I have to arai helmets one with a build date of 04 and the other of 06 both helmets when bought were almost 2 years from the build date. Arai has a 5 year warranty and says after five years they should be replaced even if it never had an impact. Should it be replaced 5 years after the build date or 5 years from when it was bought. It would suck to go by the build date only reason is i lost 2 years to it sitting on the shelve at the dealer.. thanks for any input
Why would you replace a helmet that you used for only three years? Can't race with it but its still good for the street. I'm not sure what a helmet warrenty is good for other than if some small part breaks, if you read all the warnings and lawyer talk they don't cover anything remotely connected with hitting your head on the ground.
im not racing but i am doing trackdays. I would think the helmets are still ok to use. Arai Helmet Warranty Perhaps the ultimate demonstration of a company's faith in its product is how strongly it is willing to warranty it. For nine years, Arai was the only helmet company we know of that offered a warranty longer than one year. Arai's was, and is, a full 5-year warranty. But even a helmet as good as an Arai won't last forever. Like most major helmet manufacturers, Arai subscribes to the Snell Memorial Foundation benchmark of five years as the suggested usable lifespan of a motorcycle helmet. Why? Think of a helmet in terms of your body. No matter how good it may look, or how well you take care of it, age still takes its toll. Even with minimal use, a helmet is affected by things like the acids and oils in sweat, haircare products, pollution, exposure to UV rays, etc. At about the five-year mark, helmet interiors begin to show wear and/or deterioration, which should serve as an alert to its overall condition. The helmet's fit may begin to feel a little "loose", not as snug as it once did. This unseen aging and deterioration of the EPS liner and fiberglass shell can affect the helmet's ability to perform in an impact as it was originally designed. If a helmet suffers an impact and any doubt exists as to its further ability to protect, it should either be returned to the manufacturer for competent inspection or discarded and replaced. These are the reasons to replace your helmet after five years. Of course, if your helmet becomes less than snug in fit, or damaged, it should be replaced before the five year mark. And when you do, you may want to remember that Arai was the first company willing to warranty its helmets for the full Snell-recommended usable lifespan.
both helmets still fit well, pretty much like they are brand new. neither are loose and have no defects..
I'm guessing the helmets will be fine to use - so long as they have been cleaned and whatnot. Your sweat breaks down the integrity of the helmet after some time - so it's a good idea to actually wash the inner liner every now and again. They make the inner liners pretty easy to pop out, just google how to do it. I've never raced, but I know some organizations require helmets with pretty recent build dates, not sure about track days though - I think you'd be fine.
Wera requires a helmet that is less than five years old, using the build date, not the buy date. Most of mine have not made it that far... (which means they did their job)
so even though they sit in my house for 99.9% of the year, at the 5 year mark there pretty much paper weights..? or backups at best..
