LAZER Tonic MIPS Cycling Helmet, Unisex, Tonic Mips

Product Information

The Trek Ballista isn't one of the helmets I put into the best road helmets buyers guide. Although it came out after I finished that article, I considered adding it later. For most people though, it likely doesn't make sense when considering an all-around helmet option. I'm a bit different though and maybe you are as well. Polycarbonate Roll-Cage - The helmet foam is sandwiched around an additional polycarbonate layer during construction. In the same way as the roll cage of a rally car, this layer keeps the foam together after a crash providing additional protection in the event of additional impacts.

A helmet that I did spend time with is the Bontrager Starvos. It's another WaveCel design and there's very little to complain about. In the end, the only reason it didn't make the list is because the Bontrager Circuit is very similar both in price and design while also adding the ability to mount lights when needed. If you like the idea of Circuit but don't think you'd ever use the magnetic light mounting then the Starvos is worth a look. Start by measuring your head with a fabric measuring tape. You want to place it across your brow and above your ears. If you don't have a soft measuring tape then use a piece of string then compare it to a standard measuring tape. I've even used a long USB cable in a pinch. If you want to dive deep, Virginia Tech goes into great detail covering the science behind the number. For the purposes of this guide though, the lower the number the better and right now the top-ranked helmet, out of 188 tested, has a score of 8.4. If you also see a star ranking, that is the same testing displayed in a different way. Any helmet with a score below 14.00 will have a five-star ranking. Do you need MIPS in a budget bike helmet? When you start your search for the best budget bike helmets you are going to want to start with safety first. That's the whole point of a helmet so it makes sense that you want something safe. Thankfully though, this is a pretty simple part of the buying process. When it comes to finding a comfortable budget bike helmet, it's all about fit. You could say the same about more expensive helmets as well but it becomes even more important as other features get stripped away. Different brands have different size ranges and some fit perfectly while others are a struggle.The POC Myelin is a helmet unlike any that's ever been on the market in the past. From a style standpoint, it's a commuter helmet and it's unique even if you don't go farther than that. The outer shell uses a fabric covering and there's no adjustment to the rear cradle. The look would pair well with something from Chrome or Mission Workshop but there's a lot more to it beyond what you can see. Outside of safety, you are going to want to look at comfort and style. Budget helmets will tend to give up some features such as lightweight or aerodynamics but you still want a helmet that feels good on your head. You also don't want to neglect style. It might seem silly at first but if you don't like the way your helmet looks, it won't see much use. How important is a Virginia Tech rating? Because some helmet manufacturers offer separate women's-specific helmets, and others do not, there can be confusion. You might be wondering why we don't have something listed for women. We covered whether women need women's-specific helmets in depth recently, but if you just want to get right to the point, the answer is no. The main takeaway was that most women tend to prefer unisex helmets and that there's nothing about a woman's head that would require a different helmet shape. All of the helmets in this list are unisex. How do we test the best budget bike helmets? Virginia Tech tests helmets from a wide variety of sports and has been doing so since 2011. No helmet brand is able to pay for better results and there is a standard testing protocol. If you do decide to keep an eye on the testing results of Virginia Tech, you'll need to understand what they mean.

This is the style section. It's something that people think doesn't matter but ends up being one of the questions I get asked about the most. Style matters and it's important to trust your intuition. The big difference between the two is that Smith adds Zonal Koroyd in addition to MIPS. Koroyd looks a bit like a handful of straws and the idea is that it actually replaces some of the foam to add rotational impact protection right into the helmet itself. There's another interesting effect of the Koroyd though. Thousand Helmets makes stylish city helmets that might be a good choice for any kind of casual riding. The latest Heritage 2.0 adds more ventilation and gets a better Virginia Tech score. It might have made the list but it's brand new. Bottom Shell - Polycarbonate bottomshell finishing looks great and helps protect the helmet foam from cosmetic damage. Although the internal recessed vent design adds a little additional bulk, this is more than offset by the wonderful cooling ventilation from maximized airflow. Even our testers who are more prone to sweating experienced a profound difference with the cool channels of air that also reduce wind roar. The Velocis is a little on the pricey end, but its exciting new design in ventilation proved its worth on long rides in the high-elevation heat of the Eastern Sierra. This is a product that reinvents ventilation and is bound to change road bike helmets for the better.The Lazer Sphere MIPS is a very comfortable helmet with a reassuringly solid feel to it. The safety features are impressive, the weight is perfectly reasonable and it plays well with glasses – but while cooling is decent, those big vents can't completely negate the effects of the MIPS layer. The Giro Isode MIPS is another helmet that narrowly lost out to a different helmet from the same brand. It's lighter and the style is a bit sleeker but for not much more money you get the option of adding a really good rear light. Once again if you won't use a light then the Isode will save you money compared to the Agilis. A rotational impact may occur when a rider hits their head at an angle and the brain rotates inside the skull, which can lead to concussion and traumatic brain injuries in serious cases.