New helmet recommendations

[ootini]

Hi. In the market for a new MTB helmet, just wondering what people were using, recommending?
Is MIPS worth bothering with?
Thanks

[woodsmith]

Cost is a major consideration for me, but as the saying goes, if you've got a ten dollar head, get a ten dollar hat. For the kind of riding I'm doing I'm not sure MIPS is worth the extra expense and weight. I think having a good fit is a far more important safety consideration. Some of the "safer" helmets are aimed at downhill type riding and have much less venting. I've been using Giro Fixture helmets ( available in MIPS and non-MIPS) since I started bikepacking. Cheap, light, and fits me perfectley. Just replaced the first one after 3 years of constant use. Highly recommended.

[lune ranger]

As someone who has suffered a brain injury and the years of rehab following it I look for the best protection available when buying helmets. I spend a lot on them and replace them regularly which I don’t tend to do with other kit.
MIPS is a definite step up in the protection offered by bike helmets compared to previously. I haven’t owned a MIPS helmet but do use Kask and Poc helmets that employ proprietary tech to achieve the same level of protection from shearing and rotational injury.

[Ian]

I’ve got a Bell FourForty that has MIPS. I find it annoying when I’ve got a helmet mounted light on top as the outer shell moves about on the inner MIPS cradle due to the weight of the light. It’s OK without the light fitted. It’s my first MIPS helmet, I’m not overly impressed but can’t compare it to other MIPS helmets to determine if they’re all like that or just this particular one.

[PaulB2]

Coincidentally, the Giro Fixture MIPs is 35 quid on Amazon at the moment

[fatbikephil]

I've never been that convinced about MIPS. I'd already thought your hair / skin does a similar job and its more important that a lid stays firmly attached to deal with secondary impacts then read an article on the SNELL website which said the same thing.

No motorbike lids use mips which lead me to think its just another gimmick. I read an article on bikeradar a while back which rated various mips helmets but I think it was more that these were top quality ones and therefore provided a bit more protection rather than them having MIPS per-se. Given that most cycling lids are fairly round I can't see they will impart much rotational force in any case.....

So I don't want MIPS as it adds weight and money. My non mips TLD A1 lid has been great and the cheap endura one I bought at the beginning of this year has been a good lid for hot weather. Its also recently occurred to me that having an exposure lid light mount on a helmet is probably a bad idea....

[voodoo_simon]

Not the Bontrager Wavecell helmet technology, expensive, hot and heavy (and a lot of the pro riders don’t use the technology, so that tells you something).

[lune ranger]

“Low linear acceleration results suggest that traditional EPS bicycle helmets are highly effective in preventing skull fractures (Cripton et al., 2014; McIntosh et al., 2013b). Conversely, high rotational acceleration results similarly suggest that these helmets have not been optimized to reduce rotational head acceleration in oblique impacts. Since axonal shear strain caused by rotational acceleration is a predominant mechanism of injury in concussions (Meaney and Smith, 2011), strategies for improved helmet designs should therefore target mitigation of rotational acceleration. Results of SLIP and CELL group helmets demonstrated the potential that rotational acceleration of a headform can be significantly reduced by these helmet technologies”


You don’t have to search too far to find scholarly articles of reasonable design that back up the claims made by helmet manufacturers re MIPS and other axonal damage mitigation technologies.

Why don’t motorcycle helmets use MIPS?
They do, and in increasingly high numbers - just go Google.
It’s just that the motorcycle helmet industry was slow to move and even slower to catch up. The basic design of a moto skid lid hasn’t changed in 50 years.
In that time bike lids have been invented and evolved rapidly.
Military helmets have also evolved at really high speeds recently as a result of injury data gathered in modern warfare. Compare the GS Mk7 helmet worn today vs the plate steel piece of crap my old man wore in the Falklands.

[Cheeky Monkey]

A related but slightly off-on-a-tangent question - I use an Exposure helmet mount that goes through the vent and the MIPS "frame". I'm guessing that makes the MIPS less effective or even totally ineffective but can't see any other way to mount it. Just curious if anyone else encounters similar. The helmet is a Bell 4Forty MIPS.

[woodsmith]

A related but slightly off-on-a-tangent question - I use an Exposure helmet mount that goes through the vent and the MIPS "frame". I'm guessing that makes the MIPS less effective or even totally ineffective but can't see any other way to mount it. Just curious if anyone else encounters similar. The helmet is a Bell 4Forty MIPS.

If its preventing any rotation of the MIPS liner then I'd say it makes it non functional.

[Ian]

I have the same helmet managed to the thread the inner part of the Exposure mount on the outside of the MIPS frame so it clamps only either side of the polystyrene and the outer hard shell part.

[Bearbonesnorm]

At this time of year, I tend to favour my lucky elf hat.



and at other times of the year ....

[Lazarus]

.I’ve got a helmet mounted light on top as the outer shell moves about on the inner MIPS cradle due to the weight of the light. It’s OK without the light fitted.

Not really noticed any issues with mine tbh but I bet it does move a bit

It's an exposure and also able to mount it inside the MIPS so it still works