I’ve been writing about cycling gear for more than a decade. I’m also a frequent crasher. I managed to avoid being hit by a car as a bike commuter during my five years in Philadelphia. Yet when I moved to Vermont in 2011 and started racing bikes, I began logging crashes regularly.

Sometimes it’s unavoidable; if someone riding in front of you goes down, chances are good that you’re going down, too. But I’m also guilty of riding a bit beyond my skill level, particularly when I’m mountain biking on rougher terrain. (For example: I crashed six times while testing helmets for this guide.) I’ve damaged—and replaced—a lot of helmets over the years.

This is a guide for commuters—people who bike for utility and transportation, rather than for sports, such as mountain biking or road racing. Still, though someone who rides four blocks to school is as much of a bike commuter as the rider who logs 20-plus miles getting to work, their needs may be different.

We’ve included picks for those riding upright-style bikes (such as a basic hybrid or a folding bike or even one you’d rent from a city bike-share program). We’ve also included helmets for those on road or gravel bikes; these riders tend to bike in a more aerodynamic position, bent low over their drop handlebars. And we have an upgrade pick that’s light and well ventilated enough to use on epic weekend adventures.

Aesthetics and style are important, up to a point. You’re more likely to wear a helmet you like, for example, but the primary reason for any rider to wear a helmet is safety. So for this version of the guide, we leaned heavily on the ratings produced by the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, which tests for peak linear acceleration and rotational velocity in helmets. Those two things are important because both are directly linked to concussion risk.

Other testing labs do exist (many helmet companies have in-house labs, for example). But Virginia Tech is an independent third-party testing facility, with 10 years of experience in ferreting out the factors that contribute to head injuries. And it then builds sport-specific impact-testing rigs to replicate those scenarios. Virginia Tech is also the only testing facility that compares and ranks helmets, making it easier for people to perform apples-to-apples comparisons when shopping for a new helmet.

We also looked at helmet reviews published on various websites, including Bicycling, GearLab, and Bike Exchange, in order to get a sense of what other reviewers liked in terms of ventilation and fit. We consulted Helmets.org, the website of the Bicycle Safety Helmet Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group of volunteers who serve on ASTM International, a global standards development organization. ASTM, along with the Snell Foundation (another nonprofit devoted to preventing head injuries), created the standards for crash-test procedures that the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) uses today.

After all of that research, we came up with the criteria that each helmet we tested must meet:

• A five-star rating from Virginia Tech: In the US, every helmet that’s sold must pass the CPSC’s crash tests. But they measure whether a helmet can resist a direct blow and whether the harness keeps the helmet on your head. Those are important things, for sure. However, the testing at the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab also attempts to evaluate a helmet’s ability to protect your head from concussions. Virginia Tech rates helmets from one star to five stars¹. While the technical documents behind the rating system go deep into things like linear and rotational kinematics, all you really need to know is that wearing a five-star helmet reduces risk of concussion by at least 70%, compared with not wearing a helmet. A one-star helmet reduces risk by 40%. (Of the 217 helmets that Virginia Tech tested in 2023, 128 were rated five stars.)
• A rating of 12.08 or below from Virginia Tech: VT engineers multiply concussion risk by the likelihood of a cyclist experiencing a similar impact. (A lower score is better.) Using the Virginia Tech ratings scale, we capped our testing at 12.08 or below, which is associated with a 75% reduction in the risk of concussion. That still left us with a whopping 75 helmets eligible for testing.
• Mips or other anti-rotational technology: While experts are still divided on whether Mips technology ² (or something similar) helps reduce the risk of concussions, seeing that 73 of the top-rated 75 helmets tested by Virginia Tech had some such technology was enough to convince us that it helps.
• A crash-replacement program: Bike helmets are single-crash-only items. If you hit your head once, you should retire the helmet. Some companies offer a discount to encourage you to replace a helmet that might have been damaged in a crash. For this version of the guide, we took a hard line: If a company didn’t offer a significant crash-replacement policy, we wouldn’t test its helmets. Discounts range from 20% off to a completely free new helmet, and there can be a number of hoops you have to jump through to claim them.
• Good (or good enough) ventilation: If you typically travel at slow speeds and/or live somewhere cool (or damp), the popular WWII-style urban helmets may work for you. Still, we preferred helmets that weighed less and had plenty of air circulation.
• An adjustable fit: According to both the CPSC and Snell, a helmet must fit properly to work properly. Most helmets now incorporate an adjustable retention system, which ratchets the helmet onto your head more firmly than the old elastic systems did—a helmet that flies off upon impact will do you no good. We tested only helmets available in multiple sizes, and we preferred those with adjustable (versus fixed) chin straps.
• A reasonable price: A safe, highly rated bike helmet that meets all of the above criteria can cost as little as $55. The most expensive helmet we tested was $300 (it was full of features that differentiated it from cheaper models, as well as being the top-rated helmet by Virginia Tech). We think the sweet spot is around $100, although a robust crash-replacement policy may help you justify spending a little extra.
• A not-too-extreme look: You’re more likely to wear a helmet that you like. “Your typical bike commuter doesn’t want to look like Lance Armstrong,” said Kip Roberts, owner of Onion River Outdoors in Montpelier, Vermont. “Commuters are looking for something that looks less racy and more urban.” We kept this in mind while we were narrowing down our list, and we tried to include a variety of styles, color options, and shapes. While we tested only five-star helmets, any helmet is better than no helmet if it means you’ll wear it. So pick one that suits your typical style.

