Commuting by bike is a specific job, especially in winter. These five helmets all have sun visors to eliminate time-consuming visor swaps and Pinlock anti-mist capability to suit all-weather rides.
Our top five commuter helmets are a mixture of full-face and flipfronts and all come in under £200 (in some cases, you’ll need to choose a plain colour to stay under the threshold).
Most come with a Pinlock included in the deal, but if it isn’t included we’ve left enough room to buy one separately and still come in under the £200 threshold.
Flipfront helmets are included in this selection, but if you’re particularly interested in flips, click here for our guide to the best budget flips.
AGV K3
Customer rating:
You’ll need to buy this in a plain colour to duck under our £200 threshold, but the early response from Sportsbikeshop customers suggests it may well be worth it. It’s been on the market for less than a year and already has 31 customer reviews, collecting an impressive average score of 4.84. The K3 has a thermoplastic shell, internal sun visor, spectacle cut outs, a quick-release strap fastener and leaves room for a wide choice of intercoms. It’s a genuine all-rounder that meets the latest ECE 22.06 safety standard and earns plenty of praise from owners. If there’s one common complaint it surrounds wind noise, so a pair of decent earplugs would be a wise complementary purchase.
Scorpion Exo-491
Customer rating:
In a plain colourscheme the Scorpion is the cheapest helmet in this selection, but the fit and finish doesn’t come across as cheap. Its plastic shell, internal sun visor, easy-adjust Pinlock pins and plush comfort liner all feel like they’re from a lid with a higher pricetag. The Scorpion Exo-491 Pinlock insert itself isn’t included as standard, but even adding one to the purchase keeps the Exo-491 comfortably under the £200 threshold - and that includes the more eyecatching graphic designs. The first 11 customers to review the helmet gave an average rating of 4.82, with nine of those reviewers awarding a five-star rating.
Nolan N60-6
Customer rating:
This helmet’s spec sheet must be one of the longest for a lid of this price, offering pretty much everything a daily rider would need to get through the whole year. As with the vast majority of sub-£200 helmets, the shell is made from thermoplastic and the N60-6 was one of the first entry-level lids to be approved to the new ECE 22.06 safety standard. It has a comfy foam liner, Pinlock-protected visor, sun visor with anti-fog coating and a micrometric strap fastener. Two downsides for commuting: 1) no recesses for intercom speakers means hoping there’s space between your ears and the lid. 2) a lack of chin curtain makes it chillier and noisier. Thankfully the second one is easily fixed as a Nolan N87 chin curtain costs around a tenner and fits straight in. The first 10 customers to leave a review gave the N60-6 an average rating of 4.70.
Caberg Duke X
Customer rating:
This is the replacement for one of the most popular flipfront helmet models of recent times - the Caberg Duke II. The Duke-X has only very slight revisions from its predecessor and boasts a lot of features for its relatively low price. It has an internal sun visor, Pinlock anti-mist insert on most versions and a chin curtain to reduce draughts and noise. The five-star rating from the UK Government’s SHARP scheme boosted confidence in the Duke II and there’s nothing to suggest the replacement would perform any differently. For as long as there’s stock of the Caberg Duke II, it’s a good bargain bet (average rating of 4.73 from a staggering 682 reviews), and the Duke-X took an average rating of 4.75 from the first four reviews. One note: buy the Smart Black colourscheme in either Duke II or Duke-X and you won’t get a Pinlock included.
Shark D-Skwal 3
Customer rating:
The mass switchover to the new ECE 22.06 safety standard means swathes of new models have arrived in a short space of time - and Shark’s D-Skwal 3 shows a lot of promise for daily riders who are out in all weathers. It’s a plastic-shelled lid with a full suite of practical features like a Pinlock anti-mist insert, sun visor with anti-fog coating, comfortable lining, chin curtain and breath deflector, space for intercom speakers and a micrometric strap fastener. The cheaper Shark Ridill 2 is a stripped-back version of the D-Skwal 3 and might look an attractive option, but you’ll lose the Pinlock, breath deflector and chin curtain. Those three are key elements in making the D-Skwal 3 so practical in the first place. The first five customers to review the D-Skwal 3 have all awarded the full five stars.