Bike helmets vary dramatically in price but they all do the same basic job – protecting your head.
You can pick one up in the middle aisle at Lidl or buy one endorsed by your favourite pro for ten times the price, and it would be reasonable to assume that paying more for a helmet will result in more protection.
However the cost isn’t actually indicative of the protection offered. Of course, all helmets must conform to the consumer standards where they are sold. Beyond this, it isn’t easy to independently ascertain any extra level of protection they might offer.
With this in mind, we’ve looked at the standards and technologies you should consider before your next purchase. But before we get into those, the big question…
For our tried and tested helmet recommendations, see our guide to the best road and gravel helmets.
Which bike helmet is the safest?
It’s not simple determining which helmet provides the best protection. Laboratory testing is generally beyond the means of most cycling magazines and websites, and there’s no consensus on what the appropriate testing protocol would even look like. As such, you should treat manufacturers’ claims with scepticism.
One source of real unbiased testing is Virginia Tech University’s dedicated helmet lab, which has been testing helmets for different sports and activities for over a decade.
Its protocol includes 24 separate impact tests and measures linear acceleration and rotational velocity for each impact, which are correlated to the risk of concussion.
As such, it’s much more rigorous than the current EU/UK or US consumer standards.
If you’re primarily concerned about safety, the Virginia Tech list of helmets is a great place to start. From here, you can filter them by any particular requirements regarding features or styling. The lab updates its list annually to reflect newly introduced helmets and those retired from the market or updated.
12 safest road and gravel bike helmets in 2023 as tested by Virginia Tech
A lower score denotes better protection.
- Giro Aries Spherical, £290, Score: 8.40
- Specialized Prevail 3, £275, Score: 8.64
- Sweet Protection Falconer Aero 2Vi MIPS, £270, Score: 9.12
- Giant Rev Comp MIPS, £80, Score: 9.13
- Lazer G1 MIPS, £210, Score: 9.23
- Trek Velocis MIPS, £230, Score:9.45
- Lazer Tonic MIPS, £65, Score: 9.85
- Lazer Century MIPS, £169, Score: 10.00
- Scott Centric Plus MIPS, £165, Score: 10.20
- Giant Rev Pro MIPS, £190, Score: 10.22
- Liv Rev Pro MIPS, £190, Score: 10.22
- Lazer Sphere MIPS, £125, Score: 10.32
Virginia Tech lists its results broken down by category, which is why the road helmet list misses some numbers and goes from #1 to #3, for example.
You can find the complete list of bike helmets tested by Virginia Tech here.
How does a bike helmet protect your head?
Most bike helmets consist of an EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam inner structure and a hard outer plastic shell. In the event of an impact, this combination can achieve three things.
First, the structure of the helmet can break apart. Doing so will dissipate energy from the impact and prevent it from being transferred to the rider’s head.
The EPS foam may also be compressed, which has the effect of slowing the velocity of the impact. Essentially, as the foam compresses it spreads the impact over a longer timeframe and also a larger area. As a result, less impact force is transferred to the rider’s head. Finally, the helmet can prevent direct contact between the head and the impacting object.
How are bike helmets tested?
While third parties like Virginia Tech test comprehensively as discussed above, it is legally mandated standards that determine whether a helmet can go on sale. These involve testing protocols that vary depending on where you are in the world.
In the EU and UK, the tests are set out according to the EN 1078 standard, which mandates that the helmet must be able to absorb a certain amount of any impact before it can be certified.
Central to meeting this standard is the guided freefall of a weighted helmet onto two test anvils, a test designed to replicate a flat surface and one that replicates a kerbstone.
The helmet will also be subject to a roll-off test, which determines its ability to remain in place during an impact, while the strength of the retention system will also be validated.
Of course helmet manufacturers will have their own testing protocols that may seek to simulate a greater variety of crash scenarios, and these will inform their different approaches to safety.
As long as you buy a genuine helmet (beware: counterfeits do exist) from a mainstream retailer, you can be confident it meets the minimum standard, but the standards alone won’t tell you which helmet is safest or best meets your needs.
What are the different bicycle helmet safety standards?
Helmets in the UK and EU must meet the EN 1078 safety standard. In the US, they have to adhere to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s CPSC 1203 standard.
Both of these standards specify the testing procedures and outcomes the helmet must meet, along with crucial features of its design, such as a minimum field of view, shock-absorbing qualities, and how its retention system works.
The EN standards and the CPSC standard are generally equivalent, despite the CPSC standard subjecting helmets to slightly greater impact forces during testing.
Therefore, even though a helmet that complies with the EN standard but not the CPSC standard might be made lighter and with a lower profile, most manufacturers build to the higher standard so that they can offer a single product in both European and US markets. Many other countries choose to replicate either the US or EU standards.
In the UK and the EU, standard e-bikes limited to 15mph (25kmh) are treated as conventional bicycles for legal purposes. So, as on traditional bikes, wearing a helmet is not mandatory. If you do choose to wear a helmet, however, it should meet the above standards.
