.

[henders]

.

[bychosis]

What ever fits your scone. No need for super aero or anything on a hybrid.

[Grejoh]

You spend what you think your head is worth in my opinion! You want cheap? Go for it. Wanna keep your brain? Spend more, IMHO.

[Marx]

I wear my commuting bike helmet 480 times a year.

[Mulger bill]

I doubt spending more than $100 will provide any safety benefit but it may be lighter and better vented.

Going top of the range will of course make you faster, improve your shifting and give you so much instant cred that real europros will line up to suck your wheel.

[A_P]

An urban or MTB helmet with a visor might be better suited to the more upright riding position on a hybrid.
Pick a size that will fit a cap or thin beanie if you live somewhere cold in winter.
I'm currently using a MET Terra on a cyclocross bike, visor doesn't impede view
AP

[TigerFilly]

Sounds like my commute. 12km on mostly bike paths on a hybrid! No uphill but often wind.
I recently bought one of those skate type bike helmets, just because I liked the look of it. I felt rather frivolous since I already had a perfectly good ordinary helmet, but I have been so pleased with it - it is just so comfortable, it kind of hugs my head, and it is warmer in winter. I will probably use my normal one again when the weather heats up but I love my skate helmet.

[Mulger bill]

Sounds like my commute. 12km on mostly bike paths on a hybrid! No uphill but often wind.
I recently bought one of those skate type bike helmets, just because I liked the look of it. I felt rather frivolous since I already had a perfectly good ordinary helmet, but I have been so pleased with it - it is just so comfortable, it kind of hugs my head, and it is warmer in winter. I will probably use my normal one again when the weather heats up but I love my skate helmet.

Skate bucket will cook your head in a Melbs summer, tread lightly.

[il padrone]

My son has recently replaced his aero vented helmet with a Nutcase 80s look lid. Currently he is happy that his head stays warmer on the colder days. Time will tell what summer holds in store for him.

[il padrone]

You spend what you think your head is worth in my opinion! You want cheap? Go for it. Wanna keep your brain? Spend more, IMHO.

Spending any more than $50-80 makes stuff-all to the impact protection of your helmet. They must all meet the Australian Standard. The more expensive helmets generally have a lighter weight, better venting, and easier to use strap adjustments and fit.

Don't spend more money on the belief that a $200 helmet is four times as much protection as a $50 helmet. It just ain't so.

[outnabike]

I would go with Kmart if it fits, they come with a great AS label suited to imported nicer looking ones and you get replacements for them due to false testing. Manufacturers recommend a new helmet every 3 years and if you have plenty of money, they make a great fashion accessory. I certainly cut a sharp figure in my old Headway, even the motorists wave at me.
PS.
The more expensive helmets keep the mushies fresher as well.

[tron07]

Get the Rosebank helmet from BigW, they come with the Lifetime Helmet Replacement Policy, cheap and quite good looking.

Only thing I found is the adjusting knob thingy at the rear is not as comfortable as the helmets that cost 2-3 times.

[tcdev]

I bought a $50 Limar helmet and it's incredibly comfortable (for me). Couldn't be happier.

[rodneycc]

+1 for the Limar. The 535 is particularly good for general use.

[ColinOldnCranky]

You spend what you think your head is worth in my opinion! You want cheap? Go for it. Wanna keep your brain? Spend more, IMHO.

In the day before MHL when there were less choices I purchased the most expensive helmet readily available helmet on the market, a Bell Tourlite.

I got it home and the strap broke when I was adjusting them - the cause being a manufacturing decision to butt-join heat-bond one big roll of material onto another so extract a few centimetres of otherwise lost material. Not impressed. A week after the replacement helmet had it's high-tensile - read "brittle" - sun-shade visor shatter when I tossed it onto the table. Thinking how useful that would that be in my eyes if I ever actually had a collision, I insisted on a full refund which I got. I noticed over the ensuing months that almost none of the Tourlites on other riders had retained their sunshade visors.

