Choosing the right ebike helmet is crucial for safety. Explore our guide to find the perfect helmet for your electric bike.
What Every Rider Needs to Know: Higher speeds mean higher stakes. Learn about materials, certifications, and smart features that make the right helmet your best ally on the road.
Why Does Choosing the Right Helmet Matter?
As e-bikes take over urban commuting and even recreational cycling, they are enabling more & more people to adopt this lifestyle. Having said this, you should consider a few additional aspects: electric bikes make it effortless to ride at speeds most riders would need to put in decent sweat to reach. In other words, riders are going faster than ever—yet safety gear isn't always keeping pace.
With the rise in speed come new safety requirements, especially when sharing the road with cars, buses, and motorcycles. The average age of riders is also going up thanks to pedal assistance, friendlier riding positions, and new infrastructure. So, what does this mean for safety gear? Simply put, an electric bike helmet requires more than just a basic helmet. Let’s dive in.
What to Look for in a Helmet?
When choosing an e-bike helmet, there are several key factors to consider: materials/build quality, safety certifications, additional safety features, and comfort/fit.
The speed at which you ride directly impacts the type of helmet you need. It's crucial to understand that not all electric bicycle helmets provide the same level of protection. Each certification we’ll mention ensures that the helmet can absorb the significantly higher impact energy of a crash at higher speeds, providing specialized protection for speed pedelecs and Class 3 ebikes.
Materials & Build Quality
Have you ever considered e-bike helmets use different materials to protect your head? Or even which material is best for your riding style? Most riders don’t… there’s not a lot of data out there and most of it is unclear.
Helmets typically feature a thin, hard outer layer and a thick inner one that absorbs impact energy.. The outer layer is usually made of either ABS (the super hard plastic legos are made of) or Polycarbonate (PC, for short). ABS is usually thicker and heavier, but more durable. It won’t dent with the normal wear & tear of everyday use and will keep in top shape for a long time. PC shells on the other hand are much thinner and lighter but can get small dents (i.e. banging the helmet on a coffee table).
Build quality also plays a major role when it comes to choosing the right helmet. How well made is the helmet? Will it start falling apart after a few months? These are all valid questions, to prevent this: check the partitions (zones where different parts meet), look for uneven surfaces, wrinkles, etc - these are all tells of a poorly made helmet. Remember: not all helmets are created equal. Don’t forget about the straps, too: cheap straps look (and feel) cheap… and it’s your chin (and head) on the line.
Safety Certifications
When choosing an e-bike helmet, different riders have different needs on the road, but they all have one common goal: the need to protect their head. Luckily, Safety Certifications tell us what a helmet is prepared to withstand.
On the one hand, we have the traditional certifications: CPSC for the US, and EN-1078 for Europe, both widely adopted worldwide. They protect the rider at up to 25 km/h (15.5 mph). For urban e bikes, usually limited to 25 km/h, this is OK.
But what happens if you ride a Speed Pedelec (or a Class 3 electric bike in the US)? Those vehicles can go up to 45 km/h (28 mph)... this is a whole different scenario in terms of impact protection.
Without getting too technical, the energy a helmet needs to dissipate at 25 km/h vs 45 km/h is not just a tad more, it’s a lot more.
This means a helmet designed to protect you at these speeds needs to absorb much, much more energy to work… enter, the NTA 8776 certification. This is a relatively new Dutch certification that deals with higher speeds. It’s the highest and most demanding safety standard for cycling helmets today. This certification ensures that the helmet can absorb the significantly higher impact energy of a 45 km/h crash, providing specialized protection for Speed Pedelecs and Class 3 e-bikes. A helmet with NTA certification offers more safety than one without it. More impact absorption equals a safer helmet, period.
And what about Mips? We’ve all seen the little yellow dot on helmets. Mips stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection System. What does it do? It helps get the job done: it uses a low-friction liner enabling the helmet to move relative to the head during a rotational impact (which is the most common kind of impact).
This allows the helmet to absorb extra rotational energy, diverting it away from your brain. This makes helmets safer. It’s quite expensive…so it’s usually a good indicator that a helmet is well-built. In short, the yellow dot is your friend.
Our AURA smart helmet is a good example of a helmet covering all bases: NTA-8776, CPSC, EN-1078, and Mips - checking every box. It’s also designed for various riding environments—from urban commutes to road cycling—the AURA helmet features integrated lights and turn signals, enhancing your visibility in low-light conditions and allowing you to signal your next move just like a car.
Beyond Impact Protection
Helmets can do more than just protect your head in a crash. Smart helmets, like UNIT 1’s, offer safety beyond just impact protection. They work before a crash (to help prevent it in the first place), during a crash (as we covered already, protecting your head), and even after a crash (calling for help if you become unresponsive). We call this Active Safety, it’s our own ‘breed’ of Safety here at UNIT 1.
Integrated lights on your highest possible point make you way more visible to others and turn signals + brake lights make you predictable. This combo is 100% aimed at crash prevention, with riders literally speaking the same language as cars.
Crash protection is obviously still there (a Smart Helmet is still a helmet), and we go all in with Mips and a full set of certifications, including the most demanding of all: NTA 8776.
Finally, if you crash and become unresponsive, our helmets will send out an emergency text with your location to your emergency contact - so they can come find you, call an ambulance, or provide assistance. This means peace of mind for the older riders out there, too.
Comfort & Fit
A helmet that doesn’t fit correctly cannot effectively perform this function. Ideally, this means having a fitting system that allows for gradual adjustments. It also means having multiple helmet sizes. Many brands opt for a "one size fits all" approach to save costs, but this can be detrimental to safety since we all know heads come in all shapes & sizes (so helmets should, too). A helmet should closely match the shape and size of your head to offer maximum protection, making the availability of multiple helmet sizes a crucial factor in your decision.
A properly fitted helmet is essential for ensuring maximum safety and comfort. Helmets are made to absorb and distribute impact forces a helmet that does not fit correctly cannot perform this function effectively, compromising protection. Additionally, a well-fitting helmet prevents shifting and misalignment, which can obstruct vision and cause discomfort.
Adjustable fitting systems and a range of sizes allow helmets to match different head shapes and sizes, adhering to safety standards and providing optimal coverage. In contrast, a "one size fits all" approach fails to account for the diversity in head shapes and sizes, leading to potential safety hazards and reduced effectiveness of the helmet's protective features.
Conclusions
Choosing the right ebike helmet is a layered affair, you need to consider what bicycle you have, the speeds at which you are riding, how long your rides are (for weight), the time of day in which you normally ride, and even the city you ride in (not all cities have Amterdam-like cycling infrastructure).
If you’re looking to protect your head on an electric bike, check out our range of Smart Helmets. We’ve built the world’s largest & most advanced suite of Active Safety accessories for cycling. Period.
So if you’re concerned about choosing the right helmet for your e-bike, we’d like to think you’re now equipped to break it all down and make a great decision.
Happy trails!
Sources:
https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/e-bike-market-1948
https://bikebiz.com/the-rise-and-rise-of-e-bikes/
https://mipsprotection.com/bike/
https://atleehall.com/e-bike-accident-statistics-how-dangerous-are-they/
