An aero helmet is one of the simplest upgrades you can make to go faster on the bike, with benefits that can be pretty substantial.
They are designed to smooth airflow over your head, delivering free speed that more open, vented designs can’t always match. To achieve this, they typically feature fewer vents, which can make them warmer than traditional road helmets.
However, today's best aero helmets have evolved significantly, and many now offer decent ventilation.
As mentioned in our guide to the best road bike helmets, most riders wear a helmet every time they ride. While the primary purpose is safety, factors such as ventilation, comfort and aerodynamics are often key deciding points.
Last summer, we tested 47 helmets in the world’s largest comparative wind tunnel test - 41 aero road helmets and six time trial helmets. We’ve combined that data with real-world testing of each model to narrow down our pick of the best aero helmets for all riders. Watts saved figures are shown versus a baseline helmet, the Abus Powerdome, an inexpensive all-rounder that represents a typical upgrade starting point.
It’s worth noting that these aero helmets are designed for road and gravel riding. Riders focused on time trials should see our guide to the best time trial helmets, which are pure speed-focused options that aren’t really suited to everyday use.
For everyone else, keep reading for our pick of the best aero helmets that balance speed with real-world usability, along with buying advice further down the page.
I've been riding and racing for over 15 years and am Cyclingnews' aero expert, regularly heading to the Silverstone, UK, wind tunnel with everything from aero bikes to aero socks to independently assess their aero credentials. I ran the wind tunnel test of 47 helmets to obtain the aero data you find here, and together with my colleagues, have tested each of the helmets listed in a real-world scenario to test for things like breathability and comfort.
Last updated June 2026 The guide has been updated to reflect recent product releases and the list refined. The Specialized Evade 4, Giro Eclipse Spherical Pro and Sweet Protection Tucker III 2Vi have been launched, while the POC Procen Air has been banned by the UCI for road racing use.
Best aero road bike helmets
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Best aero helmet overall
✅ You want a sleek, road-style look: It's definitely more traditional in appearance but still delivers aero gains.
✅ You wear cycling glasses: It's thoughtfully designed to work seamlessly with all eyewear. The strap is easily adjustable too.
❌ You want the absolute fastest helmet: It's impressively aero. Still, it lost 1.1 watts to the Oakley Velo Mach in testing.
❌ You prefer a budget-friendly option: Premium performance comes at a premium price.
The Specialized S-Works Evade III was fourth in our test, giving away 1.1 watts to the Oakley Velo Mach on average across all four yaw angles.
The Evade III is first and foremost an aero helmet, but it does everything very well. It's super comfortable, lightweight, offers great ventilation, and looks great.
It also works well with a wide range of cycling glasses and has an easily adjustable strap. The straps are also slightly thinner than on many helmets, helping to reduce the chance of noticeable tan lines for those lucky enough to ride regularly in sunnier climates.
The recently released Evade 4 brings only incremental improvements over its predecessor. We’ve reviewed it, and it scored highly, but we haven’t yet taken it to the wind tunnel. Specialized claims it is at least as aero as the Evade III, while offering improved cooling and comfort. However, with the Evade III now heavily discounted, it retains our best overall title for this guide.
You can read our full review of the Specialized S-Works Evade III here.
Fastest aero helmet on test
✅ You want the absolute fastest aero helmet: The Oakley Velo Mach was the most aerodynamic aero road helmet we tested for this guide, saving up to 8 watts at 40km/h.
✅ You want low weight: The 300g helmet weight is competitive, although at the expense of no additional impact protection.
❌ You want rotational impact protection: The Velo Mach helmet doesn't come with MIPS or other add-on systems.
❌ You are looking for independent safety testing: As yet, there's no Virginia Tech score.
Oakley has upped its helmet game with the Velo Mach, its most aerodynamic road helmet to date, which also came out fastest of all the non-time trial aero helmets in our huge wind tunnel test.
It's been on the market for over a year now and was developed with the Tudor Pro Cycling team with the overall goal of developing the fastest helmet possible. Oakley claims that its fin-like 'flow conditioners' at the helmet's rear reduce drag in a sprint.
