Kids Helmet Sizing

NorwegianBlue

We've just spent and age buying a helmet for my son who's three on monday. We had major problems finding one to fit. Most of the ones which were nominally in his size were too narrow and sat right on top of his head. In the end we found the only way to get one to fit was to buy a helmet in 54-58cm (which actually fits me on it's largest size!) and add extra padding front and rear.

It's not that my son has a deformed head, the other parents we met buying helmets for their boys were having exactly the same problem. Indeed one father ended up with the identical solution.

The problem seems to be that kids heads are rounder than adult heads, but most of the kids helmets we looked at were more elongated like a scaled down adult helmet. We tried several shops so it wasn't a problem unique to one supplier.

We've got a helmet now so it's not such a big deal, but does anybody know of a kids helmet that's properly suited to toddler heads?

Cheers,

GJ

Ian Sims

What brands were you looking at?

For our first child we had a Giro Me2, which fitted very well and was highly adjustable. I think it ranged from 48-52 cm. For my daughter, her head was too small for the Me2, so we ended up buying a Met helmet which could be adjusted to fit a 46 cm head.

Both helmets fit well. The only dwonside of the Met is that it doesn't have a flat back like the Giro, so it is slightly more of a problem when she is in her bike seat.

NorwegianBlue

Cam's head measures 52-53cm so none of the teeny size lids would fit him anyway, but quite a few of the kids lids were in ranges like 48-54cm. We tried all the big brand names in the up to 54cm range, but they all had the same problems.

The chap in one shop told me that they have a lot of similar problems fitting boys, but not so many with girls. Which would suggest that boys have rounder heads.

The back of the helmet isn't much of an issue because I don't have a bike that would take a kids seat anyway.

We tried a rather nice Bell skate style helmet which fitted nicely in a 52-56cm, but I wasn't sure how well suited a hard shell helmet like that would be to a toddler's disrespect for his equipment.

korky

Hi

We had a similar issue with my daughter a couple of years ago when she was 4 or 5.

Any helmet we tried ended up slipping and sitting at a jaunty angle like a beret (and probably as much use).

Friend recommended trying a Bell Trigger so off we went to local bike shop and wonders of wonders it was perfect.

It has a wheel adjuster at the back and sort of clamps the helmet to her head from the back - sits as secure as can be.

So impressed with the helmet I bought the same helmet for older sister who didnt have the same wobbly helmet problem because the helmet just seemed much safer.

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... 238c003240

NorwegianBlue

The adjuster on my own Spesh is pretty similar. After reading your post I tried my helmet on Cam because I have a pretty small head. Low and behold the thing fits him quite nicely? But then I have a pretty odd shaped head.

The straps on the one he has join at the rear of the helmet so after a bit of fiddling I've got the relative lengths of the front and rear straps just right so the straps wrap nicely around the back of his bonce and hold it in place in a similar way.

So job pretty much jobbed.

Thanks anyway.