wphamilton

Last year, maybe a year before, I took my old ratty helmet and stripped the cover off, shaved it down thinner and took the bottom sides off, and wrapped it in faux carbon fiber adhesive vinyl. Seriously, I'm not being facetious. The idea of it is apparently shocking to bike forum members - you don't know what you've done, the helmet won't protect you etc.

However, the amount of impact resistance turns out to be directly proportional to the thickness. That part at least is dead simple. Taking 25% off reduces the protection from impacts by 25%. It is lighter, as low profile as possible, with 25% less protection against major impacts and equal protection against minor (vastly more likely) impacts. The reason I bring it up now is that you'll face the same inescapable compromise for any light, small profile helmet. There are other design factors which can make the helmet relatively more effective, but take a realistic look at it from base principles before diving into the hype on a helmet, set the priorities of what you want most and then decide.