Early Designs- Leather Hairnets and Skateboard Derivatives.
Advocacy for wearing bicycle helmets is almost as old as bicycles themselves. In the 1880s bicycle clubs began to advocate for the use of helmets. Eventually racers began to use helmets, first leather pith-type helmets, then leather ring-type “hairnet” helmets, but helmets were unknown in non-race bicycling.
The first thing resembling a modern bicycle helmet was put out by Bell Sports in 1975, the Bell Biker, which was a modification of motorsports helmets, made of polystyrene foam with a hard Lexan shell. These continued to evolve into the early 1990s (most noticeably by replacing the act of threading the chinstrap through rings with a quicker to use buckle).
The First True Bicycle Helmets- Hard Shells with Polystyrene Foam
The first thing resembling a modern bicycle helmet was put out by Bell Sports in 1975, the Bell “Biker”, which was a modification of motorports helmets, made of polystryrene foam with a hard Lexan Shell. these continued to evolve into the early 1980s (most noticeably by replacing the act of threading the chinstrap through rings with a quicker to use buckle. Later came the “Biker II”, and the “Jammer” for kids and “Windjammer” for adults in the early 90s were the final versions of traditional hard-shell helmets. These persisted into the era when helmets were moving into the lighter, more comfortable era. The Windjammer sold for $26.95 in 1987, compared to $42.95 for the V1 Pro. The Jammer was sold in mass-market discount stores under the BSI name, which Bell used to reserve their regular name for real bike shops in the late 80s and 90s.
Today: Skate Style Helmets
Hardshell bicycle helmets have stuck around in a way; they’re now smooth, rounded “skateboard style” helmets. Traditional bicycle helmets are designed to be well ventilated and protect for a single higher speed crash only before being replaced. The skateboard standard calls for limited multiple impact protection at lower speeds and ventilation is a secondary concern since you aren’t constantly working , and generally more back of the head protection since you can fall backwards off a skateboard easier than a bicycle.
But some people, especially teenagers’ and young adults, choose to use skateboard style helmets (which have further morphed into “urban” style helmets) on bicycles despite the drawbacks. Nutcase is a notable maker of these, with eye-catching graphics. This has even led to skateboard-looking helmets that are actually not certified for skateboarding, only bicycling. ProRider and Top Gear, who make low cost helmets for sales and giveways and schools and bicycle rodeos and such have these models. They’ve also morphed into “urban” helmets, which still have a hard shell, but typically different styling, more vents, and a visor.
Late 1980s: Shell-less and soft shell helmets
In the late 1980s came improvements in the foam that negated the need for a hard, heavy outer shell. One of the first, the Bell Ovation, had a soft lightweight shell that was taped to the foam, but more commonly they had no shell at all. Most of them had a Lycra cover to make it at least look like you weren’t wearing a Styrofoam picnic cooler and to provide a bit of protection from handling damage.
Unfortunately in practice these tended to shatter into pieces and scatter at the first impact leaving the user vulnerable to further impacts. Manufacturers experimented with embedding wire mesh, but ultimately returned to soft shells. The color of the foam eventually generally changed from white to black to reduce the “picnic cooler” or “mushroom-head” aesthetic, as well as colors of the shell other than white or black becoming available.
A more colorful example, but still the outer shell is taped to the foam
The main problem with the band of tape was aesthetic and it could eventually deteriorate so the shell could separate from the foam. Some of the ultra-cheap helmets today, like the ones sold in discount stores or given away for free at helmet giveaways still have taped shells, but they’ve mostly been supplanted by in-mold shells. Here’s me modeling a modern taped shell helmet. Not the prettiest looking thing, but fully certified and sells for $6.95 to schools and nonprofit organizations in quantities of 720 or more.
Late 1990s: Molded in Shell Helmets
In the early 1990s came another innovation: injection molding the foam into the shell, rather than manufacturing them separately and then taping them together. Initially it meant the front strap or strap anchors were exposed, but later on they figured out how to make them recessed. Of course, the trend towards models with more and more vents came out.
In the mean time, an occipital lobe retainer became standard; this is the strap that runs across the back of the head. Later came one-size fits all ring fit systems, where you tighten a fastener on the retainer rather than having multiple sizes of bicycle helmets and further fine-tuning fit by swapping out different thicknesses of pads.
The most recent development is MIPS” Multi-Plane Impact Protection.” One of the criticisms of bicycle helmets is they can increase the torque applied to the head in the event of a crash, MIPS is basically a layer of slick plastic that allows some slippage between the head and the helmet. Whether this makes a difference in the real world remains to be seen. Generally the plastic is a bright yellow to draw attention to the fact that it’s there to potential buyers.
Selecting a Bicycle Helmet: Overview
So with all these advances in technology, is a recent $200 bicycle helmet safer than your old one from the 1990s? If it doesn’t have new impact reducing technologies like MIPS, maybe, maybe not. There have been various safety standards at different times and places but there have been no real-world differences noted since the adoption of the ASTM standard in the late 1980s. No manufacturer is going to come out with a design that is marketed as “50% safer than brand “X”, for a number of reasons.
