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10 Motorcycle Helmet Care Tips You’ll Love

Last Update: 25 May 2023

Ten Motorcycle Helmet Care Tips on MOTORESS
Ten Motorcycle Helmet Care Tips – Use a Wet Paper Towel To Pre-Soften Those Sticky Bugs.

Your motorcycle helmet is one of the most important pieces of your motorcycle gear and an essential tool to rider comfort and protection in the case of  mishap. A good quality motorcycle helmet can be a bit of an investment – quality does not come cheap when it comes to motorcycle helmets. This might surprise you to know that your motorcycle helmet is more fragile than you think. Taking care of your helmet and keeping it in tip-top shape will not only help protect you to the best of the helmet’s ability, but help extend the life of your helmet.

Here they are – top 10 motorcycle helmet care tips!

  1. Fragile Handle with Care. Treat your helmet as if it’s fragile. Dropping a motorcycle helmet from waist height could cause damage, even if it’s not visible. Your helmet has been designed to disperse an impact through the entire helmet design. Each impact or drop as you might imagine, lessons and weakens this competence.
  2. Use That Clothe Helmet Bag Wherever You Go. Take the draw-string cover that came with your helmet with you when you ride. This can be placed around your helmet when off bike. It will protect against bumping up against doors, walls or doughnut counters.
  3. Don’t hang Your Helmet On Your Mirrors. And this goes for any post, or any other convenient object. Not only can a wind gust lift your helmet and send it flying to the ground this is another sure-fire way to damage the inner lining.
  4. Say No To Stickers. Some thermoplastic or polycarbonate motorcycle helmets can be damaged by the glue. A smooth surface, you might not realise is important to a helmet and your safety. You want the surface not to grip on the ground in the case of a slide or impact.
  5. Just Water to Clean Your Helmet. To clean your helmet make sure you only use pure water. If you really feel you need to use a substance, use mild soap or a “made for helmet” cleaner. The average cleaning products can damage the helmet’s protective coating and/or graphics which again effect helmet deterioration.
  6. Soften Up The Bugs. To get rid of bugs on your visor, try spreading a wet towel or tissue paper over it for ten minutes and you’ll find they come off easily (see photo above).
  7. Avoid Furniture Polish For Cleaning Your Helmet or Visor. This was a common practise in the early days when proper helmet polishing products were available. But most furniture polishes (i.e. Pledge) contain petrochemicals which are harmful to plastic as well as to polycarbonate helmets.
  8. Keep Away From Fuel. Avoid storing your helmet near fuel, cleaning fluids or excessive heat. All of these can damage materials in the helmet used during its construction.
  9. Store Your Gloves Somewhere Else. Don’t store your motorcycle gloves in your helmet when you’re off bike. Your gloves are likely to have traces of gasoline on them which can ruin your helmet’s interior. And if you have any Velcro fastenings on your gloves, these tend to stick to your helmet lining and cause pulls / damage to the lining.
  10. Five Year Refresh. Most good helmet manufacturers recommend changing your helmet at least every five years. And if it is dropped heavily or survived a crash (often in racing) replace it immediately.

 


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10 comments

smith 13 October 2022 at 07:34

very informative post thank you

Reply
Richard Browning 26 October 2021 at 07:06

Thank you my friend for sharing this valuable guide. All these tips were really helpful for me. I would love to read more of your guides like this.
Have a nice day. Cheers

Reply
MOTORESS 23 January 2022 at 17:33

We really appreciate your feedback! Keep visiting, we’ll always have more! Happy riding this year!

