Your helmet traps sweat, oil and bacteria against your skin for hours. FreshLid deep cleans, sanitises and dries it in about eight minutes. No water, no mess, no taking it apart.
Hours of sweat, breath and heat soak straight into the foam. It never fully dries, and almost nobody cleans the part that sits against their face.
Dirtier than a public toilet seatIn one study, used motorcycle helmets carried more bacteria than public toilets. Source: Nigatu et al., East African Medical Journal, 2014. PubMed 26859015
Body heat and sweat, sealed against bare skin for the whole ride. Perfect conditions for bacteria.
The liner soaks up sweat and oil deep down, then never properly dries out between rides.
Water wrecks the safety foam, so most lids never get cleaned, and it all just builds up.
In 2020, scientists swabbed 130 motorcycle helmets. Here is what was living on them, and what it does to your skin and hair.
Gets into hair follicles and tiny grazes and causes folliculitis: itchy, pus topped pimples on your scalp, forehead and cheeks, and sometimes painful boils.
Loves a warm, damp, covered ear. The classic cause of otomycosis, a fungal ear infection: deep itching, blocked hearing and weepy discharge.
A gut bug that should never be on your face. Its presence is a hygiene red flag, and it can cause skin and eye irritation and infection.
Thrives in damp padding. Causes "hot tub rash" folliculitis and is a leading cause of itchy, painful outer ear infections.
The trapped heat, oil and bacteria are exactly what cause helmet acne along your chin and forehead, an itchy, flaky scalp, and that sour, cheesy smell that comes straight back. Sweat itself barely smells. The stink is bacteria feeding on it.
Source: Sapkota et al., International Journal of Microbiology, 2020 (130 helmets). PubMed 33488730
The bacteria live deep in the foam. The way it was always done, a wipe or a quick wash, only ever touches the surface.
Soap and spin tear apart glued safety foam, and the smell comes straight back anyway.
Hand washing only reaches the surface, and mostly just moves the bacteria around.
Dries it out for a day and kills almost nothing. The damp, and the stink, return.
Can't sink into the deep foam, and leaves chemicals sitting against your skin.
That sharp, clean air is ozone, made the instant lightning splits the sky. FreshLid makes the very same gas, sealed safely inside the machine.
One of the most powerful cleaners on earth.
Ozone is oxygen carrying a third atom it is desperate to give away. That makes it stronger and faster than chlorine. When it meets a germ, that spare atom rips into the cell wall and oxidises it until the cell bursts open. The same attack shreds a virus's coat and breaks apart the molecules behind bad smells, at the source.
The spare oxygen atom slams into the bacteria's outer wall and oxidises the fats and proteins holding it together.
The wall is punched full of holes, the cell spills open and dies. It is physically destroyed, so it can't build resistance.
Job done, the ozone reverts to ordinary oxygen. No spray, no residue, nothing left sitting on your helmet.
That one extra atom is the whole trick. It is unstable, reactive, and gone in minutes.
Ozone isn't new or experimental. Industries have cleaned with it for over a hundred years. Tap or hover any photo to see where you've already met it.
Hundreds of city water plants bubble ozone through your drinking water for clean taste, some since the 1940s.
That clean taste and long shelf life? A puff of ozone sanitises the water and bottle right before the cap goes on.
Your bagged salad was likely washed with ozone, not chlorine. The FDA cleared it for food back in 2001.
Ever wonder how a detailer got the cigarette smoke or vomit smell out of a used car? An ozone machine, run with the doors shut.
The same gas is used to sanitise ambulances and clinical spaces between uses. Serious settings, serious results.
That smoke free room and those crisp sheets? Hotels shock rooms with ozone and wash linen with it in cold water.
Drop your helmet in, tap to pay, grab a coffee. Eight minutes later it's clean, dry and ready to wear.
FreshLid doesn't rely on one trick. Tap a stage to see what's happening inside, or play the whole cycle.
Tap your card, load your helmet, and the door seals itself shut. Locked until the cycle is safely done.
The fear you read online is that cleaners wreck helmets. The truth: the ones makers warn against are petrol, solvents and harsh chemicals. FreshLid uses none of them.
The chamber is sealed for the whole cycle. The ozone stays inside, and breaks back into oxygen before the door opens.
Nothing is soaked, scrubbed or taken apart. The exact things helmet makers warn against are the things we don't do.
A short, controlled cycle, designed to clean the liner without harsh exposure to your visor seals or Bluetooth unit.
The antibacterial fog is lab tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Legionella, Candida, even H1N1 and Covid.
FreshLid is built on patented helmet cleaning technology. As with any cleaning, follow your helmet maker's care guide for the visor.
Full face, open face, modular and most adventure lids all fit. If you can wear it, it fits in the chamber.
No. Nothing comes apart. Drop the whole helmet in, tap to pay, and collect it clean and dry.
Whenever it starts to smell, or every week or two if you ride most days.
Yes. The cycle is dry and gentle, with no soaking. For the visor, just follow your helmet maker's care guide.
$20 a wash. Tap your card, use Apple Pay or Google Pay, or pay with cash.
The first machines are rolling out now. Drop your details just below and we will tell you the moment one lands near you.
The first FreshLid machines are rolling out to shops, cafés and venues riders love. Leave your details and we will tell you the moment one lands near you.
Put a FreshLid in your space. We handle everything, you earn from every wash.
