Best bike helmets for road cyclists: lightweight, aero and all-rounder lids for every rider

The primary purpose of a cycling helmet is to protect your head in the event of an accident. To this end, all helmets sold in the UK, USA and Europe have to pass stringent safety tests before they can be put on the market.

However, recent technological advancements mean that many helmets offer extra systems that provide even greater protection. MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System), for example, is designed to prevent damage caused by oblique or glancing blows that rotate the skull around the brain.

Safety isn’t the only consideration though. We always take into account weight, aerodynamics and ventilation when we're reviewing helmets but with an understanding that not everyone's priorities are the same.In short, we'd advise you to think carefully about how, where and when you are going to use the helmet.

Likewise, having tested hundreds of helmets over the years, we'd always recommend trying a few options on to see which suits your head shape and size. There is more information about these below in the 'How to choose a helmet' section.

There are wide price differences between helmets, so if you are operating on a budget, then visit our best budget bike helmets page, or if you commute regularly by bike then have a look at our best commuter bike helmets article.

The Quick List

Best overall helmet

The Giro Eclipse Spherical helmet uses Giro's MIPS Spherical tech, where MIPS forms the filling in a sandwich between two EPS foam layers.

We found the helmet to be really comfortable, with an unrestrictive feel and fit. Airflow was impressive and kept us comfortable even in 35C-plus heat. We also appreciated the little details, which are sometimes missing in other helmets - here the straps fit well without flapping and there's space to insert your sunglasses in the front vents.

Giro claims that the Eclipse is the fastest-ever aero helmet (non TT) - which we aren't able to verify, although our tester did achieve his fastest-ever downhill speed and upped his average overall while wearing it.

Read more: Giro Eclipse Spherical cycling helmet full review

Best lightweight helmet

The featherlight and comfortable Lazer G1 Genesis helmet feels secure when on and boasts a simple, stylish look. To fit your individual head shape the rear barrel retention cradle has a large amount of vertical adjustment, but as with the Lazer Blade+ MIPS Helmet, this doesn't provide much in the way of horizontal adjustment, so not as fine-tuneable as any of the Giro helmet offerings.

That said, we found it to be a really comfortable road bike helmet aided in no small part by it being so lightweight; in fact at 205g for a sized medium on our test scales, it's one of the lightest helmets we've tested, and around 55g lighter than the Giro Helios Spherical MIPS Helmet.

You do need to "shell" out for the additional aftermarket aero layer, it's not a big outlay, and if you want to harness the helmet's go-faster properties, it's a minimal weight penalty, and help make it a very lightweight, aero-specific road bike helmet.

Read more: Lazer G1 Genesis cycling helmet full review

Best aero helmet

Trek has revamped its racing helmet lines, with the aero Ballista MIPS now including MIPS Air sliding plane tech which doesn't need a separate internal liner. It's an interesting-looking design, with its dropped tail.

It's tightened with a wire and BOA dial system at the rear, which gives a secure, stable fit. There's low profile padding and the straps are soft and easy to adjust.

On the bike, we were impressed by the airflow as well, which works better than some more obviously vented helmets, despite there only being two front-facing vents. We also rated the ponytail-friendliness, although adjusting the cradle height at the rear is a little fiddly.

Read more: Trek Ballista MIPS bike helmet full review

Best budget helmet

Kask designed the Sintesi to be a single, mid-priced helmet that worked as well for recreational road cyclists, commuters and gravel riders. It comes in a wide range of colors and is affordably priced.

Kask uses its Ergo Fit retention system, which allows wide vertical and circumference adjustment of the rear of the cradle, allowing two sizes to suit most head sizes, and there is a comfortable synthetic leather chin strap. Rather than an additional layer like MIPS, Kask uses the WG11 protocol to test its helmets for rotational impact protection.

On test, we found that the Sintesi provided good airflow and kept our head cool, although the 13 vents don't offer anywhere to perch a pair of glasses.

Read more: Kask Sintesi helmet full review

Best all-rounder

An absolute favourite road bike helmet for us is the Giro Aether MIPS. On test we called it a game-changer of a road bike helmet due to its unrivalled all-around performance.

During the review period, we found this helmet to be exceptional in its ventilation ability and at the cutting edge for safety features. While there are slightly lighter helmets, such as the Kask Protone helmet, it was still an impressively low weight at just 269g (for a size small).

Packaged in a sleek-looking design, with lots of colors to choose from, it's really easy to wear for any style of riding making it all-round the best road bike helmet out there. In fact, we loved the Giro Aether MIPS so much, that we gave it a five out of five stars and a Cycling Weekly Editor's Choice Award. The only reason why you wouldn't want to buy it is if your head fundamentally didn't fit any of the size options.

Read more: Giro Aether MIPS helmet full review

Best aero all-rounder

On test we absolutely loved the POC Ventral Spin, finding it one of the best road bike helmet for aerodynamic features without sacrificing breathability.

Its large air ports mean that it also doesn't take the usual guise of an aero helmet, which tend to have a more solid appearance. The aero lid uses POC's own SPIN (Shearing Pad INside) safety feature, which combines silicone bladders and pads to help dissipate rotation impacts.

While seemingly superficial, anyone who has ridden with an aero lid will know the challenge of trying to stow sunglasses when they're not on your face. The fully wrapped EPS POC Ventral SPIN however includes sunglass grippers. They're meant to be best compatible with POC's own brand sunnies, but we teamed the helmet with a whole host of brands and found them to hold tight to every single pair.

Read more: POC Ventral SPIN cycling helmet full review

Best TT helmet

With its short tail, the MET Codatronca has an advantage which makes it a more versatile time trial helmet for most riders. Riders will still get significant aero gains but without having to worry that they are always in a perfect optimum "turtle" position - this is particularly relevant when faced with sporting courses.

