Go on... You know you want to. You'll really enjoy doing it. Give your helmet a spring clean...

words and pics by oZo

If you've got a lid with a removable interior (lots of them do these days, even if it's just a hundred quid jobbie) you'll find this is actually laughably easy. Girls will not find you attractive if your helmet smells of sweat and feels greasy to the touch. If it's nice and fresh, they might even want to try it on for size. This is how easy it is:

	This bit is not too bad. Check your little helmet handbook before you start, but on most lids, you just remove the cheek pads by pulling them gently inwards. Get your fingers behind the pad, and gently prise it away from the shell.
	I've pulled the left hand cheek pad well away here, just so you can see what's supposed to happen. There will be a hole through the cheek pad where the chin strap fits through. On some helmets (HJC and other various models) the cheek pad has a slot, rather than a hole, but the idea's the same.
	These are cheek pads removed from an Arai Quantum F shell. The outer covers on these pads are removable, like many others. This makes washing them easy. To remove them, first pull the cover carefully over the plastic tongue which located the cheek pad into the helmet. Slide the rest of the cover from around the outside of the pad and - in this case - pull the cover through the pad itself. You're left with...
	...two naked cheek pads and two covers. If the helmet is still fairly new (or if you washed the cheek pads not long ago. If you did, why are you reading this?) you won't need to touch the pads themselves. If they're really bad, you can use a sanitiser spray on them to remove the worst of the crap and sweat, but the covers are really easy to clean.
	This is how you clean the covers. Use water on the hot side of warm, and mild hand soap. Don't use bar soap, washing up liquid or strong shampoos. Mild liquid soap or kid's shampoo will do the job. Just give them a good hand wash. Squirt a bit of soap onto them, and scrunch them up carefully in the water. Get a bit of froth going, and rinse them through with fresh water. When the water starts to run clear, you're done.
	Clear water means clean covers. Don't wring the covers, but gently scrunch them up to get rid of most of the water. You can leave these to dry naturally (probably the best way) or you can do what I did.
	I can't really recommend this, but it seems to work ok. Pop them in the dryer. Don't bake them for an hour, but just check on them every ten minutes or so. You'll obviously know when they're dry. If you use the helmet frequently, you can just put them straight back on and use them right away. If you don't intend on using it for a while, either sanitise the covers with a spray before fitting them, or just leave them out somewhere clean and aired to stop any mildew.
	And there you have it. I tumble dried my covers with no ill effects at all. The manufacturer probably doesn't recommend such treatment but these are fine. They may have fitted a little tighter, but that's all. And they smell lovely now. Just need a decent break in the snow and a few quid spent on the bike to get it roadworthy, and I'm laughing all the way to the Lakes...;)

It'd be nice if I could recommend all the best products to do this, but there are a load out there. I just used liquid hand soap to clean the covers. The pads themselves weren't mucky, so I didn't bother sanitising them. Just rummage round your local bike accessory shop, and you'll find stuff to do this.

Keep it clean, and keep it upright.