The Beam Virgo Integral MIPS Cycling Helmet

The Beam Virgo Integral MIPS Cycling Helmet is an interesting urban lid that offers enhanced protection over a standard cycling helmet. It doesn't feel as 'full face' as it looks in the pics, and if you're looking for something that looks and feels secure for your city adventures then it certainly ticks those boxes.

> Buy now: The Beam Virgo Integral MIPS Cycling Helmet for €289 from The Beam

For more options, check out our guide to the best cycling helmets.

As you can see from the images, this is a full-face urban helmet with a visor. It differs from a standard urban helmet because of that, but also because it's NTA-8776 certified.

NTA what now? NTA-8776 is an enhanced standard that's designed originally for 45km/h S-pedelec electric bikes, and in some countries (for example the Netherlands) you're required to wear one on those faster bikes. The standard is more rigorous than standard bike helmet certification: it's designed to protect against heavier impacts at higher speeds, and for the helmet to cover more of the head. It's largely not a mandatory standard, but many helmet manufacturers are taking note, and not just in the e-bike world: Met Helmets, for example, tests all its Enduro helmets to the NTA-8776 standard nowadays.

We don't have any specific S-pedelec legislation in the UK, so any e-bike that doesn't meet the standard pedelec criteria (250W motor, 25km/h maximum assistance speed) is legally a moped and you're legally obliged to wear a moped-rated helmet. So a helmet built to pass NTA-8776 is something of a curiosity over here, but don't let that put you off: think of it as just a bike lid that's passed a stricter test. That's not a bad thing. You'll get the odd funny look, though, so factor that in.

On yer head, on the bike

The Virgo Integral MIPS combines that extra protection that NTA-8776 mandates with – the clue's in the name here – a Mips low friction layer which is designed to mitigate against rotational brain injuries in the event of a crash. (Read more on Mips in our feature All you need to know about Mips.) It's also available without Mips for a bit less, and without the visor too for less again. So this helmet is pretty stacked in terms of mechanical safety, and with a visor and integrated rear light you're ticking quite a few other boxes too. So, what's it like to use?

If you've ever been cocooned inside a motorbike full face helmet and experienced the muffled hearing and restricted vision that comes with one, then: it's not like that. The Virgo Integral MIPS feels much more like a standard urban lid than it does a full face.

It's well vented – as well as the stricter safety standard will allow – and the visor, even when down, doesn't fill the face hole (stop me if I'm getting too technical) so there's always a decent flow of air going through the nine vents. The visor is nice and wide, and the sides of the helmet are far enough back that they don't restrict your peripheral vision. I never felt that my vision out of the helmet was compromised.

Neither was my hearing, because your ears sit in holes in the helmet that give you unencumbered hearing when you're out and about.

Features & details

The visor will be available in four shades, and you can swap between them by undoing a couple of screws. The Crystal visor is lightly tinted and is fine for general use both in the day and after dark. It's easy to flip up, and half the time I had it like that, mostly using it for keeping the wind off my face on the downhill run into town, and as a rain shield. It's not optically perfect, but it's pretty good. It offers quite a bit of weather protection, although there's still room for rain and icy winds to reach your face underneath it.

The LED light at the back is integrated in the sense that it's a separate thing designed to fit into the helmet with a magnetic latch rather than being built in; that's a good thing. It's a decent enough light with steady and flashing modes and it has a simple accelerometer circuit that acts as a brake light.

Having a rear light up on your helmet certainly doesn't hurt in terms of visibility in traffic as it tends to be visible through cars a bit more. It's USB-C rechargeable and will last a week of most people's commute.

The Virgo Integral MIPS comes in three sizes, covering heads from 51cm to 63cm, which is basically everyone. I'm a 58, so top end of a medium, but with a full face lid there are other head shape aspects to consider. I found the chinguard sat a bit high for my liking, and also the sides of the lower section were a bit tight against my jaw. There are removable pads there, and pulling them out made it feel more comfortable but less secure; other than those two chunky pads the padding inside is very good. Probably if I'd tried the helmet on before buying I'd have sized up to a large.

All of which is to say that if you can try before you buy, that's probably a good idea. The chinstrap and micro-adjust ratchet at the back are pretty standard stuff, and work just fine. It is quite a heavy helmet, but doesn't really feel cumbersome in use.

Conclusion

So to recap: this is a nicely made urban helmet that has Mips and is tested to a higher standard than most bike helmets. Would I buy one? I think the best way to answer that would be to say: I can see the merit in it. There aren't many helmets like this in the market, and obviously over here in the UK, where speed pedelecs (or at least legal ones!) are not a thing, there is probably less of a demand. Does it 'feel' safer? Yes, I suppose it does, though not like you're invincible – it's a plastic hat after all. I don't feel like I've compensated for it by taking more risks on the bike, although I'm aware a lot of that is subconscious.

At €289 (~£240) for the top-spec helmet reviewed here, it's not cheap; the non-Mips version will cost you €229 (~£190) and the version without the light and visor is €179 (~£150). I think the light and visor are certainly worth having. You can get urban lids with visors for around £100 from the likes of Decathlon, but not with the higher safety rating and not with the full face design.

The Virgo Integral MIPS is a bit of an outlier and there's not a lot to directly compare it with; you might take one look at it and decide it's not for you, and you might think it's just the kind of thing you were looking for, and nobody was making one. So it's a bit hard to score, but it's a nice piece of kit with enhanced protection over a standard helmet, and I've enjoyed using it more than I thought I would.

> Buy now: The Beam Virgo Integral MIPS Cycling Helmet for €289 from The Beam

Verdict

Interesting urban lid with enhanced protection and a built-in visor and light