POC Omne Air Bike Helmet - Whether cycling to work, exploring gravel tracks or on the local trails, the helmet gives trusted protection

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The best budget bike helmets allow me to make reasonable, real-world, decisions. For most people, it's worth giving up a few percentage points at the very peak for big savings. Looking at helmets through a budget lens allows great helmets to make the cut even if they aren't the absolute best in terms of some performance metric. You might find it surprising to see an all out aero helmet in the best lightweight helmet category. The scale doesn't lie though. My guess is that more venting requires a heavier structure to hold the same standard of safety. Rotational motion is a common cause of concussions in oblique hits to the head. In a crash, the Mips system is designed to move slightly inside the helmet to help redirect forces away from the head. Overall, the performance offered by the POC Omne Air Resistance Spin is impressive. Sure, it's more aligned to the best XC helmets than anything else but the versatility it offers as a discipline-blurring mountain bike helmet is hard to ignore. When it comes to the downsides of the Circuit, it centres around the WaveCel rotational impact system. Unlike Kineticore which actually adds breathability, WaveCel is a system of cells that cuts down on breathability somewhat. I've never found that to be a big deal but I have found myself bothered that I can't reach through the vents and scratch my head. I also would always prefer a lighter helmet over a heavier helmet

Despite the low-volume design, weight does seem to have added up a bit. The size small Prevail 3 I tested came in at about 10 grams over my copy of the Giro Aries. 10 grams is, admittedly, not much but the Giro is a larger size as well. The POC Ventral MIPS has big open vents in the front of the helmet. It's almost more reminiscent of a climber's helmet until you compare it. You do lose some of the ability to evacuate heat through the central part of the helmet but it feels like a reasonable compromise. You also get a choice of a ton of colours and special pads to manage your glasses during the hottest climbs. Although there will always be government safety testing, Virginia Tech goes further. Certifications from agencies like the CPSC only state that a helmet meets a minimum requirement. They give no indication of how that performance ranks compared to the competition and impact testing only covers a specific type of impact. Virginia Tech has emerged as the only unbiased organisation to use a standardised and comparable test to rank helmet performance compared to other models. Virginia Tech is also a pioneer in the idea that off-centre impacts are different.

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Outside of safety, you are going to want to look at comfort and style. Budget helmets will tend to give up some features such as lightweight or aerodynamics but you still want a helmet that feels good on your head. You also don't want to neglect style. It might seem silly at first but if you don't like the way your helmet looks, it won't see much use. How important is a Virginia Tech rating? When it comes to finding a comfortable budget bike helmet, it's all about fit. You could say the same about more expensive helmets as well but it becomes even more important as other features get stripped away. Different brands have different size ranges and some fit perfectly while others are a struggle.

When you start your search for the best budget bike helmets you are going to want to start with safety first. That's the whole point of a helmet so it makes sense that you want something safe. Thankfully though, this is a pretty simple part of the buying process. The Omne Air also features the MIPS Integra system. This brings together POC’s ‘whole-helmet’ safety and design ethos with the fully integrated brain-protecting technology of MIPS. This holistic approach sees every detail of the helmet engineered to work in harmony with each other, giving you new levels of seamless safety, comfort, ventilation, fit and function. you choose to ride. Developed in line with POC's Whole Helmet Concept™, the Omne Air Resistance MIPS delivers The Giro Isode MIPS is another helmet that narrowly lost out to a different helmet from the same brand. It's lighter and the style is a bit sleeker but for not much more money you get the option of adding a really good rear light. Once again if you won't use a light then the Isode will save you money compared to the Agilis. MIPS came to market because the brand believes that an impact at an angle has different requirements. You can read more details in our guide to MIPS but for the purpose of this article, it's worth understanding that there are different solutions to the same problem. Lazer has Kineticore, Bontrager and Trek have Wavecel, and even MIPS has a variety of different configurations. All the technologies do the same thing in different ways and there's no way to be sure that one is better. What does the Virginia Tech score mean?Virginia Tech tests helmets from a wide variety of sports and has been doing so since 2011. No helmet brand is able to pay for better results and there is a standard testing protocol. If you do decide to keep an eye on the testing results of Virginia Tech, you'll need to understand what they mean. If you want to dive deep, Virginia Tech goes into great detail covering the science behind the number. To keep it simple though, the lower the number the better, and right now the top ranked helmet, out of 188 tested, has a score of 8.4. If you also see a star ranking, that is the same testing displayed in a different way. Any helmet with a score below 14.00 will have a five star ranking. Should you consider a bike helmet without a Virginia Tech rating? Virginia Tech is the only independent organisation that provides a test of bike helmets with more detail than pass or fail. That makes it hard to ignore the testing that Virginia Tech does and yet, not every helmet has a test result. You will have to decide if that sways your choice or not but there are some reasons why it might be missing. For those that like to stash their sunglasses during a climb, the Smith is one of the best. The caveat is that it's only workable if your sunglasses end in a thin arm. Also Tested POC has taken some of its helmets even further to protect your head by incorporating SPIN – Shearing Pad INside – technology. SPIN helmets have a set of pads inside the helmet that protect your head from rotational forces during an impact, which are a common cause of concussions during a crash. While SPIN helmets achieve the same result as MIPS helmets, POC’s technology claims to be even more effective at minimizing the effects of your head hitting the ground at an angle. POC Cycling Apparel