Short of installing a crash-testing rig in the basement (we decided to leave that to the pros), the next best way to test a bike helmet is to use it. Over the years, we’ve tested more than 30 helmets by examining ventilation, comfort, chin straps, extra features, retention systems, and how they look and fit. And, of course, we ride in them.

For this version of the guide, I logged more than 1,300 miles testing 11 helmets on roads, bike paths, mountain-bike trails, and in local cyclocross races. I paid special attention to how each helmet’s balance and venting systems varied across different types of bikes—from mountain bikes to road/gravel bikes with drop handlebars to an upright-style city commuter. And I rode in weather ranging from 45 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Met Downtown Mips helmet is our top pick for most commuters. This comfortable and versatile helmet is highly rated by Virginia Tech, and it comes in five colors.

It scored higher in Virginia Tech’s tests than many pricier helmets. The Downtown Mips helmet was one of only three helmets under $80 to place in Virginia Tech’s top 25 helmets. (The average price of the other helmets is $180.) Of the three helmets priced under $80, I tested—and liked—the $65 Giant Rev Comp Mips, but it’s soon to be discontinued. I also tested the $55 Specialized Align II, a former budget pick that’s still a good helmet for the price. But I thought the Downtown Mips helmet’s slimmer profile, adjustable chin straps, and better crash-replacement policy outperformed the Align II’s features enough to justify paying more.

The fully adjustable straps let you fine-tune its fit. Like all of the helmets I tested, the Downtown helmet has an adjustable buckle, under the chin, that lets you tighten or loosen the chin strap. And it has a ratcheting retention system (that is, the harness that circles your head) to keep the helmet snug. On this helmet, though, you can also adjust how the chin straps fit around your ear. (Fixed straps always seem to leave me looking like a sentry at Buckingham Palace!)

Just like the straps on our upgrade pick, these straps are smooth, lightweight, and routed through a simple V-shaped sliding buckle. You can’t quite adjust the sliders while riding, unless you’re comfortable taking both hands off of your handlebars, which is not always wise. But the system works well, and it eliminates fiddly extra hardware. Plus, the sliders allow me to tweak the fit depending on my riding position. When swapping between drop-bar and flat-bar bikes, I nearly always needed to adjust the slider so the straps lie flat across my cheek.

A light weight + a removable visor + lots of vents = greater comfort. Weighing 302 grams, the Downtown Mips helmet is one of the lightest ones I tested—bested only by our much-pricier upgrade pick (260 grams) and our less-versatile runner-up pick (301 grams). When you remove the visor, the Downtown helmet weighs only 282 grams, which is helpful if you tend to ride down in your drop bars (then the full weight of your helmet will be supported by your extended neck).

However, if your bike has flat handlebars and a more-relaxed geometry, weight matters less—the helmet is centered over your more-upright body. Likewise, a visor may catch the wind and impede your vision while you’re beetling along on a drop-bar road bike. But it can really help keep the sun (or rain) out of your face on a flat-bar bike. I tested two other helmets with removable visors that were $10 cheaper than the Downtown, but this helmet had a higher safety rating and was more comfortable.

The Met Downtown Mips has 17 vents, which provided enough airflow no matter where or in what position I was riding. The removable (and washable) pads attached to the plastic Mips liner managed to prevent my hair from getting caught in the liner (a common complaint).

