All Maintenance Tasks · Annual
Helmet Inspection and Replacement
A helmet is designed to be destroyed once. The foam works by crushing, and crushed foam does not spring back, so a helmet that has taken a hit has already spent the protection it had. The problem is that the crush is often invisible from the outside, which is why the rule is about the event, not about what the helmet looks like afterward.
Interval
Annual
Once a year, on a date you can remember
Time on the job
10 minutes
Once you have done it a few times.
You or a shop
Anyone
The stop signs further down are the real answer.
Applies toRoadMTBHybridE-bikeKids
How often, really
Look it over once a year, on a date you will remember. That schedule is immediately overridden by any impact: if the helmet hits the ground, hits a car, or takes a solid knock off a rack or a tailgate, it is replaced regardless of when it was last inspected and regardless of whether you can see anything. Manufacturers also publish their own replacement interval for an undamaged helmet, and that figure belongs to the manufacturer, not to a rule of thumb.
The interval on this page is Annual. Once a year, on a date you can remember.
What you need
- Good light
- The manufacturer instructions that came with the helmet
- A replacement pad kit, if the manufacturer sells one for your model
Doing the job
Check what the helmet actually is
Bicycle helmets sold in the United States are required to meet the federal safety standard at 16 CFR Part 1203, and a helmet that meets it carries a label saying so. Read the label inside your helmet and read the manufacturer instructions that came with it. Do not assume anything beyond what those two documents say.
Ask whether it has ever been hit
This is the whole inspection in one question. Any impact means replacement, even if the helmet looks untouched and even if it was not on your head at the time. Foam crushes internally without marking the shell. If you cannot say with confidence that the helmet has never been dropped hard or crashed in, replace it.
Look at the shell and the foam separately
Hold the helmet up to a light and look across the outer shell for hairline cracks, dents, or places where the shell has separated from the foam. Then look at the foam itself, inside and at the edges, for compressed patches, crumbling, or a line that looks like a crease. A helmet that shows any of this is finished.
Test the straps and the buckle
Pull firmly on each strap where it meets the shell; nothing should shift or pull through. Check the webbing for fraying, sun damage or stiffness. Close the buckle and pull it apart hard by hand. Then check the retention dial or cradle at the back moves smoothly and holds where you set it.
Refit it, because fit is the point
The helmet sits level, low on the forehead, roughly two finger widths above the eyebrow, not tipped back. The side straps make a V just under each ear. With the buckle done up, you should be able to fit about one finger between the strap and your chin. Open your mouth wide: the helmet should pull down on your head. Shake your head firmly and it should not slide around.
Check the pads and the age
Interior pads compress and shrink over time, and a helmet that fits only because of pads that are now flat is not fitting. Many manufacturers sell replacement pad kits. Then find the manufacture date, usually a sticker or a molded stamp inside the shell, and compare it against the replacement interval the manufacturer publishes for that helmet.
Stop and take it to a shop
If any of this shows up while you work on helmet inspection and replacement, put the bike down and let a mechanic look at it. None of these are things to ride out and see how it goes.
- The helmet has taken any impact at all. Replace it. Do not have it inspected, do not compare it against a photo, and do not keep it as a spare — a helmet with no visible damage can still have crushed foam inside.
- You find a crack in the shell, a compressed or crumbling patch of foam, or a place where the shell has lifted away from the foam. Stop using it.
- Straps are frayed, the webbing pulls through its anchor, or the buckle opens under a firm hand pull. A helmet that comes off during a crash has not done anything for you.
- There is no certification label inside, or the helmet is old enough that you cannot find its manufacture date or the manufacturer replacement guidance. Buy a current helmet rather than working out how much life an unidentified one has left.
Where this usually goes wrong
- Keeping a crashed helmet as a spare or a loaner. It is spent, and someone will eventually wear it without knowing that.
- Wearing it tipped back off the forehead, which leaves the part of your head that hits the ground first uncovered.
- Storing it on a rear car parcel shelf or in a hot trunk all summer. Heat and sunlight are hard on foam and on webbing, and the damage does not announce itself.