The shape of the helmets are different. A ski helmet covers the entire reverse of your head and is designed to work with ski goggles. There’s generally a goggle clip on the reverse of the helmet for the swatch. One good tip if you’re copping either goggles or a ski helmet is to make sure that they copulate well together. The top of your goggles should sit nicely coming to the helmet when you have them both on and not leave a bitsy little gap for air to indurate your forepart.
A bike helmet doesn’t completely cover the reverse of your head, and has a lot of reflections. Cycling is frequently done in warm rainfall, so keeping your head from overheating is consummate. A lot of helmets have reflections strategically placed so that you can slide sunglasses into the reflections when you aren’t wearing them. In the end, they both serve a veritably important purpose of guarding your brain!
Give it a few years back, and you’ll see how much change helmet technology went through to get to this point.
Being bulky and heavy used to mean maximum protection. All of them with the same purpose: to protect the wearer’s skull.
But just because they have this in common, does that mean you can use all the helmets in existence from other, VASTLY different sports?
Keep reading, and you’ll know the answer!
Ski Helmet vs Bike Helmet
Riding on solid ground means you can predict what can happen next. It’s how experts were able to design bike helmets to focus on certain spots for top-notch protection, after all!
But ski helmets don’t have those limitations because these are engineered to handle snow’s unpredictability.
So you can say ski helmets can give out protection outside skiers, no problem!
Comparing Ski Helmet and Bike Helmet
- How’s It Built
Because of technology’s advancement, various designs are engineered to cater to a specific aspect of a certain sport.
This is something both biking and skiing have in common.
How does that happen?
Well, let’s dive right into biking first.
Now, whether you’re only a newbie or not, you’d know that “biking” is more of a general term with the sole difference of cycling in different settings.
Namely, for road biking, mountain biking, commute, and a triathlon.
Road bikers would prefer a lightweight and EXTREMELY well-ventilated helmet because they’ll need to cycle at high speeds to go smooth sailing while putting up more protection on the front and sides of their head.
As for mountain bikers, their helmets cover up the same spots just like the former, but BEEFIER because who knows how you’ll bump your head to cycle up a mountain!
On the other hand, helmets for triathlon bikers won’t need much protection in front since they’ll need to LITERALLY go with the (air) flow! That’s why the “tails” of their helmets are more pronounced.
Lastly, biking commuters won’t need a lot for their helmets when all they need to do is go to point A to point B. So, there’s not that much flair style-wise, unlike for MTB or triathlon biking, but a fair amount of protection doesn’t go away!
Meanwhile, ski helmets have three different types more for the sake of your preference than anything else compared to bike helmets since all of them are built more to handle multiple impacts from every direction.
So, these three types are called in-mold, hard shell, and hybrid.
Now, in-mold (as the name implies) is what you’d consider the pinnacle of ski helmets because of how capable it is in handling any number of impacts by fusing the thin (yet tough!) polycarbonate shell together with the expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam lining it inside.
Hard shell, however, is the opposite of in-mold when it’s far bulkier and, instead of being fused together, its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) outer shell is only stuck to its EPS liner.
And having in-mold’s lightweight feature and hard shell’s chunky protection combined is hybrid!
- How It Fits
Both sports helmets have adjustment systems to accommodate the wearer’s unique head shape.
Well, ski helmets have these terms available for your choosing (i.e. standard, auto-adjust, and fully adjustable) but you’ll find them similar to what bike helmets have in store.
So, the standard fit is what you’d simply describe as non-adjustable because the shell can easily slip right over your skull and keep it snug in all the right places.
Auto-adjust makes use of the well-known Boa System to change sizes through the plastic, elastic band wrapped around your head, hence the name!
Lastly, there’s a dial installed on the back of the helmet (just like the auto-adjust) that you can twist to fully adjust the lining itself to fit your skull.
- Warm It Up!
So, you might not be aware of it yet, but there are actually two kinds of venting systems available in helmets!
Or at least in ski helmets, that is.
Now, what you usually see on bike helmets (or on cheaper ski helmets) is a passive venting system. Here, the holes are kept open full-time to maintain air circulation to cool down the rider’s head.
But you can see how cool air can be bad for skiers, right?
That’s why we have active venting!
Here, skiers will be able to adjust the holes to open or close to keep their heads cool AND warm when you’re off the snowy mountains.
- How It Holds Up
You could say that both of these helmets can hold their own against impacts because, well, that’s what they’re supposed to do!
However, both of their builds still have some key differences from one another when biking helmets hold much more pronounced protective features for certain parts of the head than ski helmets, but that doesn’t mean it has any less protection.
Although, in general, helmet technology is starting to integrate a safety feature called multi-directional impact protection (MIPS).
Its job is to absorb instead of breaking upon impact, which bike helmets are prone to do.
- What It Costs
You’ll notice a distinct difference in prices between biking and skiing helmets.
Bike helmets usually start as low as $45 going up to $300.
And ski helmets can get as low as $60 then climb as high as $480.
Can I Use Bike Helmet for Skiing?
Being out on the snow is unpredictability personified. There’s no way to expect how and how OFTEN you’ll hit your head in a single trip down the powder!
So it’s safe to say that, no, you can’t use a bike helmet to go skiing.
Can I Use Ski Helmet for Biking?
Because of how ski helmets have heavy-duty protection in every direction, you bet you can use this for biking!
But first, you’ll have to get used to its heft, though.
Conclusion
All helmets are used to protect your skull; that’s just a straight-up fact by now.
But that doesn’t mean every single helmet there is built the same.
It’s why there are bike helmets and ski helmets, after all!
Using the proper helmet will promise you all the fun you can get with safety your middle name!
