I fixed my helmet with sew-up glue and a sock
 

Partly because throwing it out would be a waste of syrofoam and partly because I am a cheap bastard.

Sometimes going green and being frugal are the same thing.

One of the straps that hold the black plastic piece to the back of your head came loose, so I glued it back on. The sock I put there to clamp it until the glue dried, then trimmed the excess so that part of the sock is stuck there and protects my head from the excess glue.

Buy a new helmet.

They don't last forever.

Yes but later!

I'm not sure why you wear a helmet? If it needs that much work, it isn't going to do much to save you. The recommended lifespan of a helmet is 5 years - that is why the manufacture date is put on a helmet. If maintained properly it can last longer, but sounds like you are over due.

A basic helmet doesn't cost much - and you never really know when you will really use one.

I figure the expiration date on a helmet is like the 18 month expiration date on canned food -- a good way for the manufacturer to sell you more. They'd probably make the helmet expire in 2 years if they could sell them to the bike shops -- who wants to buy a helmet that "needs" to be replaced in a year and a half??
@davei1980, what kind of glue did you use on the helmet?

IMHO, from an engineer's point of view, expiration dates on helmets and child car seats are BS. We don't have expiration dates on other plastic things in our cars. From an Occam's razor viewpoint, third parties have a financial interest in incentivizing people to replace their helmets and car seats under the guise of safety.
Maybe, just MAYBE, the foam on helmets can become weaker from UV exposure but there hasn't been scientific evidence for that. In fact, there was a study disproving the claim that helmets become weaker with age.

https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.o...dFrom=fulltext

With all that said, if you have to glue a part of your helmet so it stays on your head, you should probably look into getting a new one. A helmet is supposed to stay on your head during a crash and if a strap is loose such that the helmet can rotate off, that's a bad thing.

Vittoria Mastik tubular tire glue. Safer than before I think

I'm tighter than an Amish tick. If my helmet is broke in any way, I'm buying a new one.

It didn't eat away the styrofoam? Maybe tubular tire glue is less reactive than other adhesives, but I've had terrible luck with glue on helmets. is it some kind of rubber cement?

So far so good. And yes, it must be Less reactive than other Glue, Makes sense because it’s made to go on the underside of tires (Complete guess)

+1

BTW the sock fix is fine IMO. A helmet made from a bag of styro peanuts would provide the same protection, as long as something held them in place and you had the same depth of material overall.

UV degradation is real, but its extent is *far* less than people imagine. Prolonged exposure - that would be leaving the helmet out in the sun every day, with the plastic cover missing - will result in yellowing and a covering of dust from the degraded Styrofoam. The thickness of that layer of dust compared to the thickness of the helmet represents the (trivial) reduction of impact protection. My opinion: there is nothing wrong with repairing a damaged bike helmet.

Was it a clean sock? I assume you kept its mate for the next repair, right?

That reminds me, I need to buy another $15 helmet, because my last one cracked when I had a really solid hit on a tree-branch a month or so ago:

Just ordered: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bike-Helmet...X5auGy_UEBGsfA

Wait, what? A "repair" with sew-up glue and a sock? This thread is useless without pics.


-Kedosto

Asked and answered:

The part that came loose was the strap which holds the plastic plate thingy to the back of my head. It came unglued or unvelcroed or whatever. I glued it on with tire glue, knowing I had to clamp it to work and that the glue would get all over, I put a sock over the repaired area before clamping then just trimmed away the excess sock when I was done and left the part that stuck.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...dd9308cc96.jpg