High price these days is often just posturing. The cycling industry IMO are second only to the fashion industry in the capacity to find people willing to part with substantial sums of money for limited real benefit. Why else would people buy expensive chains that they replace after a couple of thousand kms or frames that are incapable of taking a spill?

I suspect that spending more is about as justified as buying a better quality naturopathic remedy. The one-time-only styrene skid lid is a triumph of clever design over costly design.

[Homo Suburbiensis]

You spend what you think your head is worth in my opinion! You want cheap? Go for it. Wanna keep your brain? Spend more, IMHO.

No.

Sorry to burst your bubble but if anything the opposite is true.

[barefoot]

I find the biggest factor with a commuting helmet is its durability against incidental damage.

If you're using it 10 times a week, and either lugging it into the office or leaving it hanging off your bike in a secure cage, all that handling is going to beat it up a bit.

My commute helmets always end up getting damage from light impacts on the bare exposed foam around the rim. So I try to get helmets that have hard shell protection wrapping around from the outside (where all helmets have a hard shell), over the vulnerable area, to the inside (which excludes many helmets). I'm talking little dents and bruises and the occasional little chop/cut/penetration from... hell knows where... banging it on a door handle or handlebar or dropping it while wrestling with a pannier or whatever. They're the annoying ones. Only a couple of mm square damage, but the styrofoam is visibly compromised, which you have to assume is going to affect the integrity of the helmet.

I'm currently using a skate-style bucket helmet. It has a very thick outer shell that extends all the way to a couple of mm past edge of the styrofoam - but doesn't wrap around. It seems to be protecting the foam pretty well from incidental damage.

My previous commute helmet was a $5 Melbourne Bike Share helmet. It got bruises and dents around the rim because it doesn't have any hard shell there.

I certainly don't spend big $ on a helmet that's going to be knocked around like a commuting helmet does. For that matter, I don't spend big $ on "good" helmets for non-commuting rides either, but certainly more than I do for the commute.

I really doubt that big $ helmets provide any better protection in the unlikely case that you use it as designed (ie land on it). The big $ helmets will be as light, as aero, and as aesthetically pleasing as they can possibly make a helmet while still passing the standards test. They won't be designing it to have a margin for performance above and beyond what the various standards (Aus Standard, ANSI, Snell, ECE etc.) require... they'll be optimising so as to meet their other design objectives without failing the tests.

Lower $ helmets won't be as light, aero nor as aesthetically pleasing as the big $ helmets. They probably won't have had as much R&D money put into them. But they still pass the same tests... quite likely with a wider margin, because it's cheaper to design a helmet that you know will pass easily than it is to optimise.

tim

[tcdev]

I really doubt that big $ helmets provide any better protection in the unlikely case that you use it as designed (ie land on it). The big $ helmets will be as light, as aero, and as aesthetically pleasing as they can possibly make a helmet while still passing the standards test. They won't be designing it to have a margin for performance above and beyond what the various standards (Aus Standard, ANSI, Snell, ECE etc.) require... they'll be optimising so as to meet their other design objectives without failing the tests.

Lower $ helmets won't be as light, aero nor as aesthetically pleasing as the big $ helmets. They probably won't have had as much R&D money put into them. But they still pass the same tests... quite likely with a wider margin, because it's cheaper to design a helmet that you know will pass easily than it is to optimise.

This, above any other factor mentioned in this thread, is the bottom line.

You're paying for comfort and style, not safety, over-and-above the AS. Period.

[eeksll]

i have a $30 rosebank helmet from big w.

It is less comfortable than my other helmets. But not uncomfortable enough to not use/be concerned about.

[koshari]

High price these days is often just posturing. The cycling industry IMO are second only to the fashion industry in the capacity to find people willing to part with substantial sums of money for limited real benefit.

You havnt had much exposure to the SCUBA diving industry have you.

Btw I wear a $30 rosebank.