Oakley tested the helmet at 70km/h, but we still found it to be the fastest helmet of those we tested at 40km/h and 50km/h, even beating the Giro Aerohead, a dedicated time trial helmet, when the latter was tested without a visor.
The result of the collaboration is a sleek helmet which uses three front vents, one large main one, and two side vents, which also double as sunglasses storage. Externally, three vents in the middle rear of the helmet are where internal airflow exits.
It’s a nice-looking lid too, which is always important if you're spending your own cash on kit and it is lightweight and comfortable too.
As of yet, the helmet hasn't been tested by Virginia Tech, which carries out independent helmet safety testing.
For all the details, you can read our full review of the Oakley Velo Mach helmet.
Best value
✅ You want strong aero performance at a fantastic price: The RCR-F finished 8th in wind tunnel testing, outperforming more expensive helmets in this guide.
✅ You need a lightweight, well-ventilated helmet: We think the RCR-F offers great comfort and airflow.
❌ You want the highest-quality construction: We found the materials feel lower in quality compared to pricier rivals.
❌ You rely on third-party safety ratings: While the RCR-F meets industry standards, there’s no independent testing from Virginia Tech or similar organisations as of yet.
The Van Rysel RCR-F helmet (formerly called the FCR) is the brand's performance aero road helmet worn by the Decathlon CMA CGM Team in WorldTour races. Like all of Van Rysel’s range, it aims to compete with the best while keeping a close eye on price, and as such, it's one of the cheapest helmets used at the top level.
In our experience, it delivers on that ambition, finishing a strong 8th in our wind tunnel test ahead of helmets such as the Met Manta and now UCI-illegal POC Procen Air.
It’s comfortable, lightweight and well ventilated, though the construction feels less refined than pricier rivals, but this is unsurprising given it's less than half the price of most.
When we reviewed the RCR-F helmet, it didn't have any additional rotational impact protection, but it is now only sold with MIPS in the UK and many other territories. There's no third-party testing on it so far from the likes of Virginia Tech, though.
For more details, check out the Van Rysel RCR-F aero helmet review.
Best aero helmet for comfort
✅ You value comfort: The HJC Furion offers an excellent fit with a well-designed rear cradle and easily adjustable straps. It's well-ventilated too.
✅ You're looking for a compact, low-profile design: The SLID impact protection is unique to HJC and looks impressively compact.
❌ You want an easily adjustable head retention system: The rear dial is a bit tricker to adjust than other helmets.
❌ You want independent crash testing: HJC hasn't submitted any of its helmets for Virginia Tech testing.
HJC have been making motorcycle helmets for over 50 years, in its native South Korea, so it understands how to engineer a good fit.
The HJC Furion helmet is now in its third iteration and is a very comfortable and well-ventilated helmet. Its well-considered shape and low weight combine to create a helmet that sits very comfortably on the head. The brow pad is quite low profile in terms of its shape, but it's nice and soft to the touch.
The rear dial doesn't 'lock' the retention system in place. Instead, it has a bit of 'give' which then springs back, allowing the helmet to expand and contract as you crane your neck. It can be a little bit difficult to grasp, particularly with gloves on, but it works effectively.
The Furion 3 uses HJC's own SLID gel liner for internal rotational impact protection, which is an alternative to MIPS. It works via two small gel pads, meaning there's no hard material against the top of your head, further boosting comfort. It is designed to perform a similar role to MIPS, although the Furion has not undergone testing by the Virginia Tech helmet lab to verify its effectiveness.
The drag numbers from our own aero testing are pretty good and effective front-to-rear internal channeling provides plenty of airflow. Add in a competitive price and the Furion 3 is an attractive option.
Best aero helmet for hot weather
✅ You prioritise keeping cool: The Cadence Plus is one of the best-ventilated options in this guide. We'd recommend it for anyone riding in hot conditions.
✅ You appreciate convenience: It even features a handy magnetic buckle for easy one-handed fastening.
