Better accuracy, more con🎐fident results, and a dream of a helmet a🅺erodynamics database
(Image credit: Will Jones)
On June 27t🎉h, Will Jones and I went to what is fast becoming our second home, the wind tunnel at Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub, to test helmets. Again.
After loading up my trusty Peu𝓡geot to its proverbial gills with 47 different helmets at 4 A💟M, we headed out from Cyclingnews HQ on the two-hour journey east.
Of those 47 helmets, the vast majority were standard 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:road bike helmets, comprising a mix of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:aero helmets, vented ones and all-rounders too. For a bit of fun, we also took along a handful of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:time trial helmets in reaction to the WorldTour's recent trend towards using them more in road stages. You c🅰an thank Visma-Lease a Bike, Casper Van Uden, and Uno-X for that.
But it's not the first time we've tested helmets. For our first solo wind tunnel venture (after we piggybacked on a Uno-X test in 2022), Tom Wieckowski and I 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:tested 23 helmets in 2024, using Tom as the test dummy.
The data in that test is still valid, but I was very green to the world of wind tunnel testing, and I've learned a l🎐ot in the 14 months since, so I 🥀wanted to go back and do the test again. Bigger, better, and with more repeatability.
This time, not only did we test twice as many helmets, but we also tested using a 3D-printed mannequin made using a scan of a real rider. The reason for t❀his is to ensure the bike and rider remain absolutely and utterly motionless, allowing us complete confidence that any differences being measured were differences in the helmet, rather than, for example, an accidental movement mid-test, or a slightly different hand position.
In our previous test, we were statistically confident to around 3.2 watts (we tested the Abus Gamechanger twic🌱e and found a 3.2-watt differ🌸ence).
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This means that although we trust the data coming out of the wind tunnel software, we have to assume that🌠 any result could be subject to a 3.2-watt difference higher or lower - a total swing of 6.4 watts. As a result, the 12.76-watt difference we found between best and worst could be as little as 6.36 watts, or as much as 19.16.
With the mannequin, our margin o🦋f error is much smaller, down to just 0.74 watts, meaning we can be much more confident in our results.
The 'edge' file printed on the floor is designed for human riders to maintain their baseline position, but a mannequin remains utterly 🔯motionless. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Who won?
Speaking of results: Yesterday, on the 21st of July, the results of our new test were published, finding the budget-friendly Van Rysel XCR time trial helmet to be fastest of all, whi🌞le the Oakley Velo Mach (kindly loaned by our friends at Tudor Pro Cycling) took the title of the fastest traditional 'aero' road helmet.
If you want to read the full results, you can head over to our 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2025 wind tunnel helmet test write-up, complete with the raw data from every helmet at every yaw angle. It also includes lots of very pretty, ꦜvery useful graphs, calculations for the watts saved against a predetermined baseline helmet, and even a🐬 test at a faster speed for the 10 best road helmets.
We also tested different sizes of the same helmet, tidy straps versus poorly adjusted 'flappy' straps, and even the new Canyon helmet with that divisive 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Highbar strap.
Forever lying down on the job! This is the mannequin we used (or at least, most of him). He is a꧒ 3D-pr🍸inted replica of a real rider. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Database dreams
It's not just about the confidence interval, though. The o♐ther r🌟eason for doing the test again is long-term repeatability.
The results for each test were compared to those of the budget-friendly Abus Powerdome, and by using the SSE Hub's mannequin and bike, we can return in 2026, 2027 and ☂beyond to repeat the test.
By that, I mean we'll keep hold of the Abus Powerඣdome and take it with us every time we test helmets, and always use it as the baseline to compare against.
Therefore, new helmets that haven't been launched yet, such as the new Met Trenta, Poc Cytal Lite, Ekoi Aerodinamica, and Sweet Protection Tucker III 2vi, all of which are currently bꦅeing used at the To🐼ur de France, can be tested next time we're there in the same way.
In time, I dream of building a dat♚abase of helmets we've tested.
All of these helmets are borrowed from brands. They are generally happy to loan us thei🔯r products because they trust that we will perform a fair, unbiased test. In general, they also trust the performance of their product, manཧy are simply curious about the result, and others might just have fomo. Never does a brand pay us to be included, and if they offered, I would refuse. (Image credit: Will Jones)
How you can help
Some of you might be saddened to see that the data is hidden behind a paywall, but before you leave, I'll take this opportunity to ask you to pleไase consider subscribing to Cyclingnews and supporting the work we do.
If the test in intriguing and you'd consider spending 200-300 dollars / pounds / euros on a helmet upgr🌌ade to gain🍒 a handful of watts on the bike, then a few extra dollars / pounds / euros to see the data in full, helping to ensure you choose the best helmet, while also contributing to the data's creation, is surely good value.
These tests aren't cheap, either in time or money, and wi🔯thout our members, there's no way we'd be a♉ble to afford doing them.
We pay the standard hire rates for the wind tunnel, which is well into the thousands of pounds. Add to that the countless hours put in beforehand to ensure the helmets are all ready, and then the time to understand the data, generate the graphs, write the article, edit photos and video, and so on, and it's a huge investment to put each of꧅ these tests together.
I sound like I'm complaining, but far from it. I love doing th﷽ese tests, and the feedback🃏 I get says our subscribers enjoy reading them.
We have t🐎he occasional request for sponsorship or product placement in the tests, which helps to generate a little m🅰ore revenue, but each of those requests comes to me for approval.
For example, in this latest test, Rapha offered some paid product placement and provided a skinsuit for the ma🐼nnequin to wear. Rapha doesn't make helmets (aside from a few collaborations with POC in years gone by) and we were planning to dress our manneq🗹uin in a skinsuit anyway. It made sense to accept.
If there's any chance that the agreement would be seen as biased, such as if Kask had offered to sponsor this test (they didn't), I w♍oꦿuld refuse. Even if the brand promised to remain hands-off, I would still refuse.
The impartiality and authenticity of these tests are the two most important factors to their success. That goes hand in hand with th𒈔e support from our readers, so if you think you'll enjoy them or you want more of them, please support them. You can even email me with requests for what to test.
Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading ൲our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been w🐲ith us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based 🐻Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country 🦩bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
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