THE RIDEPRODUCT TEST
Get proper protection for less than £200 with these latest-specification helmets. But which is best?
AS WE HAVE seen in the past, it is possible to get a reasonable crash helmet, which is comfortable and safe, for less than £100. But we also know that you can easily pay closer to £1000 than £500 if you want to. All do the same job — protecting your head in an impact — but the extra money buys lower weight and more features. However, we can’t all afford to spend what could be bike money on a crash helmet. So if you have a limited budget, what is available?
Well, to start with, these helmets from six of the major manufacturers on the market. All are approved to the new-for-2024 ECE22.06 standard and all are for sale from less than £200. It may well be plain examples that start at that price, with other colour schemes breaking that barrier – but you can get any of these helmets for less than a slightly-posh meal out for six people. The prices of these helmets are actually across a reasonable spread, starting at just £134.99 and it is encouraging to see how much protection you can get for that money. You might normally expect features like drop-down sun visors, anti-fog-insert-ready visors and communications preparation to be missing but you’d be wrong. Many boast a list of features that belie their prices.
Because these helmets are the latest generation, none have been tested by SHARP yet, so there are no star ratings.
However, what you can’t tell from the specs is what they are like to wear or how much noise they generate at speed. So it’s out with the microphone and off towards the roads to see…
YOUR TESTER
Has tested numerous helmets in his time on RiDE and has only discovered one brand that his head shape simply does not work with. That brand is not included here.