❌ You’re looking for the most budget-friendly helmet with a rear light: Admittedly, Lazer’s Vento Kineticore offers a similar feature at a lower price.
❌ You’re looking for a high Virginia Tech score: Virginia Tech has revised its scoring and the Cadence Plus is now rated lower.
Aero helmets feature fewer vents than traditional helmets, which can make them warmer, and while they've improved a lot in recent years, some still ventilate better than others. One of our favourites for airflow is the Scott Cadence Plus, and it also performed respectably in our aero testing, finishing 11th out of 41 non-TT helmets tested.
The helmet has 13 vents in total, seven up front and six at the rear of the helmet. Two at the front also double up as sunglasses storage if required. Vent plugs are also available for the helmet to aid aerodynamics or to add protection from the elements, and since the helmet placed strongly in our testing without plugs, it's an attractive proposition and should make the helmet even quicker.
The Cadence Plus has a lot going for it in terms of specs. It features MIPS Air Node rotational impact protection and comes with a rechargeable clip-on rear light. Interestingly, the MIPS-equipped Cadence Plus scores just two stars in Virginia Tech’s ratings, while the non-MIPS version achieves three.
Rounding off the Cadence Plus is a magnetic buckle, which means it's easy to do up one-handed.
Read more about why the Scott Cadence Plus is our favourite aero helmet for hot weather.
Best aero helmet for lightweight performance
✅ You prioritise a lightweight design: At 270g, it's among the lightest aero helmets.
✅ You value an aggressive design: Trek's Ballista, with its aero tail, looks the part.
❌ You don't like the separate tail: It's quite easy to detach, even when you don't want it to.
❌ You want the lightest helmet available: If all you care about is weight, vented helmets such as the Abus Airbreaker and Met Manta might be better options.
The Trek Ballista MIPS has a distinctive look, starting with three large front vents. For riders who like to store their glasses, the outer two feature grippy rubber to help keep them in place. Moving back, there’s another large air inlet at the top of the helmet.
The rear section narrows and curves in a way reminiscent of older long-tail TT helmets, though it’s shorter than those designs and around 5–6cm longer than most standard road helmets.
The Ballista MIPS was the second-highest scoring helmet in our wind tunnel test and is also impressively light, while still achieving a high safety rating thanks to its MIPS Air low-profile impact protection.
Trek claims 275g but we weighed our wind tunnel sample at 270g and our review sample in size M at just 260g, with the subjective feel even lighter. There's great airflow and adjustability too.
For more details, read our full Trek Ballista MIPS helmet review.
Also consider
The purpose of this buying guide is to help you buy the best aero helmet, not just 'any aero helmet', so we've spent months researching and testing helmets to try and tease out the very best from the rest.
Landing on the final options for this list required a ton of testing with a wide variety of helmets. Most of them are good, many of them great, but only a few can be deemed 'the best'.
Aside from the helmets listed above, we have tested dozens more. Those in our latest round of testing are listed below, but that's by no means an exhaustive list.
If we tested any one of them in isolation, we'd have been happy with them, but the reason they're not featured more prominently here is that they didn't shine in any particular way, or another shone more brightly.
✅ You want an all-round aero helmet: Despite its aero inclinations, the Manta still benefits from 15 ventilation ports and is fairly light,
✅ You want a sleek, well-fitting design: Met's Manta has an incredibly comfortable fit, which is tailorable thanks to the cradle system and there are six colourways on offer.
❌ You want the best aero dynamic performance: The Manta Mips is an all-round aero helmet offering mid-pack aero performance.
The Manta is one of the helmets that Tadej Pogačar tends to use. It is a good aero all-rounder, looks sleek, fits well, has a magnetic buckle, and doesn't actually cost as much as many of the competitors.
Despite its aero inclinations, the Manta still benefits from 15 ventilation ports - each of which is strategically positioned to balance air flow with cooling.
However, it finished mid-pack in 16th place in our test, making it a solid option overall, but ultimately, others performed better.
For more details, check out our full Met Manta Mips review here.
