Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab has released its latest round of cycling helmet safety assessments, rating 228 helmets in 2024 – a number that’s grown from 86 in 2019.
Virginia Tech’s tests are carried out with funding support from the US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and are more comprehensive than the standard tests that all helmets must pass before they are put on sale.
As well as straight-on impacts, Virginia Tech's tests include assessment of oblique impacts, as well as points of impact on the side of the helmet.
Virginia Tech assigns a score to each helmet based on its tests, with a lower score being better. It also gives each helmet a star rating out of five.
The full list of the 228 helmets tested is here and can be filtered by the style of helmet and whether helmets are certified for use in other sports such as snow sports or skateboarding, as well as for cycling.
Ten safest mountain bike helmets as rated by Virginia Tech
- Specialized Tactic 4 MIPS
- Sweet Protection Trailblazer MIPS
- Fox Dropframe Pro (2020 version and 2023 update)
- Sweet Protection Bushwhacker 2VI MIPS
- Bontrager Rally MIPS
- Fox Crossframe Pro
- Specialized Ambush 2
- Bluegrass Rogue Core MIPS
- Troy Lee Designs A2 MIPS Decoy
- 6D ATB-2T
Read our pick of the best mountain bike helmets we’ve reviewed.
Ten safest road cycling helmets as rated by Virginia Tech
- Giro Aries Spherical
- Sweet Protection Falconer 2VI MIPS
- Specialized Prevail 3
- Sweet Protection Falconer Aero 2VI MIPS
- Giant Rev Comp MIPS
- Lazer G1 (Genesis) MIPS
- Trek Velocis MIPS
- Lazer Tonic MIPS
- Lazer Century MIPS
- Lazer Z1 KinetiCore
Read our pick of the best road bike helmets and our favourites.
Ten safest urban helmets as rated by Virginia Tech
One change since we looked at the ratings in 2021 is the inclusion of an increasing number of urban helmets designed for ebike riders or which have passed the additional, tougher Dutch NTA-8776 ebike helmet standard.
Electric bikes are a popular option for commuters, but their average speeds are higher than pedal-only cycles and they usually weigh more. Both lead to greater impact energy in a crash, so the NTA-8776 standard mandates more rigorous testing than the standard safety tests.
- Specialized Mode
- Lazer Anverz NTA MIPS
- Abus Pedelec 2.0 MIPS
- Bern Major MIPS
- Sweet Protection Promuter MIPS
- Airnoggin Head Trauma Protection System
- Lazer Cruizer MIPS
- Bern Union MIPS
- Thousand Chapter MIPS
- Bern Hudson
Read our pick of the best commuter bike helmets for more.
MIPS helmets still dominate the rankings, but there are alternatives
The majority of cycling helmets across all disciplines now include additional features to protect the head, over the standard expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam shell.
Helmets that use one of the variants of the MIPS sliding plane protection system dominate the top of the rankings, although this may reflect the fact that the majority of cycling helmets now include MIPS.
MIPS is designed to help dissipate energy in oblique impacts so that less of the impact force is transferred to the rider. Many bike crashes involve oblique impacts to the head and Virginia Tech’s testing suggests that extra protection from this type of crash is an important feature.
There are more alternatives to MIPS than a few years ago though. Lazer's KinetiCore system, as used in the Lazer Z1 KinetiCore, includes crumple zones in the EPS shell and foregoes MIPS. The 6D ATB-2T MTB helmet also has its own ODS impact protection system.
Meanwhile, the Airnoggin urban helmet is inflatable, allowing you to fold it down when not in use, but is still five star rated by Virginia Tech.
Some helmet makers, such as Kask, largely forego MIPS, preferring to test their helmets to the WG11 rotational impact test standard. Kask claims that the headform used in the WG11 test better reflects what happens in real-life crashes than the standard headforms used in most testing.
The majority of tested helmets rank highly
Another take-away is just how many of the tested helmets are highly ranked by Virginia Tech. Its methodology includes a formula to assign a star rating, so it’s not just an arbitrary number.
Of the 228 helmets tested, 137 were rated five stars – that’s 60 per cent. A further 55 – or 24 per cent – were rated four stars.
This means that, overall, 84 per cent of the helmets tested achieved Virginia Tech’s recommended level of five- or four-star protection.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a helmet that will protect you well either. Virginia Tech quotes a price of just $65 for the fifth-rated road helmet, the Giant Rev Comp MIPS, and there are highly-ranked MTB and urban helmets that cost less than $100 too.
How does Virginia Tech test its helmets?
Virginia Tech’s testing uses a standardised methodology which it developed in 2018 and has used in all its testing since then.
The Virginia Tech test attaches the helmet to a headform on a drop tower, which is the standard tool used to safety test bike helmets.
It drops the helmet down a slider and lands it on a steel anvil. Virginia Tech covers this with coarse sandpaper, which it says helps to better simulate real-life road conditions.
Tests are carried out at two different impact speeds and in six different positions on the helmet, including on the rim.
The method tests oblique impacts as well as those taken head-on. Each test is repeated twice, for a total of 24 tests on each helmet.
Accelerometers are positioned inside the headform on which the helmet is mounted to measure the linear and rotational forces acting on impact.
A formula is then used to convert this data into an overall score and a star rating, with a lower score being better.
Virginia Tech says that its testing is more complete than standard tests, which do not include impacts on the rim, although this is often where contact will occur in a crash.
You can read Virginia Tech’s full description of its methodology here.
