Helmets

Funny where reviewing takes you. If it wasn't for the Ribcap Jackson, I'd never have heard of Reynolds' Dilatancy. Nothing to with the tubing company, nor the sort of thing that makes your doctor blush. It's the tendency of various materials to thicken when put under 'shear stress' - what you and I would call impact - and it was first observed by Osborne Reynolds. It's what makes the ingenious Ribcap Jackson effective.

The Bell Javelin time trial helmet shares some of the DNA of the super-fast Giro Selector. The parent company is the same and the Javelin has that familiar shape: dome-like forehead and short tail. It's 75% of the price of the Selector, shaving off a cool £60.

It's not just a poor man's Selector, however, which means I can't use either of the Bo' Selecta puns that I'd prepared: 'poor Selector' and 'no Selector'. It is, unlike those puns, rather good.

The Bell Gage manages to combine a high level of comfort with plenty of ventilation and a light weight.

This new helmet takes over from the Volt at the head (thank you very much) of the Bell range – it's the one that Bell's sponsored riders are now using. It's considerably lighter than the Volt, our medium model weighing in at 235g. There are lighter helmets on offer – the Aeon we reviewed from Bell's stablemate Giro hit the scales at just 189g, for example – but the Gage is a highly reasonable weight for a race helmet.

The 635 from Limar is a tad beefier than the company's Ultralight 777, but there's very little in it, just 10g or so. It's designed to be a cost effective performance lid, and the company has an impressively rigorous set of safety certification attached to all its helmets, including the US CPSC standard and the even tougher Australian safety certification.

I can see the Biologic Pango folding helmet's appeal for short haul commuters needing to stash their kit in a very confined space. Substituting the industry standard thin polycarbonate layer with ABS (a thermoplastic) greatly reduces the likelihood of scratches and other accidental damage that comes from banging about in all manner of luggage but contributes to its portly 509g – about the same weight as my first hard-shell lid 25 years ago.

Early impressions left me undecided whether to pop Giro Reverb urban commuter helmet on my bonce or empty my bladder into it (you might have had some trouble with the vents-ed). Thankfully, I put my prejudices to one side and found myself enjoying its funky, yet practical styling and its pleasing functionality too.

The Savant is Giro's new one-up-from-entry-level helmet. Picking it up I thought I was looking at the new top of the range model and couldn't believe it's RRP of £59.99 (though you can find them for less online).

It just feels so well-made and light - my scales say 238 grams for the medium size test helmet. That's only 16 grams more than the manufacturer's claimed weight for the Aeon, the top of the range Giro helmet, and less than the claimed weight for the Atmos, which sits above it in the line-up.

Cratoni is an Italian sounding, yet German brand that makes helmets among other things. The C-bolt is their entry-level road-bike helmet. That's quite a high entry point at a RRP of £85.95 although it can be had at a scratch under £70 if you look around online.

Don't be mislead by the 'Urban' tag, the Pro-Viz Triton helmet is every bit as good for touring and trail duties courtesy of ample ventilation, moderate weight and decent build quality. On the flip side, with some of the big brands offer integrated lighting and similarly swish stuff as standard on their urban lids, and I was disappointed by a lack of insect netting that would've eliminated momentary panic when an insurgent wasp flew straight into my thatch.

Limar is known for its ultra light helmets with the range topping and does-what-it-says-on-the-tin ULTRALIGHT claiming to be the lightest lid around. The 777 continues this trend coming in at a very competitive 243 grams for the large size tested. All this at the (cheap by today's standards) price of £69.99, surely there's some kind of catch?