How old is too old (for jackets, helmets)?

I have several jackets (male and female), a full body suit and several helmets gathering dust. My original intention was to pass them along to someone who could use them, but...

Helmets have a shelf life, and I'm pretty sure I'm just going to disassemble the two I have and discard the parts.

But what kind of shelf life do jackets and such have. They've never been down, so no damage, but they are 5+ years old at this point.

Garbage day is Thursday... But i hesitate to dump them if they'd be useful for someone else who maybe needs an upgrade or more coverage.

I'd appreciate your input here guys and gals.

duane

Find a local motorcycle club or group and give them away . It will feel good!!!

.

sportsguy said:

Helmets have a shelf life, and I'm pretty sure I'm just going to disassemble the two I have and discard the parts.

But what kind of shelf life do jackets and such have. They've never been down, so no damage, but they are 5+ years old at this point.

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Some do, some don't on helmets. Like them, look at the manufacturer of your specific product for an expiration.

Helmets seems to have particular sensitivity given the materials they're made of, deterioration due to body fluids (e.g. sweat), evolving industry materials and techniques, and sometimes government or quasi-government time standards (e.g. Snell). But I think you'll find most manufacturers are silent about non-helmet gear. Accordingly, I wouldn't think twice about using or offering to use older equipment if it's in generally good repair (i.e. sewn seams intact, material not damaged, armor isn't broken down)

Helmets are supposed to be good for five years from the date of manufacture. So if 5+, they are not going to protect as well.

Everything else - short of the CE armor - is probably fine if the material is still in good shape. CE plastic ages, though I don't recall how fast.

What Iggie said!

Appreciate the input guys.

The component in helmets that supposedly degrades is the EPS foam, which is amusing since that is the same stuff we cant seem to get to degrade in landfills. Im sure that it does lose its ability to cushion to some extent, and that is likely due to the environment it has been exposed to. But, when a helmet manufacturer claims their lids need to be replaced in X number of years I become extremely sceptical.

There are far too many environmental variables to make a blanket statement like that, so my gut feeling is that these manufacturers, who have no small conflict of interest in coming up with this replacement schedule, err on the conservative side such that no possible abuse youve given your helmet in 5 years would result in reduced safety. A helmet that was worn a dozen times a year and stored indoors is bound to be in better shape after 5 years than a helmet worn to work every day for one year and left on the handlebar all day.

Wearing any helmet is a conscious decision to improve your safety. Certainly we can make our own decisions about how degraded those 5 year old helmets are.

What I want to know is why does SportsGuy have female riding stuff? I mean, have you ever laid eyes on the guy?

You could find a local MSF course and see if they would take donations so people have stuff to wear when they take the class.

dcarver said:

What I want to know is why does SportsGuy have female riding stuff? I mean, have you ever laid eyes on the guy?

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For, like...when...you know...you meet people, 'n stuff...

Really, it was my wife's gear and she has no interest in riding now, so no sense hanging onto the gear. heck, i replaced the rear seat on the Tenere ages ago with an extra rotopax for gas.

what size stuff are you moving...

asking for a friend

Someone elses old gear is still way better than not riding with gear. If you're going to chuck it anyway , just give it away.

JSNS

The standard line from manufacturers is 7 years from date of manufacture, 5 years in-use. (At least that's what the Shoei rep said). Donate it to a local club or put an inventory list up here, someone will be happy to use it and would likely be only too happy to pay the postage.

Just thinkin out loud...Baz

someguy said:

what size stuff are you moving... asking for a friend

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I'll need to pull together the list this week and come back to share.

I have some travel on Wed/Thurs that'll occupy me for a bit, but I should be able to lay my hands on gear for photos and names/sizes this week.

Off the top of my head, these two were handy in the garage.

Yellow is a Tourmaster in 2XL/48. This was a group buy jacket I got in on with the RCMP back in Canada - it was the jackets they were ordering, and I hopped onto the group buy via the dealership managing their order. I need to clean it.



This other one is brand new - bought form someone at a big discount as it didn't fit them. Turns out it was too big for me as it's a 2XL Tall. Great jacket, literally never worn.

I've donated a couple of my old helmets to local fire/EMS units for training purposes. They can always use stuff like that for teaching new recruits and it saves them money from buying stuff just for that purpose.

Most of my gear gets heavily used, and wears out before would ever age out. For older stuff, any sign of fabric dry rot or ripping, foam or armor breakdown, and I’m probably tossing.

I was going to recommend that you wear helmets and jackets no matter how old you are.

Down in the 'For Sale, Trade, and Free' section of this forum there was a single thread titled Pay It Forward. It has over time morphed into a separate thread for each item but still, with the same idea of passing along to someone else what you don't want anymore for minimal (shipping) cost.

sportsguy said:

I have several jackets (male and female), several helmets gathering dust. My original intention was to pass them along to someone who could use them, but...

I'd appreciate your input here guys and gals.

duane

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We donated our extra jackets (4) and helmets (2) to the local MSF School in Sacramento.

The Instructors eyes lit up when we dropped them off.