How This Tiny Startup Built the World’s Safest Bike Helmet

For decades, researchers judged cycling helmets on how well they protected against direct impacts. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) still does, even though research shows the danger isn't just how hard your head hits the ground, but how violently it twists. That rotational movement can make the brain twist and stretch inside the skull, increasing the risk of concussion and other brain injuries. Not waiting for the CPSC to catch up, the cycling industry got to work. Multidirectional Impact Protection System, or MIPS, hit the market in 2007 and is now a common feature on premium helmets. At the same time, Virginia Tech turned helmet safety into something of a competition for manufacturers. In 2018, it launched helmet STAR ratings (Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk), testing beyond the legal minimum and measuring both linear and rotational impacts. Only four of the first 30 helmets earned five stars, but by 2025, 167 of 272 achieved five stars, and Virginia Tech had to tighten its grading. That only drove competition and improved helmet technology. Suddenly, hitting the number one spot was good for business and brains. Sitting comfortably ahead of the competition, with a 4.61 score (10.1 or lower earns a five-star rating; lower is better), is the Pikio Si Oblik road cycling helmet, featuring a new safety system called Oblik. Inspired by the headbanging, concussion-proof woodpecker, this new design has wiped the floor with the competition. For context, Pikio's 4.61 score is 2.21 points lower than the previous best Canyon Deflectr’s 6.82. That’s about 32 percent lower, a massive shift when many of the highest-rated helmets score only between 7 and 10 points. How has this relatively obscure Vancouver startup gotten it right the first time? As founder Daniel Abram explains, it “comes from 18 years researching impact protection and helmet design.” After studying mechanical engineering, he moved into helmet research at Simon Fraser University, where he helped develop BrainShield, a system designed to reduce rotational forces during impacts. He later founded helmet technology company BiaGuard, before MIPS paid around $1 million for the patents and intellectual property in 2022. Most bike helmets use a thin plastic shell over expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, which crushes on impact to absorb energy before it reaches your skull. Oblik takes that familiar foam structure and breaks it into independently mounted sections rather than one continuous block. Each section attaches to the base EPS layer with flexible connection points, allowing them to move separately or detach if the helmet takes a serious impact. Combined with dual-density foam that absorbs direct impact, the movement helps to minimize the twisting force transmitted to the head. Abram explained how, “Rather than compressing material in one direction, the system is able to deform, deflect, and detach depending on the impact's intensity, location, and direction, helping manage both linear and rotational impact energy.” Other helmet technologies approach the problem very differently. The now-ubiquitous MIPS remains the dominant commercial system, using a low-friction layer that can move 10 to 15 millimeters during the first 5 to 10 milliseconds of an impact. MIPS Spherical uses two nested liners that rotate relative to each other, while 6D’s Omni-Directional Suspension (ODS) suspends one liner inside another. WaveCel uses an engineered cellular structure that flexes, crumples, and glides under angled impacts. Pikio's closest rival, the Release Layer System (RLS), featured on Canyon’s Deflectr and the third-placed, 3D-printed Hexr Miden RLS, tackles rotation from the outside, using external shell panels floating on tiny polycarbonate ball bearings that can roll and detach, redirecting rotational energy before it reaches the head. Lab testing is one thing, but real-world data is something else. If your Pikio helmet is called into serious action, you will need to replace it—as with most EPS foam designs—but the company is offering a 30 percent discount on a replacement if it can get its hands on your damaged helmet. “So far we’ve had four helmets returned and replaced,” Abram says. “Each has proven invaluable, not least because they’ve done their job and kept riders safe.” At $379, the Pikio is a premium choice—a cool $219 more expensive than the second-best STAR-tested Canyon Deflectr RLS. Much of the cost stems from a vastly more complicated manufacturing process. Abram says a standard cycling helmet has around eight to 10 parts, but the Pikio Si uses around 80 individual components. The separate foam sections, intricately engineered flexible connection points, and dual-density construction all add to the cost. It’s a small price to pay if it saves your life, but how does it fare day to day? I’ve been riding with the Si Oblik for the past month and have been impressed by how few compromises there have been in the pursuit of protection. At 279 grams (in medium size), it's respectably light, though not class-leading, and the dial-to-fit cradle hugs my head neatly without pinch points. It’s a little bulky for a road lid, but is extremely comfortable; the 17 air vents keep my head refreshingly cool, and nobody has laughed at me for wearing it (yet). I would have preferred Pikio to use a magnetic Fidlock fastening under the chin as they’re brilliant, but it is a minor complaint—which Abram quickly quashed: “Fidlock weighs around 13 grams; a buckle is just four grams.” It’s a great helmet loaded with unique, deliberately safety-first tech. Abram was keen to point out he is not interested in what he called “crown-like cycle helmet” aesthetics, and that “form always follows function.” The Pikio lacks a little of the cool factor you’ll find with a POC or Giro helmet, but it’s certainly not ugly. For a company most cyclists have never heard of, taking the top spot at Virginia Tech is an extraordinary result. The harder part may be persuading people to trust an unknown name with something as consequential as head protection. MIPS faced a similar problem before turning an independent safety technology into something licensed across much of the helmet industry, and Oblik could conceivably follow the same path. Whether Pikio becomes a major helmet brand—a second design is due early in the new year—a technology supplier, or both remains to be seen. But for now, it has given the cycling industry a new number to chase. [Image text:] PIKIO OBLIK