The Best Bike Helmets for Protecting Your Noggin

When it comes to kids’ helmets, the technology is a bit more traditional. What makes the Thousand Jr. more modern than many of the kids’ helmets that have come before is that it’s been designed with kids in mind. First off, it’s super light, giving your kids all-day comfort. But perhaps most importantly, the Thousand Jr. has a pinch-free magnetic fastener.

“No pinch! No pinch! No pinch!” was my 4-year-old daughter’s refrain for her first two years wearing a bike helmet. And then we got our hands on a Thousand Jr., which she can easily operate herself. While Thousand is hardly the only helmet brand to feature a magnetic clip, it might be the only brand to come with a full sheet of stickers so that your kids might design their own helmets.

Even on an adult’s head, Thousand makes helmets that look like kids’ helmets. They’re playful and cheeky, a far cry from so much of the sleek, aero, lightweight, modern, design-focused helmets we see everywhere else today.

Of all the helmets on this list, the Closca Loop looks the most futuristic, like something out of Spike Jonze’s set-in-the-not-too-distant-future dystopian romantasy Her. It features a design that is elegant yet understated and one that certainly doesn’t give the appearance of something that can do so much more than protect your head. That is, of course, when it’s unfolded and therefore wearable. With a bit of pressure on the top of the Loop, the helmet collapses down into itself (think one of those old-school camping mugs that collapsed down to the size of a hockey puck), becoming barely larger than a laptop.

Lately, I’ve been wearing the Loop on my short commute up to a university where I teach. It sits comfortable on my head, is lightweight enough to avoid neck fatigue, and slims down enough that I can slide it in my laptop bag while class is in session. It also has a cool-looking reflective strip across the length of the back of the helmet. My only knock on the Closca Loop is that there is no fit system (that is, no dial on the back to loosen or tighten the helmet around your skull), making its fit a bit less precise than dial-fit helmets. It’s an omission that surely has to do with the fact that you’re wearing a helmet that can fold into a backpack. Still, anytime I’m wearing my Loop, I find myself reaching for a dial that doesn’t exist.

I recently wrote a full-length review of the Sena S1, which you can check out here. The S1 features more tech in a single helmet than all of the others combined. First and foremost, the S1 is an aero-style road cycling helmet, not unlike something you’d see in the Tour de France peloton. However, looking a bit deeper, you’ll see that the S1 can double as a rider-to-rider radio via its Mesh intercom system, and triple as both an entertainment system, turn-by-turn direction unit, and even training coach, courtesy of a pair of small speakers mounted above the ears.

In other words, whatever you can load onto either your phone or your cycling computer—be it training programs, music, or route directions—you can send to an S1 via Bluetooth connectivity. And the best part is that the helmet’s speakers sit above the user’s ears, allowing them to hear the world around them, which is essential for rider safety.

Besides wearing a helmet, one of the safest things you can do while riding a bike is to sport lights. The Giro Escape does some of that legwork for you, as it’s outfitted with USB-rechargeable front and rear lights. This charged me up, as I am a devout light guy. In fact, if you see me on any of my bikes, you might confuse me for one of the runways at LaGuardia International Airport. So, the one-button push to click the lights on and select between steady and flashing was a treat for me.

The Escape is also super comfy and, like the Thousand, unassuming in design. The only downside to the Escape is that megabrand Giro hasn’t quite caught up with the USB-C movement, sticking with an older-school micro-USB port (charging cable included) to charge the helmet’s lights.

What happens if you’re riding deep in the wilderness and suffer a crash serious enough to render you unable to call for help? What if you get lost out there and your phone dies?

Well, if you’re wearing a Recco-equipped POC helmet, you are helping first responders locate you, even if you are incapacitated. The Stockhom-based POC brand has been working with Recco for years now, integrating its rescue reflectors into ski helmets as early as 2007. Now you can buy a number of Recco-outfitted POC bike helmets, such as the Kortal or Tectal models.

And as Recco’s rescue reflectors are passive transponders, they require no power or activation, meaning you don’t ever need to plug a Recco helmet in or worry about whether you’ve turned your unit on before a ride.

While crash sensors are starting to become more and more common in helmets of all stripes, they’re still not the norm. On its surface, the Smith Forefront 2 looks like your average mountain biking helmet, with a stiff visor, tons of ventilation, and plenty of coverage down the back of the head. Underneath all of that, you’ll find an amazing Aleck Crash Detection Sensor, which, when paired with the Aleck app, sends alerts in the event of crash. It’s the kind of peace of mind that’s well worth the Forefront’s $150 price tag, especially in the more crash-prone world of mountain biking.

It took about five minutes of app downloading and device pairing, after which I was able to send an invite to my wife, allowing her to “connect” to my helmet and be notified in the event of a crash.