It works as well on the trail (or beach) as it does on the road. We hadn’t included versatility on our list of criteria. But the Met Downtown Mips helmet turned out to be an excellent choice for most bikes and most adventures. With its visor in place, this helmet kept the sun out of my eyes on a beach-cruiser ride in South Carolina. Back home in Vermont, I popped the visor off, and I was ready to shred at my local cyclocross race series.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• If you crash while wearing this helmet (like I did—twice), know that Met offers a 50% crash-replacement discount for the first two years after purchase. That isn’t quite as good as our runner-up pick’s, but half off should be enough to spur most riders to replace a compromised helmet.
• The Met Downtown Mips helmet comes in two sizes, small/medium and medium/large. That’s better than one-size-fits-all, but it’s not as good as what’s offered by our other picks (which come in as many as five sizes).
• This was the only road helmet I tested that didn’t have enough space between its ratchet dial and the back of the helmet to comfortably pull a ponytail through. That meant I had to ride with sweaty hair on my neck.
• The Mips slip-plane liner, which is the Mips company’s most popular system, is also its clunkiest—basically a thin plastic shield attached to the inside of the helmet. The anti-rotational systems of our runner-up and upgrade picks are more seamlessly integrated.

With its aerodynamic shape, the Trek Starvos WaveCel Cycling Helmet looks sleek and downright racy. It’s also comfortable, but it lacks the versatility to easily transition between a drop-bar road (or gravel) bike and a flat-bar bike. It comes in four colors.

This helmet’s protective features make it less versatile than our top pick. WaveCel is Trek’s (proprietary) take on anti-rotational technology. Unlike the slip-plane system used by Mips, WaveCel is a wave-shaped cellular co-polymer insert that’s designed to flex, crumple, and shear upon impact, to help absorb and slow rotational forces.

And it tests well—seven helmets with WaveCel, including the Starvos I tested (number 51), made it into the Virginia Tech top 75. But the angle at which the liner is suspended in the helmet differs whether it’s a road, mountain bike, or commuter helmet. The Starvos is a road helmet. And when I was tucked low over my handlebars on my road bike, a cool breeze whooshed straight through the cells. But as soon as I swapped over to my around-town commuter bike—a flat-bar cruiser with a comfortable, upright riding position—the air stopped traveling through the helmet and instead rushed over and around it, deflected by the angle of the cells, leaving my head sweaty. That makes the Starvos helmet less versatile than our top pick, which performed equally well on bike paths and cyclocross courses.

If you mostly ride bikes with drop handlebars, however, the Starvos helmet is very comfortable. In a more-aerodynamic riding position, air passes freely through all parts of the helmet. Because there’s no plastic slip-plane liner to work around, designers could attach the one-piece removable helmet pads directly to the WaveCel insert; this helped mitigate sweat dripping into my eyes, even when I was slogging up a steep trail on a muggy summer misadventure. The helmet also had room above the ratcheting dial for me to tuck a ponytail. At 301 grams, this helmet is the second-lightest one I tested, bested only by our upgrade pick, at 260 grams.

It’s likely to fit most people. The Starvos helmet comes in five sizes—more than any of our other picks—as well as a version designed for people with rounder heads (that one comes in only two sizes). Plus, the Starvos helmet’s chin strap is fully adjustable (like our top pick’s chin strap), and I could also adjust it one-handed while riding.

Trek has one of the most generous crash-replacement policies we’ve seen. If you crash within the first year after purchase, your replacement helmet is free. And that’s important, since bike helmets need to be replaced any time you think you’ve hit your head. Unlike multi-impact helmets (like skateboard helmets), bike helmets are designed to “crush, crumble, and break upon impact,” according to Barry Miller, director of outreach and business development at the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab.

“We want the helmet to absorb energy and move independently of your head even for a single millisecond, because that can lower peak acceleration numbers,” Miller said. “If we can better attenuate and slow down rapid head movement, we can reduce concussion risk.”

But the helmet costs more and scores lower than our top pick. The Starvos helmet is more expensive than the Met Downtown helmet, and it didn’t score as well in Virginia Tech’s testing.

If you subscribe to the belief that the best helmet to buy is the one you forget you’re wearing, the Giro Aries Spherical is our recommendation. It comes in eight colors, all of which include a triangle of reflective safety tape on the helmet’s back.

It costs a lot. At $300, the Aries Spherical is the most expensive helmet we tested. Given the price, we wish Giro offered a more-generous crash-replacement policy. (You get 30% off a new helmet, with a limit of one replacement per year.)

But this helmet is Virginia Tech’s top-rated model. It carries an 82.3% reduction of concussion risk and a score of 8.4. (It tested so well, in fact, that VT’s Barry Miller and his team have plans to rescale the thresholds they use for assigning concussion risk.)

