Vancouver startup Pikio's $379 Si Oblik scored 4.61 in Virginia Tech's STAR tests, far ahead of every other bike helmet, using foam blocks that shift and break away.
Pikio, a small Vancouver startup, has made the top-rated bike helmet in Virginia Tech's STAR safety tests. The Pikio Si Oblik scored 4.61, where lower is safer, well ahead of the previous best, Canyon's Deflectr RLS at 6.82.
Its Oblik system splits the helmet's foam into separate sections on flexible mounts. In a crash they can shift or break away, cutting the twisting forces linked to concussions while dual-density foam absorbs the direct hit.
You don't need the priciest helmet to be safe: many four and five star models cost far less, including a $50 Specialized.
A bike helmet from a small Vancouver company has just scored 4.61 in Virginia Tech’s independent STAR ratings, where lower means safer. The previous best helmet scored 6.82. That gap, about 32 percent, is enormous in a test where most top helmets land somewhere between 7 and 10.
If you ride a bike, the reason it matters is your brain. The real danger in many crashes isn’t only how hard your head hits the road, but how sharply it twists, which can stretch the brain inside the skull and raise the risk of concussion. The Pikio Si Oblik is designed to handle both, and it shows how fast helmet safety is moving.
US federal rules from the Consumer Product Safety Commission still judge bike helmets mainly on straight, direct impacts. Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab goes further. Its STAR system, launched for bike helmets in 2018, tests how well each helmet cuts both straight-line force and rotation across a range of crash scenarios based on real accidents.
The scores are added up into a single number. A score of 10.1 or lower earns five stars. When the program started, only four of the first 30 helmets got five stars. By 2025, 167 of 272 did, so the lab tightened its grading to separate the very best.
In the current rankings, the Pikio Si Oblik sits first overall and first among road helmets, ahead of the Canyon Deflectr RLS and the 3D-printed Hexr Miden RLS. The lab recommends any helmet with four or five stars.
Virginia Tech says its test methods are public and based on real crash situations, and the industry has responded by racing up the table. Ratings currently cover adult helmets only, and the lab is working on a separate system for children’s helmets. You can browse its rankings free, sorted by road, mountain, urban, multisport and e-bike categories.
Most bike helmets are a thin plastic shell over a single block of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, which crushes on impact to soak up energy. Oblik breaks that block into separate foam sections, each fixed to a base layer of EPS with flexible connectors.
In a crash, those sections can shift independently or snap off if the hit is severe. That movement reduces the twisting force passed to your head. Two densities of foam handle the direct blow. Pikio founder Daniel Abram says the system can deform, deflect and detach depending on where, how hard and from which direction a helmet is struck. The design takes its cue from the woodpecker, which hammers its head all day without concussion.
Abram has spent 18 years on impact protection. At Simon Fraser University he helped develop BrainShield, a system to reduce rotational forces. He later founded BiaGuard, whose patents and intellectual property MIPS bought for around $1 million in 2022.
Helmet makers tackle rotation in very different ways:
Oblik is different because the movement happens inside the foam itself, rather than in a separate slip layer or the outer shell.
The safety comes at a cost. The Pikio Si Oblik is $379, which is $219 more than the second-place Canyon Deflectr RLS. Abram says a normal cycling helmet has around eight to 10 parts, while the Si uses about 80, and all those foam sections and connectors make it far harder to build.
Day to day, testers found few compromises. It weighs 279 grams in a medium, which is light though not the lightest, and a dial-adjusted cradle gives a snug fit. It’s a little bulky for a road helmet, but 17 vents keep it cool. It uses a standard buckle rather than a magnetic clasp because, Abram says, the buckle is much lighter.
Like most foam helmets, it must be replaced after a serious crash. Pikio offers 30 percent off a replacement if you send back the damaged helmet. Abram says four helmets had been returned and replaced so far.
You don’t have to spend $379 to be well protected. Almost half of the helmets Virginia Tech has rated earn at least four stars, including a $50 Specialized Align II that sits among the top-rated models. The lab’s own advice is that price doesn’t always predict performance, and any helmet beats none.
If you ride fast on roads, commute in heavy traffic or simply want the best score available, the Si Oblik is the current leader. For most riders, the smart move is to check the free STAR rankings and pick a four or five star helmet that fits well and suits your budget.
By Virginia Tech’s STAR ratings, yes. It scored 4.61, the best result recorded, ahead of the Canyon Deflectr RLS at 6.82.
It costs $379 in the US. UK and Canadian prices were not given.
It’s a helmet design where the foam is split into separate sections that can move or break away in a crash, reducing both direct and twisting forces on the head.
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