As Bern made the transition from skate to bike, their roots in skate reflected with a fresh urban style that’s drawn the market of many urban riders. This year at Interbike, they had quite a few helmets to show that would feel at home on city commutes.
Although hitting the market last year, the Souphorse signature edition Watts thin shell helmet (above) caught our eyes in the booth. They modeled it after Billy Souphorse, a long time bike messenger and co-founder of Pedalr.com, a shopping place for cool bike gear. Plastered across the helm is a a graphic of San Fransisco with a horseshoe chainring overlay. It’s skate style, like many of their helmets, with an EPS foam shell. Pricing is $79.99. Click ‘more’ for images and a glance at Bern’s Allston, a helmet (almost) as light as their carbon model…
The Allston is Bern’s lightweight helmet that hasn’t hit the market yet. It gets 16 vents and a Zip Mold liquid foam injection process, something that’s said to be thinner, lighter, and with a higher strength to weight ratio than EPS helmets. During the summer months, all those vents should come in handy.
The large Allston weighs in at 385g, about 13.6 oz. As a comparison, Bern’s thin shell Carbon Macon weighs in at 12.8 oz. Not too shabby. With a removable liner, you can swap out the standard ventilated summer setup for a more insulated winter liner sold aftermarket and shown below. Pricing is $89.99 on the helm.
There’s a wide selection of liners. If you’re feeling dangerous for the winter season, at the top left-hand corner is a knit liner with built-in headphones that’ll snap into any zip mold helmet. There’s a built-in mic too so you can answer your smartphone while riding. It’s called the Cold Weather Audio Knit and runs about $60. (For the record, Bern did provide a disclaimer that it’s never safe to ride with headphones.)
And of course, they’re still offering a wide selection of helmets in an array of models and colors that aim to please the urban crowd. Pricing ranges from $45.99 – $99.99 not including the carbon dome that sells for $200.