Curiously, neither Miller nor the Snell Foundation’s Hong Zhang nor Marcus Seyffarth (head of implementation at the Mips headquarters in Stockholm) could tell me which features will make a helmet test well, at least not just from looking at it. The thickness and density of the EPS foam may have an impact, they theorize. And a hard outer shell that slides—rather than halts—forward motion upon impact can also help. Or, as Zhang notes: “We can guess at the things you can’t see. But only the dummy [headform] can really tell us what’s inside.”

The Aries’ anti-rotation system was the slickest and most well integrated one I tested. Instead of a visible slip-plane layer that sits between the pads and the EPS foam of the helmet—like on our top pick—the Aries’ ball-and-socket design uses the entire helmet, with an outer foam layer suspended over an inner foam layer. Animated by a near-invisible Mips elastomer, the dual-density foam layers glide smoothly over each other, like a hip joint in its socket. And I couldn’t resist twisting the helmet between my hands every time I pulled it off its peg in the garage, simply because it’s neat to see and feel the system move.

It’s the most comfortable helmet I tested. The Spherical design (a collaboration between Giro and Mips) eliminates the plastic layer used in the Mips system found in most of the other helmets I tested. This gives Giro designers the freedom to cut wind channels into the part of the foam that goes against your scalp, and they can pad the helmet without needing to work within the parameters of a slip-plane liner.

The Aries is the first helmet in Giro’s Spherical line to debut a new sweat-management system, with a silicone bead in the front of the headband that supposedly redirects sweat from the forehead to the temples. Although it’s hard to quantify that claim, I never had sweat drip into my eyes while wearing the Aries. (The generously sized central vent sitting squarely over my forehead likely also played a role in sweat management.)

At just 240 grams—the lightest helmet in the test—it doesn’t weigh you down or feel clunky. Testing the Aries is perhaps best summed up by my friend Rachel, who gave it a test run on a hot, 45-mile gravel ride we did together. Her verdict: “It feels like wearing nothing. ” For a helmet, this is high praise.

It’s easy to adjust and versatile. This helmet comes in three sizes (there’s no version for people with round heads, though). It includes a simple, lightweight harness adjuster—which uses the same V-shaped slider as our top pick—and it has the slimmest, least-cumbersome chin buckle of those I tested. Plus, its harness accommodates a ponytail better than any of our other picks.

Shorter-distance commuters may find some of the Aries helmet’s features to be overkill. But this model performs equally well on drop-bar and flat-bar bikes, so it’s a good, albeit expensive, choice if you’re swapping among different styles of bikes.

Of all the helmets in this test, the Specialized Mode helmet was the one that snuck up on me. It’s modeled after those popular half-dome, WWII-style helmets you see everywhere in cities, and it’s clearly aimed at riders who prefer a less-sporty style. But it performs much, much better than other helmets of its type. It comes in five earth-tone colors.

The Mode is surprisingly comfortable, with great ventilation. At 397 grams, it’s the heaviest helmet I tried, and it doesn’t appear to have any visible venting system. But flip the Mode over, and you can see that it’s a double-layer shell with eight vents sandwiched between the shell and the liner. Its ventilation system seems inspired by ram-air intake-cooling systems, similar to those on ’60s hotrods (which use the dynamic air pressure created by forward motion to increase the static air pressure inside the engine, creating more airflow and increasing engine power). So the Mode should keep your noggin cool as you cruise down the road.

On my upright-style kid cruiser, air whooshed through the vents at a pleasantly high volume, keeping me cool even when I was toting my 1-year-old up and down hills. And when I was caught in a surprise shower, the Mode’s smooth, uninterrupted outer shell kept my hair dry (even if the same couldn’t be said of my back or legs). This helmet comes in three sizes, each of them in two head shapes: classic and round fit.

It scored surprisingly well in safety tests. When we tested the Mode, it was sixth in the Virginia Tech helmet ratings, making it the top urban-style helmet on the list; the next-highest (the Lazer Anverz NTA Mips, which isn’t available in the US) was at number 43. Although popular, most urban helmets tend to score very, very low on Virginia Tech’s tests—perhaps due to foam density, Miller surmised.

It’s designed for only one style of riding. The Mode feels predictably heavy and hot on a drop-bar bike, which requires a riding position that renders the helmet’s clever venting system nearly useless. As happens with our runner-up helmet, when you’re tucked low over drop handlebars, the air generated by pedaling zooms over the helmet without moving through the vents. The Mode also has fixed harness straps—though at least they’re fixed in a generally agreeable spot for riding a city cruiser or hybrid bike. (The under-chin buckle does let you shorten or lengthen the chin strap.)