✅ You want head-up aero performance: The POC Procen Air was the most aerodynamic in our previous test in a more head-up ride position.
✅ You wear prescription glasses: The full visor design allows for comfortable use of prescription eyewear underneath.
❌ You expect significant noise reduction: While slightly better in head-on airflow, it was marginally louder than other helmets overall.
❌ You want to race UCI-sanctioned events: This year, the UCI banned the POC Procen Air from mass-start races.
In our previous wind tunnel test, the POC Procen Air was the fastest of 24 helmets with its visor fitted and the third fastest without, using a more upright rider position. However, in our more recent test with a head-down mannequin, it slipped down the rankings to ninth among 41 aero road helmets (15th including time trial helmets) without the visor. Surprisingly, it performed worse with the visor in this setup, dropping to 13th place.
Since we tested it, the UCI has ruled it illegal for mass-start racing, so it’s now an option mainly for riders outside UCI-sanctioned events.
✅ You want plenty of safety features: The Smith Ignite features safety tech from both Koroyd and MIPS.
✅ You want a lightweight and comfortable aero helmet: It's lighter than advertised and comfortable to wear even with a cap underneath.
❌ You want lots of ventilation: Compared to other aero helmets, the ventilation is average.
❌ You want third-party safety validation: The Smith Ignite hasn't been rated by Virginia Tech.
Safety is an area where Smith has really focused, and the technology incorporated into the Ignite is what sets it apart. The helmet combines a Mips liner with additional impact protection from Koroyd, which mimics dozens of plastic straws stuck together, offering a crumple zone in the event of a crash.
It performed well in our wind tunnel test, coming 11th, behind the Secialized S-Works Evade 3, and saving 6.8W versus the baseline, but I found the MIPS liner catches my hair, and it's not the most breathable in warm weather.
✅ You want good ventilation: There's plenty of ventilation on offer with 17 vents in total.
✅ You want unique MIPS protection: The Eclipse has an integrated Spherical MIPS protection whereby the inner and outer shells slide over each other.
❌ You want to spend less: The Eclipse Spherical is expensive at RRP.
The Eclipse is now in its second generation, the Eclipse Pro, which we have also reviewed favourably but have yet to take to the wind tunnel.
The Eclipse Pro builds on everything we liked about the original, while incorporating some of the best features from the Aries. We were particularly impressed by its lightweight, low-profile design, excellent fit and effective ventilation.
Giro's MIPS Spherical system places the slip plane between two layers of EPS foam, neatly integrating the technology and contributing to the helmet's impressive comfort.
✅ You want improved ventilation: Rear and brow ventilation, along with internal channelling, has been improved.
✅ You want secure storage for eyewear: Redesigned venting provides easier sunglass storage in the front or rear of the helmet.
❌ You want additional rotational impact protection: While a Mips-equipped version is available and has been tested by Virginia Tech, some GameChanger 2.0 models are sold without it.
The Abus Gamechanger 2.0 is an aero-styled helmet with improved ventilation compared to its predecessor and excellent quality of construction.
Abus has been slow to add MIPS or other rotational impact tech to its high-end road helmets relative to its competitors, but the GameChanger 2.0 is optionally available with MIPS Air Node.
Overall, this is by no means a bad helmet, but in our group test, others fared better.
✅ You want a very comfortable fit: The Utopia Y excels in comfort helped by wide and thick padding at the front.
✅ You want good airflow: There are three front vents, a top vent, two lateral top vents, and three exhaust ports.
❌ You want to spend less: The Utopia Y was beaten by cheaper opposition in the wind tunnel.
❌ You want third-party testing: The helmet hasn't been tested by Virgina Tech and doesn't feature MIPS.
The Utopia Y is the evolution of the original Utopia and is Kask's dedicated aero road helmet. It finished a good 12th in our wind tunnel test, saving 6.37W over the baseline, and we found it very comfortable.
The quality of construction feels slightly less than the competitors and although Kask tests to WG11 standard, there's no third-party testing to back up the safety claims.
✅ You want good all-round performance: The Propero 4 combines aero and ventilation.
