily be damaged from such handling. In fact, avoid carrying a spare helmet on your motorcycle, unless it's well protected or on your passenger's head. Even the bumps andjarring from normal riding can damage a spare. If it is strapped near hot engine parts or exhaust pipes, the inner liner may distort or melt at the hot spot. The outer shell may not show the damage, but if you've seen the effects of a foam drink cup placed too near excessive heat, you can understand what happens. When you take your helmet off, find a flat,secure place for it. You could set it on the ground, secure it on a rack, or stow it on a shelf. On somebikes, putting it on the fuel tank may expose it to fumes. If you place it on the seat, make sure it won't fall off."