The crash-replacement policy isn’t as robust as we’d like. Specialized gives you 35% off  a new helmet in the first three years, 25% off in the fourth year, and 20% off in the fifth.

The Sweet Protection Trailblazer Mips helmet is a top-rated mountain-bike helmet that comes in lots of cool colors (10 at the time of publication). It has a carefree vibe—suggesting that after you’re done picking up groceries, you’ll be heading to the trailhead to shred some singletrack on your mountain bike. Who can tell?

The Trailblazer helmet also tested well. Outfitted with the standard Mips slip-plane layer, this helmet scored fifth in Virginia Tech’s tests, just ahead of our other also-great pick, the Specialized Mode. Above-average protection is a priority if (like me) you’re someone who hits the dirt regularly. I racked up four crashes while wearing this helmet.

Even if you’re not a mountain biker, and you don’t have a history of crashing, a mountain-bike-style helmet may be something to consider, since they tend to protect the back of your head better than most road-style helmets. Though we didn’t test full-face helmets (like those worn by BMX riders and professional downhill mountain-bike racers), we did take into consideration the protection offered by helmets that extend farther down the back of the skull. Four out of the top 10 helmets rated by Virginia Tech are mountain-bike helmets. And, it’s worth noting, four are made by Sweet Protection, including the Trailblazer helmet I tested.

But road-bike or gravel-bike riders may prefer one of our other picks. Although better head coverage is a good reason to shop for a mountain-bike helmet, its design can have some drawbacks. Mountain-bike helmets tend to be heavier than road-bike lids (this one weighs 374 grams). And most include a visor that may not detach; this one doesn’t. The lack of a visor is no biggie, and it may be an advantage if you ride a flat-bar bike, or you want something you can take to the trails on weekends. Also, the harness straps on the Trailblazer are fixed in a position that’s conducive to mountain biking but less compatible with road or gravel biking. (The chin strap itself can be lengthened or shortened, though.) Like the Specialized Mode, this helmet comes in three sizes—but only one head shape.

The crash-protection discount isn’t as high as those of our top and runner-up picks, but it runs for longer. You get 40% off for the first three years you own the helmet.

If you can’t find our top or runner-up picks: The Bontrager Solstice Mips Bike Helmet was a pick in two previous versions of this guide. And we still like its low price, generous ventilation, easy-adjust chin straps, detachable visor, and five-star rating from Virginia Tech. Trek is currently rebranding its helmets (Bontrager had been the name of Trek’s accessories line). In the process, the new Trek Solstice Mips Bike Helmet (now $70) got a few beneficial tweaks, including a more-comfortable fit, larger vents, a more-seamless visor integration, and slimmer, sleeker chinstraps. Unfortunately, it also dropped 14 spots in the Virginia Tech ratings, to number 75. (The rounder “Asia-fit” version performed better, at number 71.) But the Trek version is still within the safety parameters we set for this guide, and Trek maintains Bontrager’s excellent crash-replacement policy, with free replacement within the first year.

The Bern Major Bike Helmet is a popular commuter-type model that comes in a ton of great colors. We thought the built-in internal visor was cumbersome, and we found this helmet to be less balanced than the Specialized Mode or Thousand Chapter Mips helmet (below).

Compared with our top pick, the Specialized Align II felt bulky and far less versatile. It also has fixed chin straps, which billowed out dangerously far behind my ears during testing; this looked funny and also compromised the safety of the helmet.

The non-Mips version of the Specialized Echelon II was our top pick in the previous edition of this guide. And while we can’t say which type of anti-rotational technology is the best, the Virginia Tech ratings strongly indicate that some type of that technology makes a difference in how helmets perform. For example, the (now-discontinued) non-Mips Echelon has a score of 25.20, ranks number 215, and earned only two stars from Virginia Tech. The Mips version scored 12.21, ranks number 81, and earned five stars. At 12.21, it just missed our cutoff of 12.08, so we didn’t test it this time around.

Like the Echelon II, the Mips version of the hugely popular Thousand Chapter helmet scored far better than its non-Mips alternative—12.91 vs. 24.93. Still, 12.91 didn’t reach our threshold for testing.

We tested the Giant Rev Comp Mips, but then we discovered that it was going to be discontinued.

This article was edited by Christine Ryan.