✅ You want an affordable aero-style helmet: This is a more affordable helmet than the Evade 4.
❌ You want outright aero performance: The Evade 4 is Specialized's pure aero helmet.
❌ You want a lightweight helmet: The Propero 4 is heavier than some of the pure aero helmets listed here.
The Propero 4 combines the aero performance of the Evade with the ventilation of the Prevail and is a more affordable option from Specialized, but one that pulls its weight well.
Despite its semi-aero design, it still performed well in our test, saving 4.88W over the baseline,
Based on the price and the on-bike performance, there are others we'd choose over it, but it's a good contender at this price point.
✅ You want premium aesthetics: It's a smart looking helmet with minimal vents and a long tail, with the carbon fibre centre adding a premium look.
✅ You want a well-ventilated aero helmet: Despite the lack of vents, breathablity is good.
❌ You want a less expensive helmet: The Tucker III 2Vi has an RRP of £309.
❌ You want a lightweight aero helmet: With a claimed weight of 320g (size ML), there are plenty of lighter options
We tested the previous generation Tucker 2Vi in the wind tunnel which came a reasonable 16th, saving 5.97W over baseline.
The Tucker 2Vi has now been updated to the Tucker III 2Vi and is the helmet currently worn by the Uno-X Mobility Cycling Team.
Like the Ballista from Trek, the Tucker III 2Vi leaves no illusion as to its aero intentions, with minimal vents and a long tail, and the breathability is actually pretty good.
✅ You want a well-ventilated all-rounder: The Protone is a semi-aero helmet featuring large forward-facing vents with a smooth top.
✅ You want a very comfortable fit: It's superbly secure and has a comfortably conforming fit.
❌ You want MIPS protection: Rather than using MIPS, it undergoes Kask's own in-house rotational testing.
❌ You prioritise outright aero performance: The Protone Icon is an all-rounder.
The Kask Protone Icon is an evolution of the hugely popular original Protone, and is a top-flight helmet for those looking to strike a balance between aerodynamic performance and decent ventilation.
It boasts large vents up front for ventilation, a rounded rear shape for aero, no matter the head position, and a leather strap that aids comfort.
It's more of an all-rounder, and it's a good one, but it didn't shine in any of our recent tests.
How to choose the best aero helmet for you
You won’t find a definitive answer as to what the fastest aero helmet is for you without buying every one of them and going to a wind tunnel yourself, but from our tests, you can get a good idea.
So take that info and combine it with the other aspects of a helmet that you find important when deciding on the best aero helmet for you. As with any of the best cycling helmets, key factors to consider are:
- Fit: If you can, try before you buy to make sure that the helmet fits snugly and is comfortable. Make sure you can adjust it to fit your head.
- Aero performance: If you're going to choose an aero helmet, you want it to be aero, so it's worth consulting our wind tunnel test to see how a helmet scored.
- Ventilation: Will there be enough airflow for where and how you ride? If you live somewhere hot or hilly or tend to run hot, you may want a more vented design.
- Weight: You may want to choose a lighter helmet, although once it's on, you're unlikely to notice unless it's particularly heavy.
- Safety features: All helmets have to pass basic safety standards, but do you want extra features such as MIPS - read more in our FAQs below.
- Price: An aero helmet may be more expensive than a non-aero alternative with similar features.
Everything you need to know about the best aero bike helmets
What is an aero helmet?
Before we get too far down the path of choosing an aero bike helmet, let's define what we are discussing. Most people are familiar with the idea that there are helmets designed for time trials or the bike leg of a triathlon. That's not what an aero helmet is.
Instead, we are discussing the kind of helmet you can wear on every ride. These are helmets that are relatively light, they flow air, and they are not deeply affected by head position. Aside from the POC Procen Air, they don't feature full shield lenses and instead are designed to work with the best cycling glasses. In many ways, an aero helmet is just a standard road helmet.
What's different is a willingness to trade weight and ventilation for better aero optimisation. They're often a bit heavier and a bit hotter than the best road bike helmets, though to varying degrees.