Reply
Mike D. 25 May 2021 at 12:55

On the subject of cleaning your helmet face shields, or your bike windscreen!
I have been using Arai helmets for about the last 10 years.
Like most high end helmets, the manufacturer does not recommend anything but warm water, to loosen the bugs, and a clean microfiber cloth to clean their face shields. However, I met a person who works in the movie industry, and had actually done some of the filming on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. Being a kind of geek, I asked how he kept the camera lenses clean while working in a high humidity/high salt atmosphere. He said they had to put what I call a sacrificial piece of polycarbonate (P/C) in front of the camera lens(s). So, the salt water, sand and dust would be deposited on the P/C, and never get onto the actual camera lens(s). My next question was, “How do you clean the P/C then?” He said he uses a compound called “Novus”.
My friend knew I rode M/C, and he said I should try it on my bikes windshield. I did, and the results were a near perfect, optically clear windshield! I have used the Novus for years now on my M/C windshields, and have now started using it on my helmet face shields!! There are three grades of Novus out there, a #1, #2 and a #3. The #1 will take out those fine annoying scratches, the #2 will take out mild abrasions, and the #3 will take out the deeper scratches. I have used ONLY the #1 on my face shields, and have never had any type of optical distortion/aberration in them from its use.
However, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER USE ANYTHING ON A METALIZED FACE SHIELD BUT WARM WATER AND A MICROFIBER CLOTH!!! YOU WILL DESTROY THE METALIZED FINISH AND BE LEFT WITH A DISTRACTING PIECE OF JUNK ON YOUR FACE!! YES REALLY! I had a nice blue metalized Arai face shield on my helmet for about 6 ro 7 years. As time went on, it did get scratched and abraded from use. I attempted to use Windex and a couple of other types of cleaner on, and it only made it worse. As it had worn out its useful life, and had turned into a major distraction to my riding vision, I retired it!
Hope this helps someone out there…

Reply
MOTORESS 11 June 2021 at 10:22

Thanks for sharing Mike. We still suggest best practise is nothing but warm water on your helmet face shield. Good to hear of your experience and yes, might help someone out there. Thanks!

Reply
Charlie Brown 29 October 2020 at 10:00

I don’t know about other guys but I wipe down my visor every day. I can’t stand seeing spots on the visor while I’m riding.

Reply
Charlie-brm 17 March 2017 at 19:12

Could you turn on the website’s option to display the date the article was posted? Then we know if we are about to comment on a current story.

As for cleaners, absolutely avoid anything with even the suspicion of containing ammonia. What it does is it breaks down the integrity of plastics over time, but leaves them looking clean and new.

However, when the plastic actually gets stressed, maybe months or years in the future, it will break away, offering no resistance. I’ve seen it and it’s pretty scary to observe.

On the road, I’ll wet some paper towels at a rest stop washroom and on one, squirt a few drops of the hand soap from the wall dispenser. Use the rest to wipe down the helmet and visor.

Reply
MOTORESS 22 March 2017 at 12:03

Hi Charlie-BRM. Thanks for weighing in.
We believe in really avoiding any cleaners – water works well.
Regarding your tip on “squirt a few drops of the hand soap from wall dispenser”.. we can’t agree with you here. Like your point, earlier, these soaps contain hyper-drying ingredients, like ammonium lauryl sulfate – these like your helmet visor, are also hard on your skin (make your skin brittle and prone to cracking).
Good ole’ plain water.
We’ll have a look at adding dates.

Reply
LehQ 15 March 2017 at 12:09

I need to clean the inside cushions, they stink! Lol any tips? would be appreciated

Reply
MOTORESS 22 March 2017 at 12:17

LehQ – this is possible but does depend on what helmet you have. Most ARAI and Schuberth inside pads are removable. If this is the case with your helmet, remove and hand wash in warm water with a totally detergent (mild) washing substance. Something you might wash a baby’s clothing in. Let dry and re-attach. If yours are not removable, soak a clean cloth in warm sudsy (use even a sensitive skin shower gel) water – dab and moisten inside pads. Then rinse your washing clothe with plain water and repeat/rinse. After this, take a clean dry (bath towel works well) and stuff it inside the helmet until the helmet is packed solid with towel. The towel will soak up excess moisture. Remove towel and let stand until dry (24hrs+). Stay away from an spray disinfectants (Lysol, Febreze, etc.) and chemicals of any kind. These break down and deteriorate the pads and inner compounds which you so need to perform for you in the case of mishap. Cheers!

Reply

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