Best Bicycles Helmets in India
Contents
Bicycle helmets are usually classified depending upon their usage. You have road cycling helmets, commuter helmets, trail/mountain bike helmets, BMX helmets, kids/toddler helmets, time trial/triathlon helmets. We will read more about type of Bicycle Helmet .
Now let us delve into some of the best bicycle helmets in India.
Best Cycles Helmets In India
B’Twin Rockrider ST 50 mountain bike helmet
An ideal helmet to keep your head cool and With 15 vent holes and an adjustable chin strap, his helmet can help bring in new blood into the sport of mountain biking. With Decathlon’s two year warranty, this helmet is one of the cheapest and best mountain bike helmets in the market today. Weighing merely 280 grams, this helmet with its foam pads is extremely comfortable on the head, so much so that most users forget that they even have a helmet on their heads after a while of having worn it.
Strauss cycling helmet
For the extremely budget conscious amongst you, here is an option that will put you at ease. The Strauss helmet is one of the if not the most frugally priced helmet in the market right now. While the number of vents is certainly lower compared to the other options mentioned in this list, this helmet more than makes up for this with the price and availability. Eighteen vents seem more than enough to keep most of you out there cool enough on your rides. The outer shell is a mix of EPS(Expanded Poly Styrene) and PC(Poly Carbonate) and the inside has a soft foam which enhances comfort.
Strauss markets this helmet as being compatible with both road and mountain bicycles and has made this helmet in child, youth and adult sizes. In order to customize the fit, Strauss have provided and adjustable fit system for the helmet and a quick release buckle with a soft chin pad. Helmet also has a peak to help ease glare from sunlight. This helmet is available in two colorways namely red-black and white-blue.
Cockatoo road cycling helmet
Another option for the super budget conscious amongst you is the Cockatoo road cycling helmet. With a PVC (Poly Vinyl Carbonate) outer shell and an EPS layer under it for maximum impact protection, this helmet will keep your head safe without breaking the bank. A peak helps keep the sunlight out of your face and an adjustable chin strap helps keep the helmet firmly in place. Available in ten colors, this helmet will certainly keep your heads cool during the ride with 21 vents.
Zakpro Smart road/urban cycling helmet
The gadget freaks and gizmo wizards among you will love this helmet. This is a helmet with integrated turn signals and tail light, all controlled by a wireless remote. Made of a dense EPS (Expanded Poly Styrene) foam encased in a thin layer of plastic that is placed in the mould before polystyrene beads are added to create the helmet shell. Helmet has an adjustable head lock for a precise fit. With 33 vent holes, air flow is definitely not this helmet’s Achilles heel. With an IP65 rated electronics package and remote and nine hours of battery life, even the most hardcore riders among you will not run out of juice through your rides. Ideal for urban riders and commuters as their visibility to car users is enhanced. This is an age old problem that bicycle and motorcycle riders have been grappling with. Zakpro have taken a step in the right direction.
ProRider BMX Helmet
For the stunters among you, this is the helmet. With a hard outer shell and ample vent holes for air circulation, this helmet will keep you cool and comfortable throughout your ride/routine. This helmet is available in three colors namely black, red and blue and is available in both adult and kids sizes. While being ideal for BMX riding, this helmet is ideal for skateboarders, roller skaters and inline skaters as well.
Bell Sanction Full Face helmet
The dirt shredders and safety conscious among you will demand only the most protective helmet, which is a full face helmet. The Bell Sanction delivers without breaking the bank. Made from ABS with an adjustable visor, this is just the helmet I would recommend any aspiring mountain biker to go for. 15 vents all over the helmet allow for optimal ventilation (although not as much a trail or xc helmet).
Hero Sprint helmet
For those of you that are looking for a frugally priced helmet for your kids, this is the right option. With 13 vents, this helmet is sure to keep your kid’s head cool no matter what racket they create. With a hard outer mould and an EPS layer under it for better shock absorption, this helmet is one of the safest bicycle helmets for your child’s head. Helmet also has an adjustable fit system and hence has a very exact fit for your child. Pictured above in pink, this helmet is also available in blue. This is one of the cheapest and best bicycle helmets for kids in India.
For those of you that are willing to spend more on your child’s helmets, here are a few options with links to their Amazon pages:
Type of Bicycle Helmets
Road cycling helmets
As the name suggests, these helmets are for those of you that predominantly cycle on roads and other paved surfaces. Most commonly found road cycling helmets have many vents and are usually longer front to back. Pictured on the Right, is a Giro Savant road cycling helmet.
As most of you might have noticed, this helmet has many vents as road cyclists tend to sweat more and need all the air they can get to circulate through the helmet. Notice the lack of protection for the back of the head (more on that later, probably in the mountain bike/trail helmets section). The more the number of vents, the greater the price of the helmet as manufacturers have to spend more resources on research and development in order to provide these vents while conforming to mandatory safety standards.
Of late, road cyclists, especially those in road racing have been demanding for a more aerodynamic helmet that would be able to provide them with more stability at higher speeds. Some manufacturers answered this call and brought something called the Aero road helmet.
