If you need to stick to a lower price bracket, then it’s worth visiting our page dedicated to the best budget bike helmets, for low priced head protection, which still ranks high in safety features. If you’re commuting, one of the best commuter bike helmets might be a good option. The aluminum structure of the whole body is lighter in weight, which makes it suitable for the first mountain bike. A total of 21 gears, whether climbing or road driving, is enough to use. In low gears, you can ride leisurely and watch the scenery along the way. At the entry-level, the Delta is an aluminium frame and carbon fork road bike with endurance geometry that comes with rim brakes and provides a comfortable ride.
You are going to be wearing the helmet a lot, potentially for over five hours at a time, so it’s imperative that the fit suits your head, no matter what a review says. It is also advisable to try on a variety of makes and models to see which is most comfortable and the best road bike helmet for you, as they are often different shapes internally. You may find pressure points on a helmet even if it’s technically the right size for you. Safety is obviously of paramount importance too, and we’ve tested many helmets that feature additional protection, most notably Multi-directional Impact Protection System or MIPS for short. Typically the MIPS used is an additional layer that sits between the EPS foam and helmet liner and is designed to help reduce the effect of rotational impacts.
Over this time frame, it’s also likely that it will be exposed to a lot of UV rays, which can weaken the plastic shell of a helmet too, compromising its safety. If you suffer the misfortune of falling off your bike and taking a head impact, the chances are that the damage to your helmet will be visually obvious, leaving no question about the need to replace it. It should be possible to loosen the retention system on a helmet to allow for a thermal skull cap or cycling cap to be worn underneath. This is done for added warmth, and the bill of a cycling cap can be useful for deflecting rain from the eyes.
The Croix de Fer comes in three steel options (10, 20 and 30) as well as a titanium model. Moving into the racier end of the spectrum, the Zero and Zero Disc are full-carbon road bikes with aggressive geometry. As the price increases, so does the level of tech, with Di2 included in the top-end model.
We found it was a very comfortable lid, which provided a close fit with Met’s ‘Safe-T Orbital’ fit system with retention dial. It also had sufficient ventilation thanks to its three small vents on the front and further two ‘exhaust’ holes at the rear – included to channel air out the back. It has a clever magnetic visor system, but bear in mind the visor is quite long and therefore may take some time to get used to. Brands are constantly competing to create the best bike helmets.
They’re meant to be best compatible with POC own brand sunnies, but we teamed the helmet with a whole host of brands and found them to hold tight to every single pair. The helmet looks rather good too, keeping quite a low profile and not being too bulbous. It was also very comfortable and the genesis bicycles new retention system is a massive improvement on Lazer’s previous design – although still not as easy to use as a regular dial. However, this new system does promise to be ponytail friendly. The glasses port, sadly, is not particularly good as it is too wide to accommodate most sunglasses.
That being said, it’s better to stick to trails with less gravel; you should switch out the tires if you plan on tackling trails with really gravelly surfaces. And while this bike is rugged, we wouldn’t want to perform more advanced riding, like slickrocking. The Rakan might be the most efficient pedaling trail bike on the market, with 120mm of MLink Design suspension, modern geometry and 29-inch wheels make it the obvious choice if you’re looking for a do-it-all mountain bike. They have two functions – to reduce the weight of the helmet, and also to add ventilation.
Kask designed the Sintesi to be a single, mid-priced helmet that worked as well for recreational road cyclists, commuters and gravel riders. Aero helmets will be wind tunnel tested, and will often provide a watt-saving figure as to how much energy can be retained thanks to the improved aerodynamics of the helmet. If you are wondering if you even need an aero lid, our page on Can an aero road helmet make you faster? The fork travel is 80mm, also made of aluminum, solid and reliable.
On test we called it a game-changer of a road bike helmet due to its unrivalled all-around performance. Here at Cycling Weekly we get to test lots of different helmets across lots of different categories, but if we had to pick just one, this would be our absolute favourite road bike helmet. Giro’s aero bike helmet uses its MIPS Spherical tech to integrate rotational impact protection into the helmet shell. Lower down the page we have detailed all you need to know when making your purchase, including how to ensure you are getting the perfect road bike helmet in terms of fit, form, and comfort.
We found the fitting system to be really effective and comfortable with a good amount of adjustability. Perhaps due to the extra protection, the Bell XR isn’t the lightest in class – a medium has a claimed weight of 285g while our large test helmet tipped that scales at 317g. Bell’s XR helmet is aimed at cyclists who like to ride both on and off-road and require a helmet to cover both terrains. At 280 grams, the S-Works Prevail 3 is light but certainly not lightest in class. But for those who ride often in hot climates the supreme ventilation is likely to make it worthy of consideration. For Rapha’s part, the design is understated, a white version with thin grey lines, or a black/grey/navy version with thin white lines.