There is a specific standard created in the Netherlands that’s designed to protect against higher impact speeds and covers a larger part of the head. Popular with e-MTB riders and those seeking more coverage, the NTA 8776 certification gives you an indication that the helmet will provide more protection.
In the Netherlands, this style of helmet is also acceptable for riders of speed pedelecs. These electric bicycles have higher-powered motors and can achieve speeds of up to 28mph (45kmh). Elsewhere in the world, riders of these bikes may be required to wear a helmet that complies with the relevant motorbike standards.
Bike helmet safety tech compared: Mips vs WaveCel vs Spin vs KinetiCore vs Kask WG11
In recent years there has been a sustained focus on reducing the risk of concussive injuries in all kinds of sports.
However, these kinds of injuries are not well addressed by the linear drop tests employed by current helmet safety standards.
As a response, several technologies have emerged that promise to lessen the twisting forces that glancing impacts apply to the brain. However, given the difficulty of testing helmets, it is a challenge to confirm the claims made by their manufacturers independently.
Mips
Photo: Matthew Loveridge
The Swedish-designed Mips (Multi-directional Impact Protection System) is probably the most well-known anti-concussion technology. It’s designed to create a low-friction layer between the helmet and the wearer’s head.
This permits some mobility in the event of an oblique hit, lessening the twisting forces to which the head is subjected. This should prevent the “jelly-bowl effect”, where the brain rotates within the skull following an impact.
There are several versions of Mips on the market but they all work on the same principle. Some Mips helmets have a full inner plastic shell anchored by flexible ties to the foam body of the helmet, while others such as the system pictured in the upper image above are more minimalist.
According to Mips, the tech adds between 25g and 45g to a helmet and each Mips system is designed specifically for the helmet to which it’s fitted. As such, it should do little to interfere with ventilation.
Once available only in premium helmets, Mips is now commonplace even in inexpensive helmets and typically only costs slightly more than a non-Mips counterpart.
Bontrager WaveCel
WaveCel is available only on helmets from Trek’s Bontrager brand. Like Mips, it allows a degree of rotational movement between the helmet and your head at the moment of impact.
Bontrager describes it as like a crumple zone for your head. In the event of an impact, it is designed to do three things.
The first is to flex to absorb some of the initial impact. This is a quality sometimes lacking in EPS-only helmets, which exhibit little ability to absorb more minor impacts.
Next, the material crumples to absorb more of the impact if necessary. Finally, if the impact has come from an oblique angle, the material creates a shear plane to reduce the transmission of rotational forces.
Covering the entire inside of the helmet without interruption, WaveCel is flexible and could potentially improve the helmet’s fit. It is claimed to add around 50g to the weight of the helmet.
POC Spin
One of the original companies to employ Mips, Swedish helmet maker POC went on to create its own anti-concussion technology. Spin (Shearing Pad INside) aims to achieve much the same goal, although it goes about this in a slightly different manner.
Instead of a multi-piece liner, Spin uses strategically placed pads filled with medical-grade silicone.
In the event of an impact, these can move in any direction to avoid transferring rotational force to the head. The system also has the benefit of doing nothing to impede the flow of air through the helmet.
The construction of the pads may help improve fit and comfort. The pads also have the advantage of adding as little as 10g per helmet.
However, Mips sued POC in 2017, alleging patent infringement. As part of the settlement, POC agreed to phase out Spin technology, although at the moment you can still buy POC helmets with Spin padding.
Lazer KinetiCore
Lazer Sport’s KinetiCore technology is unusual in attempting to build more protection into a standard EPS construction. To do this, it actually takes away material, creating internal blocks Lazer calls ‘controlled crumple zones’.
These have been designed to deform and break under impact and absorb the energy that otherwise would reach the wearer’s brain.
As material is taken away, KinetiCore can in principle be exploited to reduce weight and improve airflow. Now used across the firm’s full range of helmets, several Lazer helmets have been awarded five stars by the Virginia Tech lab, whose testing protocol examines a helmet’s ability to prevent concussion-type injuries.
Kask WG11
Kask’s WG11 is a testing protocol rather than a design feature, but it’s used as a selling point in much the same manner as Mips and other rivals, hence its inclusion here.
Kask doesn’t use Mips, but tests its helmets for the effect of rotational impacts using a headform dropped onto an anvil, with wireless sensors inside the headform measuring linear and angular acceleration.
Kask designs its helmets such that they don’t exceed predefined threshold values in testing, based on an assessment of the likelihood of brain injury.
Kask says that the headform used in its WG11 test more accurately represents the coefficient of friction of the human head than that used by Mips, and so better reflects real world impacts. There’s some dispute about this, a debate we’ve covered in detail in our behind the scenes look at Kask WG11.
Got your head around helmets? Why not learn about the science of aerodynamics?