Colorado Kid

I need a helmet. The old was...old.(5+years) I checked out the LBS and a no-name, plain Jane helmet started at @ $200.00! I kid you not. So I went to the large mail order company that starts with a "A" You know the one. The same one I was looking at the store was $ 30.00. What? There was no difference in safety or anything..The only thing was the one at the bike shop Yellow and the other one was not. Why the big mark-up? $200.00 for a helmet is a bit high, don't you think?

Shortwave

Could be that the one store, your LBS, is struggling much more than the Big A, online store and needs the profit.

That's just my guess.

And unfortunately, with a price gap like that, I'd have to go with the Big A. It sucks, but it is what it is.

cb400bill

You can say Amazon. No one will complain about it.

curbtender

Amazon will have dealers selling old stock, overstock, damaged package, returns...

Clyde1820

Depending on what sort of helmet you're looking for, you might consider the Bern line-up.

A couple years back, I picked up the Bern Union MIPS. Great fit (at least for me) and adjustments. Can be found for between $50-60. Numerous other models available, too, many for sub-$100 ... the Brentwood, the Watts, the FL-1 among them.

https://bernhelmets.com/products/uni...42662723780760
https://bernhelmets.com/collections/...s/feature-mips

I-Like-To-Bike

No struggling LBS owner/salesperson would ever consider such an allegedly horrific sales policy of selling what serviceable stock is on hand, eh?

Lambkin55

I got my last helmet direct from Bell Bicycle Helmet.
It was half of your LBS but more that the "A" supplier but I am assured of the quality (AND it was shipped to me from a Bell warehouse .only 60 miles away,)

curbtender

More like that LBS went under and someone bought the inventory for pennies on the dollar. Myself, I check online price before I head to store and decide whether the price difference works for something I need now. A friend was limping home with a tubless and needed another co2 cartridge that he paid $8 at a larger shop.

rekmeyata

I wouldn't buy any helmet until I went to the Virginia Tech Helmet testing site and clicked bicycle helmets. There is small score number listed under every helmet tested, the lower the score the better the protection level even though there are a lot 5 star rated helmets. This site will let you find one that is in your price range too.

Clyde1820

Yup.

Ratings list:
https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/bicyc...t-ratings.html

Test protocol used:
https://hdl.handle.net/10919/83760

ScottCommutes

This is certainly an excellent resource, but I suspect the following are more critical in a crash than the actual rating of your helmet.

Are you wearing a helmet at all?
Does your helmet fit?
Are your straps properly adjusted?
Is your helmet old and/or beat up?

Virginia Tech started off testing football helmets before they branched out to bikes and other things. They believe that even a football helmet would protect you very well in a bike crash.

pdlamb

Though I don't want to start a helmet thread war, why do you need a helmet? Just being an old helmet doesn't necessarily mean it won't work. The only time I replace a helmet is when it starts coming apart. Literally, in one case, the plastic shell came off the foam on a long, fast downhill -- I thought I'd been brushed by a large insect. More common is the strap attachment or harness comes loose or breaks.

As for replacements, if Wally-world helmets fit my head, I'd wear one.

FLYBYU

I am the same way. After splitting a $300 Giro in half during a mishap, I buy my helmets mostly at Walmart. $30 and I have a comfortable helmet that will work the same.

rekmeyata

5 years old helmet is nothing, I don't replace mine unless I've crashed and hit my head with it, but even then I examine it and there are no cracks or compression areas I'll wear again. How I know it's time to get another helmet is when the material used starts to come apart, and it leaves what feels like sand particles on my forehead, that means the foam is deteriorating and it's time to buy a new one. I've never had a helmet that outside shell separated from the liner, not sure why that would even happen, but that would be an obvious clue to buy a new one. Sometimes the buckle breaks, you can't replace those, so time to get another helmet, I've only seen that happen with kids helmets, so far I haven't seen that happen with adult helmets. Helmet padding deteriorates too, some helmets have replacement padding you can buy, I've had to do that, some brands may say they discontinued a particular older model of padding, but if you look carefully at the padding they do carry for a newer different model you'll discover it's almost identical, even if it fit a bit long just trim it.

Viich

Yea, I pay a lot more attention to my full-face helmet for racing BMX than I do the helmet I wear riding to work. I've got one nice road helmet, (cheapest Giro from 3 years ago) but I've got a few real cheapies around between 5 and 20 years old, and I'll just pick up one of those to ride.

I did a lot stupider things on a bike wearing no helmet when I was a kid (helmets weren't worn then, at least not where I grew up) than I do on a road bike.

If I'm riding to the store, or the dentist, a soccer game, or wherever, it's under 10km and mostly on pathways as opposed to on the street? I might well not bother wearing a helmet. Just getting on a bike isn't a high risk activity. Some of the idiocy I pull on my BMX & fatbike is though.

rekmeyata

When I was a kid no one wore a helmet, not even adults where I lived either. But one must figure out if the brain inside the skull is worth more than the cost of helmet, if not, save some money and don't ride with a helmet.

Smaug1

Just because they are outwardly the same doesn't mean they're of equivalent performance.
I bought a Schwinn helmet from Amazon one time; it had a nice LED light in it. The plastic shell was taped on. That tape doesn't hold forever, and then you run the risk of slicing yourself up on it if you crash.
There is also MIPs now, which allowed the outer parts of the helmet to slide on the thin plastic inner frame, so that it torques your head less when you crash.
There is also fit & adjustability, which is better on better helmets, as well as better buckles. (my two better helmets have this nice magnetic buckle)

My two helmets:

• a midrange Bontrager Solstice with MIPs. I have added CatEars and a mirror to it. $70 and it's a quality helmet.
• a Lumos eBike-rated helmet. It has a nice fold-down visor and a full set of LEDs in it. It came with a Bluetooth remote to use some of the LEDs as a turn signal. It is actually 3rd party certified for eBike crashing. $230.
  

Another thing that better bike helmets tend to have is better ventilation. The Solstice helmet is better vented than the Lumos and weighs half as much too.

One thing my next helmet will have is a chin bar. I think that means I'll be looking at downhill mountain bike helmets. I had 3 motorcycle crashes and two ouf of three times, the chin bar saved me jaw surgery.