TRAIL HELMETS
We test 15 extended-coverage lids to ind out which ones have nailed the perfect balance of it, protection and comfort
Gone are the days when wearing a helmet was contentious in the mountain bike world. When was the last time you saw someone out on the trails without a lid? No longer does protecting your head mean perching a lump of flimsy polystyrene on top of your scalp. We’ve entered into a new age, where helmets are commanding premium prices and, in return, riders are demanding the highest quality fit, safety standards and features.
For this test, we’ve spent the past few months pedalling up hill and down dale in a range of open-face trail helmets that balance high levels of protection with all-day comfort. We’ve picked out the key traits of each lid to best inform your purchase and backed that up with ontrail feedback. Helmet fit is subjective, as it’s dependent on your head shape, so it’s important you try before you buy. But when a test helmet has an unusual fit, we’ve tried to provide an indication of what kind of head shape it might suit.
Testing the features, coverage and fit of these lids is a fairly clear cut process, but investigating their safety credentials is not, since we don’t have a helmet test rig and aren’t willing to repeatedly torpedo ourselves head-first into the ground (sorry not sorry!). All the lids on test meet the European EN 1078 certification standard, although maybe it’s about time we were given better information about the relative safety of cycle helmets, as with the SHARP motorcycle helmet safety scheme or NCAP car ratings.
Recent safety-focused additions to the market include new impact protection materials, such as Koroyd (Smith) and combinations of EPS and EPP foam (Troy Lee Designs), and brainprotecting technologies such as MIPS and Leatt’s 360 Turbines. It’s hard to argue against these developments being a positive progression towards improved helmet safety, but without publicly available testing data, it’s not clear what makes one lid or technology safer than another. For example, under test conditions a helmet with MIPS is said to reduce rotational forces transferred to the brain during an impact compared to an identical lid without MIPS, but we don’t know how different MIPS helmet models compare to each other.
And with 12 of our test helmets costing £100 or significantly more, they don’t come cheap. But then again, you can’t really put a price on your head.