2nd hand bike helmet, would you buy one?

[hotmed]

for your kid? see plenty of 2nd hand very cheap ones around...

Nope.

Same principle as riding hats - they may look fine (and in all likelihood they probably are fine, they've just been grown out of rather than replaced because of an accident), but you never know their history, and although they can look okay after a knock, the interior of the polystyrene can be crumbly and offer no protection at all.

I had a fall from a horse a few years back and had a very minor concussion - because I'm a geek and as I was getting rid of the hat anyway, I got the OH's power tools and sawed it in half to see if in fact it had been damaged - as from the outside you would never have known anything was wrong with it. Well, it was scary - the interior of the polystyrene had crumbled into dust and with a prod of my finger it collapsed on itself - if I'd worn it again and had another fall, I would have got off a lot less lightly.

So (in my long winded way!) - defintely not! I'd be forever worrying about the hat's 'history', iykwim...

Helmets supposed to be replaced every 3 yrs, anyway, just due to "ordinary knocks and bumps".

That said, I might buy one that looked in good nick as a spare, we use the bikes so much and sometimes can't find the right helmet for right kid quickly enough.

Horse helmets are different, no, because they are hard shell around filling? At least with most cycle helmets you can tell if the polystyrene stuff is intact or not.

no way

No, lljk, the top of a riding hat is hard, like a cycling helmet (modern versions of riding hats often look identical - plastic, with ventilation holes - except they give a bit more coverage on the back of the head) - the inside, inside the fabric covering, is the same polystyrene brickettes - and although they can look okay on the outside, after one knock the inside goes all 'honeycombed' (can't think of a better word to describe it) and it is much more likely to crumble on impact rather than stay in one piece. And you can't tell that without cutting them open, as the outside still looks okay.

Not if I didn't know its history 100%.

So if my best mate said, 'Do you want this, there have been no probelms or accidents with it at all' I'd have it.

Wouldn't buy one from someone just in case!

No.

No, the money you would save is not worth it in comparison to the piece of mind and protection you would have if it was new.

Most cycle helmets do NOT have a hard plastic or fibreglass shell around the polystyrene....

When my son came off his bike last year on to grass his face was a mess. His mouth and nose were bleeding, he knocked one tooth so it is now wanky and damaged but his forehead and head were perfect. The helmet had done its job. We went to Halfords (after the hospital and dentist) and bought a new helmet and had his bike all checked over (for free) for any damage.

No, no and no again. My brother was knocked off his bike by a car and had serious concussion (memory span of about 30 seconds, is quite funny now but at the time was terrifying), lost a front tooth, broke his nose and was in in HDU for 3 days under observation.
His helmet looked immaculate apart from a scrape along teh topuntil we sawed it in half to have a peek (he was never going to wear that one again just in case) and discovered hairline fractures all over it that you couldn't see through the outside.

You cannot tell if it is safe by looking so please don't risk it

thankyou!