Is an aero helmet worth it?
Now that we are all on the same page, it makes sense to question if it’s worth bothering.
In answering this question, let's look at how much faster a helmet can make you. In our wind tunnel helmet test, we found that the difference between the fastest and slowest aero road-style helmets was 8.85 watts when riding at 40km/h (around 25mph), or 3.7 watts when riding at 30km/h (around 18.6mph).
Calculate that into seconds saved, and the fastest helmet in our test will save you 43 seconds in a 40km time trial when riding at an average of 250 watts, or around 1.2% faster, for no extra effort.
Simplifying the results, that's a similar aerodynamic saving to an upgrade from a cheap shallow wheel to a pair of the best road bike wheels. However, if you're chasing speed, our rolling resistance tyre tests found savings of up to 30 watts for a pair of tyres between the fastest and the slowest, while our wind tunnel clothing tests unearthed an additional 24 watts at a similarly good watts-per-price ratio.
But aero helmets don't tend to cost any more than the same brand's 'vented' helmet, so assuming you're buying a new helmet, then choosing one of the best aero helmets is a no-brainer.
Do women need women's-specific helmets?
Among helmet manufacturers, there's a bit of a conflict in that some offer separate women's specific helmets, while other brands' ranges are totally unisex.
We tackled the question of whether women need women-specific helmets in depth recently, with the main takeaway being that unisex helmets are usually preferred by most 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.
Do aero helmets matter for slower riders or riders who don’t race?
In every discussion about aero advantages, someone eventually mentions they only matter to fast riders. This idea likely comes from the fact that going faster requires exponentially more power to cut through the air. That means you can typically save more watts at higher speeds. Cycling companies, of course, exploit this fact by doing tests at high speeds to show more impressive numbers.
Those high-speed tests hide part of the story though. As you go faster, the number of watts saved grows but the time saved gets smaller. The slower you are, the longer you spend covering a distance, so while the number of watts saved is smaller, the time saved is greater.
The other reason why you might actually care a lot about the numbers at high speeds is because of headwinds. You might be going forward at a lower speed but a headwind effectively adds to the speed you are experiencing. 30 km/h is reasonable for a road bike, but if you add a 20 km/h headwind, all of a sudden, you are dealing with the same aero situation as a pro rider travelling at 50km/h.
Because aerodynamics is the biggest force we all deal with on a bike, optimisation matters to everyone. Gravel cyclists and slower riders of all kinds can go faster by getting more aero. When racing, that means finishing faster. If you aren't racing, that might mean finishing at the same speed with less work.
Do aero helmets make you overheat?
For a lot of people, the reason to hesitate before buying an aero helmet is all about comfort. Aero helmets have a reputation for being hot and that turns people away. Brands reinforce that idea by offering aero helmets as an alternative to helmets with branding, emphasising how airy they are.
In my experience, the reality of riding with an aero helmet is actually quite different. While aero helmets do have less venting, it's highly optimised. Modern designs use CFD analysis to put a limited number of vents in just the right place. Then, on the rear of the helmet, large exhaust vents let the hot air out, in turn pulling air through the helmet and across your head. As long as you are moving, the best aero helmets will stay cool.
When you slow down, aero helmets suffer from less opportunity for heat to escape. Those hot, brutal summer climbs can leave you feeling cooked. Here's the thing that rarely gets discussed though, those same climbs will leave you feeling cooked in non-aero helmets also. It's hot and you are climbing, so buckle in and prepare to sweat. Aero helmets aren't significantly worse in this regard.
Are aero helmets heavy?
Aero helmets are not only hot but also heavy, right? That's the reputation and I would have agreed before working on this article. It only makes sense that aero helmets would be heavier, given that they seem to have more material. When I actually weighed a bunch of helmets though, I found the opposite. Some of the lightest helmets on the market are aero helmets. With fewer vents, the shell can in some cases be made rigid with less reinforcement.
Overall, on average they do tend to be heavier, but it's not always the case, and even when they are, it's not a significant difference.
