I'd suggest a quick call or email to the manufacturer as to how long it will last and how to inspect it for damage.
I'd like to think that my steering would be reliable for more than 12 months.
I am a rock climber and some of the soft goods last 20 years if you keep them out of the sun when stored.
So unless you can find damage, I would imagine you have many years life left in it.
But I will defer to the manufacturers suggestions.
Please tell us when they respond, as I for one am certainly interested in what they say.
Follow the path of the independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that are important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.--- Thomas J. Watson