- The things that would make a helmet safer, namely thicker foam and fewer vents, would make it less marketable in other respects,
- This would expose them to potential liability, and
- The safety tests performed are go/no go tests; there’s no standardized tests to say a bicycle helmet exceeds them by X percent.
So the bottom line is there’s rarely a scientifically tested difference in helmets, so anything going forward needs to be taken into that context. If you research helmets online, soon you’ll find the “Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute”, (BHSI) in reality apparently a husband and wife team working out of their home out east that have been advocating for riding helmet use and laws since the the late 1980s. They make the following suggestions.
- Few Vents
- No visor
- Round, Smooth Shape
- White or Brightly Colored
There’s no actual studies and evidence for any of these, but at least we can discuss them. The theory is that vents could allow branches and rocks to penetrate and lacerate your head, while a visor could shatter and lacerate your face and eyes. While it seems that manufacturers have gone hog wild with vents, I’ve tried out dozens of helmets and only noticed a difference in actual use on a few early ones that lacked adequate front vents- in normal riding the ones on the side and top don’t do a whole lot. I personally don’t like visors because if it’s low enough to do any good, it’s low enough to interfere with the sense of openness you feel on a bicycle. But feel the fear of them shattering is unfounded and they’re more likely to deflect branches away from your face.
The round, smooth shape bears further discussion. A significant downside to helmets is the bulk they add to your head can add significant torque to your head and neck in a crash (something MIPS is trying to mitigate). The BHSI claims, and it seems logical, that deviations from that can compound the problem by “catching” on the ground rather than sliding in the event of a crash. And having a full shell rather than exposed foam, or even worse, rubber, would seem superior too. Here’s two variations of “round and smooth”- the “sharp and pointy” and the “blunted edge”. The skate style would seem to be ideal for bicycling in this regard, although they tend to have vents in the top for skateboarding rather than the front and back for bicycling. And the trend in kid’s helmets to have a bunch of 3D rubber decorative objects stuck on would seem to me to not be a good idea.
Does having a bright, visible color make a difference for safety? On one hand In the UK they did a study on what they quaintly call “Smidsy” crashes– Sorry, Mate I Didn’t See You. It involved motorcyclists, but the same principles presumably apply to bicyclists. They found that even high-visibility clothing didn’t consistently improve visibility in a crowded urban environment. At city street speeds on crowded urban arterials the visual kaleidoscope can simply overwhelm the motorist’s senses to the point they won’t even see and process something as important as traffic signals – the trend to more, larger signals overhead is needed to overwhelm all the other visual clutter. A white bicycle helmet as opposed to black is just too subtle to make a difference here. On the other hand, a bright colored helmet couldn’t hurt, and might make a difference between being seen or not in less congested settings like crossing street on a trail in a suburb.
You also see suggestions that you need to replace your helmet every other year. Turns out that’s absolute hogwash. A recent study collected helmets from the general public dating back to 1987 and tested them and found no significant difference in the performance of the foam lining. And even the cheapest ones meet the same safety standards. The one you bought for $10 in 1990 is probably as safe as a $200 one nowadays. The takeaway from all this is that a bicycle helmet is more or less a bicycle helmet. The safest bicycle helmet is one that’s stylish and cool enough to actually be worn regardless of merits of minimizing the number of vents or having a loud color.
Make Wearing a Bicycle Helmet Cool
Ultimate after all these years, a standard bicycle helmet can still looks dorky and ugly. This is a particular problem with kids, who tend not to be willing to do something unpleasant even it it’s in their own best interests as well as viewing themselves as imortal. One of my neighbor’s kids actually begged for their parents to buy them helmets when they got bicycle safety instruction at school, but that’s not typical. My other neighbor just bought her kids standard “mushroom head” white helmets and told them they’d be spanked good and have their bicycles taken away for the rest of the summer if they were ever caught not wearing them. And the Middle School near me the kids get a detention and their bicycles “impounded” until a parent comes to retrieve if it they ride to school without a helmet. But a lot of parents prefer a more carrot as opposed to stick approach, and helmet manufacturers saw an opportunity to market to parents with the promise of “your kids will actually want to wear our helmet. This started with special graphics and stickers on kid’s helmets, combined with the general early 90s aesthetic when bicycle helmets spread from racers to ordinary families, there were some rather wild designs.
Bright Graphics
The Jammer, the kids counterpart to the hard shell Windjammer, started out with similar red graphics but soon sported 90s colorful neon.
The Streetrider came with included stickers for kids to personalize their helmet. On the back were “Six Easy Steps to get your child wearing a Streetrider helmet
The “Shocker” helmet box was wild, looks like a typical kid’s face when told they have to wear a bicycle helmet.