Are there any downsides to aero helmets?
When it comes to performance, there are very few downsides to the best aero helmets. They aren't necessarily heavier, they aren't particularly hot, and they offer an opportunity for free speed. Except nothing is free and when it comes to downsides, the one sticking point is actually the price.
The best aero helmets aren't more expensive as a whole. Often, the top price point a brand offers will have an option for an aero option or an all-around vented option and they'll be the same price. Keep moving down through the model range though and aero-first helmets will disappear.
Do I need MIPS in an aero helmet?
Aero helmets are still bike helmets. All the same questions that exist with any bike helmet exist for aero helmets and MIPS is a big question. The actual name is a distraction though.
As explained in our guide to MIPS, it is a brand name and an acronym. The letters stand for Multi-directional Impact Protection System and the brand is offering technology to protect in situations where impact occurs off-centre. If you see a MIPS label on a helmet, it means the brand paid a licence fee and is using the MIPS technology.
MIPS is only one brand offering a solution and there is no definitive answer of whether it's the best solution available. No one really knows the best way to protect against a concussion, otherwise known as traumatic brain injury, in the event of an impact. What MIPS claims is that when the impact occurs off-centre, your helmet should be able to rotate separately from the head.
There are a variety of brands and organisations that agree with this assessment. Many of those brands licence MIPS technology to make use of it. Other brands agree on the basic idea but have their own systems to allow your head to rotate within the helmet. Alternatives are technologies like Kineticore from Lazer as well as WaveCel, Koroyd, and others that have come and gone through the years.
There are also brands that agree with the basic idea but disagree with how to address it. Kask is somewhat vocal about the idea that there's plenty of opportunity for a helmet to rotate on an actual human head without additional technology. The brand disagrees with the headform used by Virginia Tech and MIPS to test and has a proprietary WG11 test that does it differently. Rudy Project also has a similarly named, but different, test that aligns with that understanding and Snell has put out some information that seems to agree as well.
All that disagreement leaves the consumer with little clarity. Every helmet sold has to pass government testing for the location where it's sold. Those tests mandate a basic level of protection and from there, you'll have to decide what technology makes sense to you.
Is a Virginia Tech score important?
This is another variation on the same question about MIPS. Every single helmet sold passes a variety of government-mandated tests. Virginia Tech has become well known for developing a different test that specifically covers off-centre impacts. The results get reported as a number and the lower the number the better. Right now, the top-ranked road bike helmet, out of 275 tested, has a score of 7.51. If you also see a star ranking, that is the same testing displayed in a different way.
Given that Virginia Tech is the only independent testing organisation that offers more than a pass/fail, we think it's worth reporting. Unfortunately, there are a lot of helmets that have not been tested, some likely because of the speed with which new options come to market, some because of a disagreement about the protocol, and others for reasons unknown. If they have the number, we share it and you will need to decide if the helmet you decide on must have a score.
So what's the best aero helmet for me?
The implication with an aero bike helmet is that it is a measurable way to make you faster. We have wind tunnels and we can measure drag, this should be simple right? Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple.
Here at Cyclingnews, we spent a day in the wind tunnel at Silverstone testing 47 helmets to find out which was fastest in a fairly aggressive aero breakaway position.
All were tested on a mannequin for repeatability, using the same skinsuit and mounted on the same bike, with aero drag measured at a wind speed of 40km/h and over a range of yaw angles. We re-tested the fastest ten helmets at 50km/h. Cyclingnews subscribers can read our wind tunnel helmet test in full, if you want to get nerdy with the data.
We're aware, however, that what's fast for one person isn't necessarily fast for the next, and helmet aerodynamics can differ from one position to the next.
How do we test the best aero helmets?
Testing the best aero helmets for us is a combination of empirical testing and real-world riding experience.
The Cyclingnews team has been testing helmets for years, and we've ridden using every helmet we can think of. Our experience is great for teasing out differences in things like comfort, user experience, noise and so on, but even we would be hard-pressed to feel a 20-gram weight difference or the 1-2 watts separating each helmet.
