QUOTE(euro911 @ Dec 8 2015, 12:22 PM)
QUOTE(AZ914 @ Dec 8 2015, 05:45 AM)
QUOTE(euro911 @ Dec 7 2015, 11:26 PM)
Why do they say helmets are only good for 5 years from the date first worn?
http://www.smf.org/standards/sa/2015/SA2015releaseNotes.pdfThey get smelly.
Let's put it another way, Jason ...
Alan and Bill each buy a new helmet.
Alan wears his helmet almost every day on his motorcycle commute to work.
Bill wears his helmet five times a year - to AX his car.
Over the course of five years, Alan wears his helmet more than 300 times, whereas Bill only wears his helmet about 25 times in the same period.
Besides the fact that Bill's helmet might smell nicer, it's been used minimally. Alan's helmet has been used 12x the amount of time, so why would
both of their helmets be considered unsafe?
I 'snell' a rat
Not quite, some more context:
Alan and Bill each buy 4 new tires
Alan drives his car to work each day a few miles, accumulating 10K miles per year
Bill puts the tires on his car and parks it outside, driving it once per year to autocross
At the end of 5 years, Alan's tires are worn down and fully consumed, time for new ones
At the end of 5 years, Bill's tires have sat and dried out - they have all their tread left but also need to be replaced. The combination of time, sun, temperature and humidity changes, etc make them cross a threshold where we'd consider them "safe". Even if Bill's particular tires are still good, we need a way to say, "tires that are older than X months are no longer safe enough for track use as our general rule".
Now also consider Charlie - he has a set of New-Old-Stock original 914 165-R15 tires that have been sitting in a temperature and humidity controlled vault, lovingly tended, and are conditionally identical to brand new tires. However, they are also outdated for an application like track driving - the technology is dated. So, we'd make a decision to say that Charlie's tires meet the functional spec for which they are designed, but the design spec has been replaced by higher quality radials and better rubber compounds in a modern tire. So, there may also be a date requirement on gear that goes to how "current" it is in the ever improving world of safety gear. (Harnesses and helmets have this in particular).
Long story short - it's annoying (stipulated) to have to buy new gear when the old gear still feels good, but ask Dale Earnhardt Sr. about the value a modern helmet.