Wonder what's different about an ebike helmet, speed and consequences aren't really any different. The cynic in me says a sticker and more beer tokens lost. Wouldn't a mips helmet be a better safer spend anyway?
It's the expanded polystyrene inner that's going to save you (and potentially the MIPS from any twisting forces).
As I said MIPs is not part of any official certification process for cycling helmets it is a commercial IP and as cycling becomes more dangerous, mountain biking or more dangerous again downhill cycling helmets get superior strength and padding due to the greater risk. You can enhance your safety on the road by using a slightly bulkier mountain bike helmet typically although there is some variation in safety. The very lightweight cycling helmets might just scrape by the certification testing but others may more easily past such tests. It's all about taking a common sense realistic viewpoint. You go into cycling shops and often they will spout nonsense about high cost products in order to sell them. Some of the best value cycling helmets I've seen have been at Planet X, fully certified high quality helmets which have been 1/3rd the price of what more mainstream shops sell similar helmets.It's the expanded polystyrene inner that's going to save you (and potentially the MIPS from any twisting forces).
What injures you is the rapid deceleration/rapid twisting of your brain - your skull hitting the soft polystyrene means it decelerates slower than hitting a road/vehicle.
Obviously, an overly-weak outer shell cracking is a failure because the polystyrene is then exposed to whatever hit the helmet. The outer shell is mostly just there to keep the polystyrene in the right place - on your head.
Heavy? That increases momentum, and worsens any twisting force. You really don't want a heavy one.
You want something strong enough to resist falling say 2m, but light.
Buy a top quality one, look after it, and it will last until you actually need it in an accident. Replace it after a crash. Replace it when the manufacturer says replace it (5 years is typical) because the inner lining can become less effective as it gets gently bashed by your head after several years of use.
Last bit - make sure it fits well, and can't get dislodged easily. The best helmet in the world is wasted if it pops off your head 1/0th second after hitting the ground/vehicle.
From the Halfords website:
kaliprotectives.com
Interestingly that is actually a Dutch standard for speed pedelecs, ebikes that assist beyond 25km/h rather than a European wide certification standard. Also the Dutch famously have a low takeup of cycling helmets despite their low cycling accident rate which they put down to their superior cycling infrastructure. Seems like very good certification to have as it exceeds standard EN cycling standards. Looking at the helmet it looks perhaps somewhere around a mountain bike helmet in strength and thickness, perhaps a little bit more or a little bit less. Downhill helmets are typically somewhere between mountain bike and motor bike in protection. As protection goes up of course weight also goes up. Some of the downhill helmets are around a kilo in weight.From the Halfords website:
Engineered with a thicker EPS* core that's able to absorb more energy in an accident. Meets the european NTA standard [NTA 8776 icon on website] for speed pedelecs
The Standards intro page is missing, but this looks like a partial copy:
Certification for eBike Helmets
NTA-8776 E-Bike Helmet Certification What is an NTA-8776 (speed pedelec) helmet? A speed pedelec is a two-wheeled vehicle with auxiliary propulsion power, assisting the rider with pedalling up to a maximum of 45 km/h. According to the new EU directive (No 168/2013) on the approval and market...
The actual standard (but no free download):
[*EPS = Expanded or 'blown' polystyrene]
