Cleaning The Outside of Your Helmet

[dhcolesj]

Ok, I've seen threads about cleaning the inside, with or without a removable liner. 
My question is what do you use, and / or how do you clean the outside?  The shiny part?

I'm curious because I don't want to get water on the inside, and I have a very well vented HJC FS-10 when it comes to letting water in .
There are all kinds of things out there, so I just thought I'd ask.

[txbanditrydr]

I pretty much use the same thing on my helmet that I use on the bike.... a micro-fiber cloth and GlassPlus multi-purpose cleaner.  GlassPlus has no ammonia and is safe on all plastic and painted surfaces + the micro-fiber cloth really gets those nasty dried-on bug guts off.  Try it.. you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Sven]

Hey, how are things up in Dickson?

The outside is really easy, since it's painted plastic. Unless you have a custom paint job, that you'd treat with the care you would a car or bike's paint job, just use good ol' window cleaner.  I like the ones without dye, like Armour-All or new Clorox Green Works (which uses all bio-based ingredients).  Paper towel or cotton cloth on the helmet, but no paper towels on the visor, since they can create tiny scratches over time.  (But, ya know, they do sell replacement visors!  I recommend getting an orange or yellow one for daytime riding.)

The harder part is the road grime and bugs that will eventually get lodged in the vents.  The good thing is that when bugs dry up, there's not much left.  So Q-tips and canned air will clean those out.

The inside, if you can remove, can be hand-washed in the sink with anything from Tide to shampoo.  But if you wear a Slicks or do-rag, it wil stay much cleaner anyway.

I really appreciate the opportunity to answer a non-technical question!  Come Sunday, I'll be speeding past your neck of the woods on my way to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.  Sorry I won't have the chance to stop by and meet you in person, but hope to do so soon.

OH, both my helmets are Sho-eh-ee. I love my Syncrotec (I've had two of those, someone stole my first one), and am tempted to drop it so I can upgrade to the new Multitec (just like Alton Brown wears!).    

[dhcolesj]

Sven, Have fun on the trip  ! 

I have some spray on stuff for the shield that works real well (Plexus Plastic Cleaner), even helped with some minor scratches in my Glasses. 

All I have from Amour-All is the stuff for your dash, but I've been told not to use that on the shield as it messes up the plastic. 

Anyway, I know about the paper towels on Plastic.  The Windshields for Chinooks used to be two pieces of heavy Plexiglass with a very thin layer of gold in between for defrosting.  Noobs would come in and handily clean the shields with Paper towels only to have two pilots crawling down there back for a lengthy and loud conversation about scratches and vision.

I may try the Plexus stuff on the whole helmet and see how it comes out. I've got about 4 (now clean) microfiber cloths I can use.  I may dedicate some to shield cleaning, and some to helmet cleaning.

[Vidrazor]

>>I'm curious because I don't want to get water on the inside..<<

Why? It won't harm it in any way. You should've seen when I had to wash the inside of my Shoei RF-1000 (which has a non-removable liner, between that and it's mega-fog visor, I'll never buy another Shoei product again). I had to get in the SHOWER with the damn thing and shampoo the crap out of it. Must've been in there for a half hour! Let it drain for ten minutes and then aimed a fan at it for 24 hours.

You're getting off light with the HJC...

[Dink_1170]

I use a wet lightly wrung out old towel. When you get of the bike you rinse the towel, wring it out and lay it over the helmet, the water in the towel soaks into the bugs and softens them. Then wipe it off with the wet towel; BTW also works extremely well on fairng screens etc.

Dink

[LowRyter]

cotton diaper and plexus, or plexus knock off

[dhcolesj]

>>I'm curious because I don't want to get water on the inside..<<

Why? It won't harm it in any way. ..    

Because I may not want to wait for the darn thing to dry, and I don't want to get the chemical (whatever that is) inside the helmet.  Water, plain that is, I'm not worried about so much, but when you're rinsing off the thing lots of chemical and dirt carrying water gets inside, and then you have to clean the inside.    Sometimes I just want a quick clean of the outside, and wondered what other folks were using. 

And yes, I explicitly limited my helmet research to those with removable liners.  I read threads similar to your experience.

LowRyter:
Funny you mention the Diaper, 'cause I wasn't going to say anything about that.  I have 3 or 4 of them around the house for glass, and glasses cleaning purposes. However, in some circles you might get and at for that.

[LowRyter]

>>I'm curious because I don't want to get water on the inside..<<

Why? It won't harm it in any way. ..    

Because I may not want to wait for the darn thing to dry, and I don't want to get the chemical (whatever that is) inside the helmet.  Water, plain that is, I'm not worried about so much, but when you're rinsing off the thing lots of chemical and dirt carrying water gets inside, and then you have to clean the inside.    Sometimes I just want a quick clean of the outside, and wondered what other folks were using. 

And yes, I explicitly limited my helmet research to those with removable liners.  I read threads similar to your experience.

LowRyter:
Funny you mention the Diaper, 'cause I wasn't going to say anything about that.  I have 3 or 4 of them around the house for glass, and glasses cleaning purposes. However, in some circles you might get and at for that.

I used to use chamois.  I discovered cloth diapers after my first born, 22 years ago.