The “Rad 2”. Everthing was “Rad” or “Xtreme” in the 90s
And who could forget the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
3D Helmets
Starting in the 90s there were attempts to add “3D effects” to helmets to detract from the round “mushroom head” impression. One of the first was the Variflex “3D Helmet Series” which had modest topography to it. The promise “Helmets Kids Want to Wear!” would seem to be either naivity or advertising puffery. Most kids (and adults) that want to wear helmets want to because they understand the importance of being safe, not because of pretty flowers on the helmet.
Later the 3D elements got more pronounced, embodied by Raskullz and Krash
Hat-Like helmet covers
The BSI Slammer helmet from the 90s was your basic bare foam, but instead of a lycra cover it had a cloth baseball cap style cover that could be reversed.
For adults Yakkay is a Danish company that makes your basic skate style helmet, but is designed to accept a number of hat-like cloth covers. Bike Pretty distributes their stuff in the United States.
The main problem with this
Lycra Cover
Going back to the lycra covers popular in the 90s, covers are available to add fun, bright graphics and sometimes decorations to any bicycle, skateboard, or ski helmet. These are normally small family owned companies that disappear
Helmet Headz was around in the 2000s-2010s. Originally they were simple printed lycra colors but then got a lot more eleborate. Eventually Four of their most popular designs were picked up and packaged as two each in “boy” and “girl” packages, and there’s still a lot of dead stock of these floating around
Coolcasc, from Spain, sells through Amazon and various distributers. My favorites are the animal covers, some with light-up eyes.
Evercover mainly sells on Etsy, and markets for ski helmets, although their covers fit bicycle helmets too. Here’s my sister and mine Santa and Elf covers on our snow helmets on our snow sleds.
Butterwick also offered a pattern for “Sew Your Own”
A few more “cool” helmets
ProLids put out a helmet that was designed to look like a baseball cap, with three different brims available that could be worn either in front or back. The Tulsa, OK based company seems to have disappeared late in 2024 The one in my personal collection and the only ones I’ve seen for sale used or as dead stock are the black, although I’ve seen pictures of multiple colors online
Helmets with a smooth, glossy finish are conductive to dry-erase markers, Triple 8 sells the “WipeOut” specifically marketed for that, with a set of markers and stencils included.
Some interesting Developments in bicycle helmets over the Years
Alternative Fit Systems:
Traditionally fitting a riding helmet has been a three step process: Pick a size that’s about right and fine tune the fit with different padk, then adjust the side straps, and finally adjust the chin strap. The move to “ring fit” systems has eliminated the first step, but adjusting the side and chin straps remains. I see misadjusted straps all the time, the junction of the straps should be right below the earlobe. Here’s some properly adjusted straps.There are some alternative fit systems that don’t require strap adjustments. There’s Bell’s Tru-Fit and Specialized has a similar system. I’ve tried out the Bell System, and it works as intended; the straps are elastic and are much tighter against your skin than traditional helmets, but it’s something you rapidly get used to.
Pony tail Ports
One problem with many riding helmets is they interfere with having a pony tail. Specialized has a feature on some models called the “Hairport”. you can also see their system to eliminate side strap adjustment.
Lower foam covers
When black foam first came out, it was more expensive than white foam. Some of the cheaper helmets used a thin plastic lower shell to cover the exposed foam, but you could still see white peeping out in the vents.
The Pro-Tec Ace Dig and Cyphon Helmets
Hard-shell Skateboard helmets offer more coverage and certification to the skateboarding standard as well as bicycling, but they’re hot and lack a visor. Pro-Tec put out two interesting ones. The Ace-Dig is a traditional looking helmet with a visor added, while the Cyphon has a visor and bicycle helmet level ventilatoin with a hard shell and skateboard certification and coverage
Dual Density Foam
Some mid-90s helmets used harder foam around the vents in order to have large vents while still maintaining structural integrity. Although they technically still passed safety standards, it was questionable what would happen if the impact hit around a vent where the harder foam was, and the exposed foam reduced sliding resitance.
Prowell’s “Nitesafe”
A cheaper taped shell model, but the taped band used is relective
Australian Bicycle Helmets
Across the pond bicycle helmets started to be a thing in the 80s when Rosebank, a company that primarly made molded pastic items for other companies, decided to look for a product they could market themselves to consumers, and so the “Stackhat’ bicycle helmet line was born, and helmets soon became mandatory across Australia by around 1990. My first experience with helmets was when my family visited my aunt and uncle in Australia. We had just been on a 24 hour flight, looking and feeling like death, dishelved and dirty. My parents and aunt told the kids they needed to ride bikes down to the beach, presumably to get us out of the house while they unpacked. My sisters and I put on our swimming suits and went down to the garage, only for our cousins to pull out these bright yellow helmets and telling us we had to wear them. We were not amused and what’s worse is our parents took a group picture of us posing by our bikes with these bright yellow helmets on our heads, and that picture got sent to relatives.
A later competitor was Headway, they had the “Good, Better, Best” with the 301, 501, and 701 models
