Helmet doesn’t have manufactured date?

I have a Shark Race R Pro GP helmet (the shark helmet with the big spoiler) and went to tech with it for the first time when getting my race license a few weeks ago. They couldn’t find the manufacture date in the helmet anywhere but ended up letting me wear it because they knew the helmet design was new for 2019. The helmet comes with a card, that has the manufacture date with the helmet serial number but does not have the date inside the helmet.

How should I approach this when taking it to tech in the future? Should I take the card to tech with me? Or am I just screwed in using the helmet?


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Did y'all look under the cover inside?

 

Everywhere... took the entire lining out.


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ask Shark how they serialize the helmet to the card? Maybe a blue light? Maybe a decal?

 

There is a holographic decal on the helmet with the serial number and they provide you with a card that has a matching sticker


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After a bit of googling it appears that "Euro helmets only mandate the production serial number, not date of manufacture." Some manufacturers include a date, others don't. I haven't yet found how to locate the date of manufacture by the serial number but I would guess there's a way.

 

I have the manufacture date. It’s on the card


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Laminate the card and keep it in your helmet bag to show tech inspector

 

My X-Lite X-803R Ultra Carbon doesn't have a manufacture date either. I had a hard time passing it through tech last time I raced in May. I'll look for a card in my helmet box...

 

As a tech inspector I can vouch that it verily sucks that they keep breaking things that work. Arai's idea of etching the date into the buckle was great; wish everyone would do it. Putting it inside where I have to search for it in (too often moist and stinky) liner material is a pain, especially when it's printed in tiny font. Bell was putting it on the outside on a sticker on the back, which was nice but it's possible that they decided that was costing them too much in helmet sales because people could see the date too easily.

When we have a mile-long line of riders waiting for tech inspections on Saturday morning there's nothing fun about having to stop everything to locate a nearly impossible date on a helmet.

Nothing in the current rulebook says anything about how the date of manufacture has to be determined so I would think a manufacturer's statement of date with matching serial # on an accompanying card would be sufficient. If the card has a "matching sticker" as stated above, why not affix the matching sticker to the helmet and be done with it?

 

Could WERA use a sticker to indicate that a helmet had been inspected at a prior event that would allow for a cursory review at subsequent inspections? Might make your life simpler later in the season.

 

Would be cool if you could have some nice barcode stickers that tech could just scan to verify helmets approval or expiration date.

 

I hear ya. What if you had a simple app on a cellphone that used its camera to scan the barcode? Would need internet access I suppose, but it could tell the person scanning who the helmet belongs to and when it expires.

 

Last I knew, AHRMA uses a sticker at the beginning of the year. Somebody could possibly cheat the system but they can now too. All they have to do is carry up another person’s helmet. Eventually you can’t save people from themselves.

 

Makes you second guess the whole " it NEEDS replacement in xx years!" argument? They don't even date them?