There are lots of different types of bicycle helmet, depending on what type of cycling you do, (nothing is ever as easy as it first appears is it?)

Don’t worry though, I’ve listed them for you here, and for general recreational cycling it’s easy enough to find a bicycle helmet which suits your purpose perfectly!

Bicycle Helmet Types

Road bike helmets are the original type of bicycle helmet, and have gradually evolved over the years. They’re made for recreational cycling on the road as well as road racing and are generally a kind of elongated shape with air vents (it’s hot work pedalling you know). They are generally made from EPS (expanded polystyrene) with a thin plastic shell covering the outside. Millions of this type of bicycle helmet are sold every year throughout the world (after all, there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing alone – according to Katie Melua).

Commuter bicycle helmets evolved from the road bike helmet and was introduced in 2004. Rather than the elongated shape offering less wind resistance, they have a more rounded shape. Again, they are generally manufactured from EPS foam with an outer plastic shell, but you can also get them with accessories – ear flaps (it gets cold in winter) mirrors (he’s behind you!) and rear blinkers, all useful stuff when you’re commuting through the early morning traffic.

Youth bicycle helmets are specifically designed for cyclists between around 10 to 15 years of age. They are usually in the road or mountain helmet style but have zany graphics to be more appealing to the youths of today.

Child bicycle helmets are designed for kids of around 5 – 10 years and are similar to the youth helmets but smaller! The graphics on these are designed to appeal to children of these ages with plenty of cartoon characters appearing! They are still tested under the same CPSC standard so need to pass rigorous safety tests. Although they are generally sized by age, don’t take too much notice, make sure that the helmet fits correctly regardless of the age of the child.

Toddler bicycle helmets are manufactured to the CPSC standard too, but are generally more rounded in design. These are specifically for children up to the age of about 5 years.

Women’s bicycle helmets these days generally refers to pastel designs and flowers, but during the 1990s there was a bicycle helmet designed which was designed for women (or men) with long hair which had a pony tail port. These are not very common these days but you might still find one if you look hard enough.

Downhill mountain bike racing helmets are designed similarly to a light-weight motorcycle helmet, and generally incorporate some sort of facial protection (a chin bar) specifically for tearing down wooded hillsides at breakneck speeds (some people are just plain crazy). They are generally made from the same EPS foam but often the thin plastic outer shell is replaced by a more robust fiberglass or carbon fiber one. They also have air vents, and the best ones are certified to ASTM F1952 Downhill Racing Helmet standard.

Mountain bicycle helmets are really road style helmets in disguise (well, not even much of a disguise actually). Generally it means that it’s a road helmet with a visor!

BMX bicycle helmets are generally lightweight to full weight motorcycle style helmets (some BMX riders actually wear motorcycle helmets). They always need to have a chin bar for facial protection and often a large visor bolted to the top of it. If they have vents they are generally quite small as BMX races are usually sprints. Some can be certified to ASTM F 2032 BMX standard or alternatively the more protective DOT motorcycle standard. One things for sure, a BMX helmet needs to be pretty robust and offer maximum protection.

Chrono bicycle helmets are like the ones you see them wearing, whizzing around a track at the Olympics! Got it? They need to be ultra efficient in the aerodynamics department and often have a long tail pointing down the riders back to make them more streamlined. They don’t have any vents (that would spoil the aerodynamics) and are really only used on the track or in time trials.