Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

Helmet Construction and Design

Summary: References and resources for research on bike helmet design and construction.

We have some stuff, but it's all over the place!

If you know what aspect of helmets you need to find, use our search function.

• Our page on the ideal bicycle helmet is probably the best starting place. It discusses construction and materials.
  
  
• Our page on how helmets are made.
  
  
• Our page on helmet liners.
  
  
• Our page on how outer shells affect safety.
  
  
• Our page on molded-in-the-shell helmets.
  
  
• Our page on buckle types.
  
  
• Our best guesses on the cost of manufacturing a bike helmet.
  
  
• Our page on helmet patents and how to see the US Patent Office files.
  
  
• Our Helmets for This Season articles from this and previous years all have comments on helmet construction in the opening paragraphs and scattered throughout.
  
  
• Our Standards Page has more.
  
  
• Our newsletters have material scattered over the years.
  
  
• Our Frequently Asked Questions About Bicycle Helmets has more.
  
  
• Our Quick Answers page has some comments on construction.
  
  
• Our Research page has links to statistics and such, mostly related to helmet performance rather than physical construction.
  
  
• Here is an article about motorcycle helmet construction available from ScienceDirect. It covers materials and design issues. We do not know if it is authoritative, and do not know anything about the authors. There are many other journal articles related to helmet features or performance, so you might want to look at this ScienceDirect search for them. It brings up 240+ articles. The articles are not available from us.