We found it was a very comfortable lid, which provided a close fit with Met's 'Safe-T Orbital' fit system with retention dial. It also had sufficient ventilation thanks to its three small vents on the front and further two 'exhaust' holes at the rear - included to channel air out the back. It has a clever magnetic visor system, but bear in mind the visor is quite long and therefore may take some time to get used to.

It's got a rather large price tag, but it's well in keeping with the likes of the Giro Aerohead MIPS helmet, so seems about right.

The only downside is that Met helmets aren't currently available in or allowed to ship to the US.

Read more: MET Codatronca full review

Best ventilation

Now in its third iteration, the Specialized S-Works Evade 3 helmet improves on its predecessors with better airflow and comfort, without sacrificing aerodynamic slipperiness.

It comes with larger front vents and a drag-defeating "diffuser" with wide vents at the rear. Specialized has also made the straps thinner, used a standard buckle and included MIPS Air Node, which is integrated into the internal padding, making it less intrusive than the more normal plastic liner.

The helmet is compatible with the ANGi crash sensor, although Specialized doesn't include this.

We found the Evade 3 comfortable even on hot, dry summer rides and comfortable, if a little narrow on the sides. The narrower straps generated less wind flap too.

Read more: Specialized S-Works Evade 3 full review

Best lightweight aero

Combining aerodynamics with aesthetically pleasing looks and improved comfort, we found the recently revised Kask Utopia Y helmet to be one of the best road bike helmets.

Despite its closed-off silhouette, the deep channelling and vents under the brow keep your noggin cool and your sunglasses free of sunscreen-infused sweat. You can adjust the retention band down to the millimetre, giving the helmet an excellent snug - yet comfortable - fit. This comfort is further boosted by the addition of thick interior padding, which is very soft against the skin.

Weighing in at only 260g in a size medium, the Utopia Y is also impressively light, especially for an aero road helmet - we found that it really did disappear on our head once we'd strapped it on.

Unlike some other aero lids, the Utopia Y is not bulky looking, and it also comes in a wide range of nine colors so you'll be able to find a look that suits your individual style or matches your bike.

Read more: Kask Utopia Y cycling helmet full review

Honourable Mentions

The Lazer Vento is designed as an aero helmet, so ventilation is somewhat sacrificed for speed. That said, this helmet still compares very favourably to other aero helmets with regards to keeping your head cool. Although we couldn’t test the aerodynamic qualities of this against other helmets, it did feel fast when putting our head down and throughout the test loops we did.

The helmet looks rather good too, having quite a low profile and not being too bulbous. It was also very comfortable and the new retention system is a massive improvement on Lazer’s previous design – although still not as easy to use as a regular dial. However, this new system does promise to be ponytail-friendly. The glasses port, sadly, is not particularly good as it is too wide to accommodate most sunglasses.

The helmet is definitely towards the more expensive end of the market and is also not the lightest at 291g for size medium. However, the weight is not something that we noticed when wearing it.

Read more: Lazer Vento KinetiCore helmet full review

We absolutely loved the Giro Helios Spherical MIPS helmet finding it to be the best do-all helmet out there.

Bridging the gap between road and off-road adventures, the lightweight helmet uses the same Spherical MIPS protection as the Giro Aether, which isn't the only way this lower price offering challenges its more expensive sibling.

There's also a 10-gram weight, saving to be had on a like-for-like size, with the brand putting this weight saving down to the Helios Spherical helmet having less technical ventilation structure than the Aether. I found it a barely noticeable difference having ridden both helmets, with the two equally as comfortable as each other.

The only thing it does lack is an eyewear doc feature; we struggled to find suitable holes to pop sunglasses arms through, but if you're looking for a great value all-rounder option, then this is one of the best road bike helmets out there.

Read more: Giro Helios Spherical MIPS cycling helmet full review

Specialized's updated S-Works Prevail 3 helmet is designed to be both airier and safer than the outgoing model.

By using its Air Cage design, it's been able to strip down the usual foam bridges to help increase ventilation by almost 25% when compared to the Prevail 2 without compromising safety. Essentially the cage design acts like a suspension bridge, distributing the forces of an impact across the entire helmet.

The Prevail 3 also uses MIPS AirNode, which integrates the MIPS system, designed to protect against rotational forces during a crash, directly into the helmet padding to reduce weight and improve ventilation.

We found that the large vents did their job with great success. Even when temperatures hit 32 degrees centigrade the air flow through the helmet kept our head cool.

At 280 grams, the S-Works Prevail 3 is light but certainly not the lightest in class, but for those who ride often in hot climates the supreme ventilation is likely to make it worthy of consideration.

Read more: Specialized S-Works Prevail 3 full review

Meet the testers

Anne-Marije Rook

Originally from The Netherlands, Anne-Marije started bike racing in her early twenties while living in Seattle, WA alongside working as a bike messenger. Strengthened by the many miles spent darting around Seattle's hilly streets on a steel single speed, her progression in the sport was a quick one. As she competed at the elite level, her journalism career followed, and soon she became a full-time cycling journalist, a career she's now had for 11 years.

Buyer's guide to choosing the best road bike helmets

How we test

Where we've been able to link to a review, it means that we've put the head protection through its paces. All of the members of the Cycling Weekly Tech Team have years of experience in riding bikes in all disciplines and have a huge wealth of knowledge and wear helmets almost every time we ride.

We know that what might not fit one of us, might fit another team member better, meaning that this best road bike helmets buyers guide has depth and breadth in terms of recommendations.

Where we haven't yet had the chance to review an item, we're still confident in recommending it as one of the best, because we either know the brand well, and have probably tested another product or the previous version and can still happily recommend it.