Pictured above is a Scott Cadence Plus, an aero road helmet. Notice the lack of vents and a rounder more aerodynamic shape. Some road helmets also come with sunglasses integrated into the helmet. As most road cyclists wear some form of independent eye protection, these helmets are not as popular as the ones without.
Pictured above is Bell New Star Pro Aero road helmet with built in sunglasses, an example of a road cycling helmet with integrated sunglasses.
Road cycling helmets also include commuter helmets. Because not every person on a bicycle is a competitive rider or doing it for the thrill of it. Commuter cycling helmets generally have fewer vents are rounder in shape and have greater overall head coverage.
The above helmet is a Bell Annex. Notice the peak? That is to reduce glare from sunlight on sunny days. Also, the back of the head has more coverage compared to the other types of road cycling helmets. Another feature of this type of helmet is that it is far more discreet in appearance compared to other more ‘racy’ road cycling helmets.
Trail/mountain bike helmets
For those of you that want to answer the call of adventure on a mountain bike, this is the helmet. Trail/mountain bike helmets are not as vented as road cycling helmets and for a very good reason. Trail/mountain bikes are usually ridden on very rough and uneven terrain with rocks, roots, pebbles, gravel, twigs, tree branches, thorns and steep descents. Hence, the chances of something going through the helmet’s vent and injuring the rider on falling are high. Also, trail/mountain bike helmets have peaks in order to mitigate glare from sunlight.
One of the types of trail/mountain bike helmets is the XC helmet. XC is a mountain biking discipline that focuses more on speed than conquering gnarly terrain. Hence, these helmets resemble road cycling helmets and have partial coverage for the back of the head.
This is a Bell Event XC helmet with the aforementioned partial coverage of the back of the head and a peak. And with speed being a greater priority, better venting is also incorporated.
The next trail/mountain bike helmet type is the trail helmet. These helmets are ultimate in coverage and can take quite a beating and provide better protection from sunlight and also feature complete coverage of the back of the head.
This is a POC Tectal Race trail helmet. Notice how well covered the back of the head is.
The ultimate in trail/mountain biking is the enduro/downhill discipline. As the terrain and speeds involved put the rider at a serious risk, nothing short of a full face helmet will suffice. Cyclists that participate in this discipline wear full face helmets (sometimes with a detachable chinbar) and use motocross goggles for eye protection.
Pictured above is a 6D AB-1 downhill mountain bike helmet. This rendition is made of a proprietary blend of aerospace carbon fibre, composite fibreglass and kevlar. This is the most absolute amount of coverage a helmet can provide a downhill mountain biker.
BMX helmets
These helmets are predominantly designed for the stunters amongst you cyclists. Minimal venting and maximum coverage and protection is the theme here as you will see in the next image.
A Bell Full Flex BMX helmet. This is what you would call a three fourth open face BMX helmet.
Kids/Children’s helmets
Designed specifically for the young budding cyclists among you, these helmets are a step towards reinforcing the importance of personal protection while cycling. Insisting that your child wear a helmet whenever he/she gets on a bicycle will give him/her the right idea about personal protection while on a bicycle.
A myriad of helmets in an absolute riot of colors is available for kids today. I will show you a few examples of this now:
She can’t seem to contain her joy, how cute.
Time trial/triathlon helmets
If any of you guys/gals are feeling like participating in an Ironman contest, this is the helmet for the job. TT, as Time Trial is called in short is a discipline wherein cyclists race against the clock and their only objective is to clock the least time. Designed more for aerodynamics than anything else, cyclists wearing these helmets look like aliens from some 1950s science fiction movies. With a rounded front and a very pointy rear end, these helmets are built for allout speed. The very profile is made in such a way that when you are in a tuck on your bicycle, the rear end is in line with your body .
Best Bicycle Helmet Review: Conclusion
RATING: ★★★★★
The information I have furnished above is just the tip of the iceberg that is ‘bicycle helmets’. There are way too many brands and variations to fit into one article. Bottom line here is, please wear a helmet while on a bicycle. Doesn’t matter whether you ride a road bike, a mountain bike, are a time trial athlete or merely commute. One survey conducted in the United States has come out with some alarming statistics. The survey found that around 90% of the injuries sustained by cyclists were to the head. Now this may not seem a cause for concern to some of you as the thought process will be like we hardly experience such speeds in India. It isn’t as much a question of speed as it is of traffic density and the bicycle to car ratio.
Infact, there are debates going on in other countries about the feasibility of wearing helmets, that is whether helmets are necessary for a cyclist in the first place. Almost every competitive cycling body has made helmets mandatory as they seem to have realized that the human head hitting the pavement/ground or an automobile’s body isn’t something to just ponder about, but something to be acted upon. Like all medicine should be, the mantra here is prevention is better than cure. Once injured in a crash, the trauma, pain, suffering (of both the victim and his/her family and friends) will be inevitable. Much of this can be avoided to a great extent by the use of helmets. So please, for the umpteenth time, use a helmet on any two wheeler, be it a bicycle or a motorcycle.