How to determine Giro helmet age?

Question

I have a Giro Savant helmet and I was wondering if it's due for replacement based on age. I thought helmets usually had a clear "year of manufacture" type sticker or something but I can't find one on this helmet.

This picture shows all the stickers on the inside of the helmet:

The lower right sticker has the serial number, Y1814650. I thought the 18 might indicate it was manufactured in 2018.

But I subsequently found an email where I mentioned this helmet to a friend right after buying it, and that was 2016! So at least based on age, it's well due for replacement.

This does leave me wondering though, is there some way to determine Giro helmet age aside from happening to have mentioned its purchase by email.

Note, there is one sticker on the inside of this helmet which is completely blank. I assume it had text at some point which has been sweat-scrubbed off. So maybe that was a year of manufacturing sticker. I also do not see any text embossed or etched in the foam itself.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I have one Giro helmet that, by personal comparison, may confirm your assumption that the sticker without any remaining readable text is the clue that you are missing.

My helmet is an aero helmet and gets very little use, so the stickers are still readable. It has both warning stickers (one in English, one in French), the sticker with the serial number (no correlation to the year of manufacture), and two other stickers. One of these two remaining is shaped and sized very similar to the blank sticker you have in your helmet. In my helmet it is clear, with three lines of black text on a white background:

Selector	G284
460g	M/L
55-61cm .	Dec'12

• The first line is the model name and model number.
• The second line is the helmet weight and the rough sizing (medium/large).
• The third line is the head circumference fit range (in cm) and the date of manufacture.

I did look at the interior foam to see if there was an impression there for the date of manufacture (in lieu of the date on the sticker), but did not see any. I did see the model number (G284) impressed in the foam in one spot. I would think that a casting/molding date would be prudent to leave for quality control purposes, but none to be found.