Like the Persist, the Forefront marries a MIPS system with Koroyd coverage, giving you an added layer of protection. You might think that wearing a helmet with a built-in crash detector feels different. Bulky, perhaps. But the engineers and designers at Smith somehow figured out how to make the Forefront feel like any other mountain bike helmet. With a reported weight of 14 ounces, it’s one of the lightest and easiest-on-the-neck MTB helmets out there. During my ride on a relatively mild spring day, my head stayed cool, my neck unbothered, and my eyes shielded from the sun, allowing me to fully enjoy the trail system near my home.

Talk to any serious road cyclist and you’ll no doubt hear the term “aero.” (Aero is life, according to roadies.) However, one downside of aero helmets is the fact that they shun ventilation in favor of a smooth surface for wind to travel over with ease. Kask makes some of the best helmets in this style that are both aerodynamic and cool (both in temperature and style). All of that comes together on the Italian brand’s Utopia Y helmet, which features tons of well-placed vents across its otherwise smooth surface.

I tested it on a three-hour, 60-mile ride during a sun-drenched and super muggy mid-spring day. The helmet’s retention system made the Utopia Y easily one of the most comfortable helmets I’ve ever worn. At just 260 grams, my neck never felt fatigued. While the Utopia can never be as cool (temperature-wise) as a fully vented helmet, the panoply of air-capturing vents kept my head well short of overheating.

The only issues I had were the fact that the helmet didn’t include any sort of sweat channeling, which led to a few drips in my eyes. The aforementioned retention system also needed readjusting when I took the helmet out on a second, shorter spin later in the week.

Road cycling and spending lots of money tend to go hand-in-hand, which is why it’s refreshing to see a low-sticker road helmet from a brand with as much renown and recognition as Smith. I tested the Persist on the same route as the Utopia, on a similarly sticky day. With more than 20 vents spread across the helmet, my head remained cool and dry throughout the ride. And at just 300 grams, it felt like there was nothing at all sitting on my head.

The Persist also features a combination of MIPS and the energy-absorbing KOROYD system, which gave an added sense of security during the ride. The one issue I encountered with the Persist was that it was a little tough to dial the straps in for a perfect fit. Still, it only took about five minutes of trial and error before I had the helmet snug on my skull and the straps tight to my cheeks.

Much like the Persist, the Giro Aeries Spherical takes the MIPS system a bit further, combining it with the brand’s new Spherical technology, which is a ball-and-socket design system that redirects energy away from the brain during certain impacts. Basically, think of the helmet as two attached pieces, where the upper dome it able to lightly rotate over the lower part—the part that’s attached to your head—giving you another level of protection.

It also boasts Giro’s new proprietary DryCore system, which redirects sweat away from the forehead (and therefore out of your eyes), toward your temples, where it evaporates more quickly.

Over the same route I tested the other road helmets, I marveled at the Aeries’ barely-there light weight. Weighing in at 275 grams, it felt like I was riding sans helmet. Thanks to the helmet’s massive and numerous vents paired with Giro’s DryCore system, my head never came close to overheating on another hot, sunny, humid day. Like the Kask, the sticker price might be way too high for many. However, if helmets are something you don’t mind dropping coin on, the Aeries is worth every single penny.

According to megabrand Specialized, their Propero 4 combines their most aero road helmets with their most ventilated ones. Now, I don’t have access to a wind tunnel, so I can’t confirm Specialized’s claims that the Propero 4 is 15 seconds faster over 40 kilometers than one of its predecessors, the S-Works Prevail 3.

But I can say that the Propero 4 provided an easy and comfortable fit, with a simple adjustment system that allowed me to find a great fit in a matter of seconds. It also boasts, in addition to three massive front vents, two smaller vents that are dedicated for sunglasses storage. In other words, an exacting place to stick the arms of your riding shades when the sun dips behind the clouds.

And, as looking cool is paramount, I’m happy to report that the test model I tried came in a super interesting blend of matte and gloss white that was only noticeable when viewed up close, which is always a factor in racking up cool points.

100% make some of the best-looking products year after year, and its Altis off-road helmet is no different. The Altis boasts plenty of coverage while being super lightweight and full of head-cooling ventilation. It also features 100%’s aforementioned Smartshock Rotational Protective System, which functions exactly the same as the more popular MIPS.

Sometimes, mountain bike helmets can suffer from an issue of bulk. The Altis, however, not only looked sleek and tight, it also felt light on my head. Despite a tricky issue getting the cheek straps positioned properly under my ears, the chinstrap was a cinch, allowing the helmet to fit snug to my jaw and cheekbones. (As with commuter helmets, snug-fitting straps are not something often found in mountain bike helmets.) All of that combined to give the Altis more of a lightweight road-bike helmet feel, as opposed to the more typical heft of a mountain bike helmet. The helmet’s all-over vents also kept my head cool during a recent two-hour trail ride that saw the temperature ticking into the mid-80s.