Smelly Helmet

As mentioned elsewhere the downpour on thursday has left my lid rather
pongy. Now in this months Ride there's something about cleaning a
helmet, which doesn't have a removable liner by running it under the
shower. Before I do this I'd just like to check what people think about
this? I'm sure it's fine but I can't quiet the demon in my head which is
telling me this might be a bad idea.

I guess water can't do the shell/polystyrene any more damage than
spraying it with Febreze but paranoia is kicking in.

Cheers

 

Steve P says...

It's the only correct way to do it. Use a mild baby shampoo and warm
water. the heat in the water will expand any flattened foam cells in the
liner and make the helmet a little tighter when it dries out.

 

Or if you can't be arsed, Febreze is your friend.

 

Fr Jack says...

Using Febreeze is like spraying deodorant on an already sweaty body. It
masks the smell for a short while, but you really stink after it wears
off.

 

I thought Febreeze claim to deal with the source of the smell rather than
mask it?

It worked reasonably well when one of the fucking cats sprayed my suit.

 

sweller says...

What they claim and what they acheive are two different things. I have
tried Febreeze and to be honest I'd rather smell my own stale sweat, it
stunk and I _had_ to wash the liner after using it.

Possibly deals with some smells better than others. There's no
substitute for a proper job being done the way the manufacturers
recommend.

 

Coo ta, I'll have a go tomorrow morning then. Oddly riding for 4 hours
today hasn't helped in the smell department

 

Steve P says...

I went out this afternoon on the bike. When I got home I had to wash the
liner in my lid. I was dripping wet with sweat. I could feel the vents
in my lid working well, but I was still too hot. My T-shirt was wringing
wet too, yet my legs were ok.

 

Mine is drying out now. The colour of the water which rinsed out of the
liner was fairly grim to be honest, certainly enough to convince me to
wash it more often. It now smells of marzipan thanks to our kids Cherry
and Almond shampoo, which is infinately preferable to the previous
'stale' odour. Cheers for the tip!

Bought some nice gloves from HG yesterday with vents in the back which
certainly seem to work at higher speeds. My hands were definately cooler
than in my other (winter gloves) and there's loads more feel although
they are probably going to take a while to break in. As for legs well
getting my trousers off was an ordeal I seemed to be stuck to them and
no amount of hopping around the kitchen helped. I opted for jeans on the
short blat to my folks this morning.

 

It isn't. I've done it loads and it works very well. The only thing is,
depending on your lid, is that it can take ages to dry.

 

It's pretty much dry now, thanks to nice weather yesterday.

 

That's good. Wearing it damp/wet in hot weather is also an option; you
get a lovely cool face when you take it off