Virginia Tech’s helmet test labs, started in 2018, have rated a particular Specialized design the safest for bicycling.
Cost: $110
Style: Mountain
Certifications: CPSC
Score: 8.6
It’s neither the most expensive nor the least fashionable. However, for half the cost of the best design, the Specialized Align II (MIPS) also received a five STAR rating with a close score of 9.6.
The STAR equation was originally developed to estimate the incidence of concussion that a college football player may experience while wearing a given helmet over the course of one
season… The bicycle STAR equation sums the exposure-weighted risks for each impact to generate a single representative concussion incidence value per helmet model. The predicted exposure (𝐸𝐸) is determined for each impact location (𝐿𝐿) and velocity (𝑉𝑉), while concussion risk (𝑅𝑅) is computed as a function of the average peak resultant linear acceleration (𝑎𝑎) and average peak resultant change in rotational velocity (𝜔𝜔) in each impact configuration.
Consider also wind noise created by the helmet which makes hearing overtaking electric cars alot more difficult..hence i quite like the smooth bowling ball style if i wear a helmet…i can hear the cars coming.