Thursday 14 May 2009

What do you do with old helmets?

Like many of you out there, I have accumulated quite a few old motorcycle helmets over the years. Some were damaged and some were just replaced because of age. They were all just taking up space in my garage as I didn’t want to toss them in the landfill and then wait for a million years or however long it takes for fibreglass to break down.
So I started looking for ways to re-use old helmets. Hopefully you can use some of these ideas – I know I will.
1. Planters. Here I thought I had a novel idea, but this seems to be quite a popular use for an old helmet. Fill it full of dirt and plants and watch them grow.
Helmet planter
2. Re-line it (and presumably continue to use it). This guy provides step-by-step instructions on how to renew your old helmet when the lining wears out.  I don’t think that’s highly recommended by the safety gurus, but if you don’t really care and only wear a helmet because you are forced to by law, then I guess this solution is as good as any.
3. A bucket. Or in the case of this guy, a helmet.
Nigerian helmets
4. Paint fantastical images on them and place them on stakes to ward off evil. Or on fence posts and call it “art”.
5. Turn it into a  computer, like this guy did.
Helmet computer
6. Donate it to your local fire station to use for training purposes.
7: Turn it into a hands-free loudspeaker for that next protest rally. Note, this design also uses that other essential motorcycling product – duct tape.
Helmet loudspeaker
8. Bird houses. A full-face helmet could make a pretty interesting bird house I think. A bit of wood for the base and the face opening, and voila – a mini Hilton for your feathered friends.
helmet nest
9. Wear it in the kitchen when trying out that new recipe, kindly provided by your ex-wife.Helmet safety
10. Give it to your local hoodlum (or alleged cop, in this case) to use as a disguise when robbing a bank.
helmet robbery
11. Replace those tacky black velvet Elvis paintings presently gracing your living room wall with this tasteful display commemorating your passion for motorcycling.
helmets on wall 
12. Protect that sharp point on your 60’s-style sissy bar with it.
13. Give it to the kids to play with. And if there’s anything that will prevent you from ever using it again it’s all the peanut butter, orange juice, cookie crumbs, drool, etc. that will be ingrained in the lining within about 15 minutes.
helmet kid
14. Save it for inclement weather. Note the clever use of the sheepskin seat covers as well.
helmet blizzard
15. Seal up the visor, put a light in the back and turn it into an aquarium for your bichir fish (pronounced “biker”).
biker fish
16. Give it to your teen to wear while taking driver’s ed courses.
helmet car
17. And last, but not least, give it to Fido so he’s legal.
helmet dog

9 comments:

  1. Excellent post and wisdom...yes a few of the suggestions would work quite well... I have my old helmets boxed up and marked for my Grand Children to one day see what their Grand Dad wore thinking he was cool while all along he was just an old fart trying to do what had to be done.

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  2. Baron - You've got to get them out of the boxes and do something with them. If you hang on to them for the grand kids they'll just feel obligated to keep them ("We can't throw them out, they were granddad's - the old fool!") and a whole generation (actually two generations) of potentially amazing art will be missed.

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  3. i badly need an old 60s or 70s mc full face helmet in at least fair to good shape... i've been riding for over 45 years and am now where i have to wear a bucket but all the new stuff is so tall that it kills my neck (part of my VA disablity) -bad enough to have to finally buy one but i gotta get an old close to the shull job..octoberblue@juno.com

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  4. You created a great post with excellent information regarding Motorcycle Helmets, i learnt a lot of stuff from this article.

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  5. loved it, hahaha... bird house....

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  6. I think I'm going to convert a few old helmets into the bird houses. I've got the picket fence to do it on too!

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