ALT-1 Why you should not Buy a used Motorcycle Helmet
When riding a motorcycle your helmet is the only thing protecting your head in a fall, of course it is always better to avoid that fall in the first place. But if you do fall off a motorcycle at 100kmh you want that motorcycle helmet to do its job and absorb the impact of the road. When a helmet hits the road the tiny air bubbles, normally a type of polystyrene get destroyed on impact and absorb some of the shock from the road surface. That is way helmet manufactures recommend that you renew your helmet once it has been exposed to physical shock or been in contact with chemicals.
You can not tell when these bubbles have been destroyed by looking at the helmet because they are set in the polystyrene, so if you buy a used helmet with some of the bubbles already damaged even by the smallest shock, they can not protect your head by being destroyed on impact with the road or tree and absorbing the shock like a bonnet of a car because there not there anymore.
Some chemicals and cleaners also destroy the bubbles because they react with the polystyrene and eat it away, ever tried spray painting polystyrene? Didn't work did it?. Which is not good because again the bubbles will not be there anymore to protect you in a fall from your motorcycle.
Buying a used helmet is cheaper and defiantly better then no helmet at all but still might not do its job in a fall. When buying a used helmet it is not always possible to be able to see the damage from shocks and chemicals because it is inside the helmet, kind of like when you open a packet of chips and there all smashed into little pieces but looked fine from the outside. That is why it is always safer to buy a new good quality helmet from a helmet dealer with the proper safety standards then a used one because you know it will not have been damaged.
