I'm posting this so that you don't make the same mistake!
I got lazy and I hadn't cleaned my Bell Super 3 helmet at all this year. My excuse was that I hadn't been doing much riding over the Summer. Being mostly bald, the sweat pads were in direct contact with my skin, so they got sweaty. When I restarted regular riding, the skin on my head started to get itchy and flaky. Right or wrong I decided that maybe my helmet was overdue for a good clean. I used to soak it after EVERY ride and then dry it, but recently the sweat-soaked pads were just left to dry (fester?) Disgusting I know, but I'm a flawed human-being.
Yesterday, I took action and I thought that instead of soaking in a diluted laundry disinfectant (my usual once per month clean), I'd go for an all-out "100% guaranteed to kill all known germs" solution. I sprayed the inside of the helmet with 100% iso-propyl alcohol (IPA). IPA was what was widely used during the pandemic to sterilise surfaces. I made sure that the pads had soaked it up by pressing on them a few times and re-spraying (I wore nitrile gloves). Then I hung it up to dry.
When my wife got back, she commented that my helmet looked very dirty. What!?
The IPA had dissolved whatever crap was in the helmet and then run down and collected underneath the helmet and proceeded to eat away at the outer coating/layer of the helmet. It was a mucky white colour on top of my satin black helmet. Aaaarrgghh, what have I done! I wiped off the worst of it and dumped the helmet in a basin of water, then dried it as best I could and left it to dry. Come the morning it wasn't as bad as it had looked, but still not good. Its now a matt black with dirty grey streaks all over it. I could not feel the slightest difference between the grey bits and the black bits, so maybe the damage was not too bad?
I thought about it for a while. My wheel rims go a bit like that during the Winter, and Silicone Shine restores them to brand new. While I was searching for it in my recently re-organised garage, I came across some black body-coloured car body polish and an old tube of chrome cleaner (very mild abrasive).
Wary of my IPA mishap, I used the chrome cleaner in an unobtrusive spot and hit pay dirt! Five mins later, I'd done the whole helmet and all of the streaks had gone. But it looked a bit dull. Time for the Silicone Shine. And...... it worked!
Hmm, I just noticed that the 1st pic was in the kitchen, and the 2nd was taken in the utility room, hence the different sink tops and worktops (just in case the eagle-eyed among you had nothing better to do and were watching).
PS: What I should have done was to remove the pads and clean them separately. But on previous helmets, doing that led to a degrading of the Velcro attachment and the need for a new set of pads.....which were not available! So, I got into the habit of cleaning the whole helmet. That worked a treat until all of a sudden it didn't!
I got lazy and I hadn't cleaned my Bell Super 3 helmet at all this year. My excuse was that I hadn't been doing much riding over the Summer. Being mostly bald, the sweat pads were in direct contact with my skin, so they got sweaty. When I restarted regular riding, the skin on my head started to get itchy and flaky. Right or wrong I decided that maybe my helmet was overdue for a good clean. I used to soak it after EVERY ride and then dry it, but recently the sweat-soaked pads were just left to dry (fester?) Disgusting I know, but I'm a flawed human-being.
Yesterday, I took action and I thought that instead of soaking in a diluted laundry disinfectant (my usual once per month clean), I'd go for an all-out "100% guaranteed to kill all known germs" solution. I sprayed the inside of the helmet with 100% iso-propyl alcohol (IPA). IPA was what was widely used during the pandemic to sterilise surfaces. I made sure that the pads had soaked it up by pressing on them a few times and re-spraying (I wore nitrile gloves). Then I hung it up to dry.
When my wife got back, she commented that my helmet looked very dirty. What!?
The IPA had dissolved whatever crap was in the helmet and then run down and collected underneath the helmet and proceeded to eat away at the outer coating/layer of the helmet. It was a mucky white colour on top of my satin black helmet. Aaaarrgghh, what have I done! I wiped off the worst of it and dumped the helmet in a basin of water, then dried it as best I could and left it to dry. Come the morning it wasn't as bad as it had looked, but still not good. Its now a matt black with dirty grey streaks all over it. I could not feel the slightest difference between the grey bits and the black bits, so maybe the damage was not too bad?
I thought about it for a while. My wheel rims go a bit like that during the Winter, and Silicone Shine restores them to brand new. While I was searching for it in my recently re-organised garage, I came across some black body-coloured car body polish and an old tube of chrome cleaner (very mild abrasive).
Wary of my IPA mishap, I used the chrome cleaner in an unobtrusive spot and hit pay dirt! Five mins later, I'd done the whole helmet and all of the streaks had gone. But it looked a bit dull. Time for the Silicone Shine. And...... it worked!
Hmm, I just noticed that the 1st pic was in the kitchen, and the 2nd was taken in the utility room, hence the different sink tops and worktops (just in case the eagle-eyed among you had nothing better to do and were watching).
PS: What I should have done was to remove the pads and clean them separately. But on previous helmets, doing that led to a degrading of the Velcro attachment and the need for a new set of pads.....which were not available! So, I got into the habit of cleaning the whole helmet. That worked a treat until all of a sudden it didn't!
.
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Bloody hell! I had failed to buy another new Bell Super 3 when they were on offer because I thought I'd already got one!
or your helmets are badly vented. Even in the hottest heatwave ever recorded ( according to the climate change gurus!!) this year, my head stayed cool.
