Hornit kids bike helmet review

Hornit, the brand that has brought you the loudest bike horn around and the Airo balance bike also do helmets! Their 'skate' style helmet comes in no less than 13 different, highly entertaining designs.

Rather than taking cues from the mountain bike or road world, the Hornit bike helmet comes from a style more commonly seen in a skate park.

However, the materials used are very similar to most other bike helmets, using an expanded foam and a plastic shell. It also conforms to the same tests and certifications so is comparable to all other kids' helmets we test.

The helmet features a rotating dial on the back of the helmet to change the size and basic foam padding within to provide comfort. The chin strap is no-frills but fully adjustable and the clip is a simple plastic affair.

To add more excitement to an already appealing helmet, the rear dial has a built-in LED light with three modes which are easy to use and will do 10 hours run time or 20 hours flashing.

The styling is where the helmet shines, its smooth surface with minimal vents gives a great canvas for printing and in this case the Super Sloth, but there are 13 different styles to choose from, all aimed at younger kids.

It's not light at 375g, as some kids helmets can be under 250g, but it certainly feels robust and ready to take some knocks.

Straight away this helmet had a clear target audience, and appealed to my 3 and 6 yr old instantly, but certainly not to our older testers.

Even when shown the other options (unicorns, puppies, icecreams, flamingos, sharks or spiders), it's clear that these helmets will appeal mainly to a younger crowd.

The helmet fit is ok, but we had variable success across our testers.

For a larger head at the bigger end of the helmet range, things are good, but the helmet is just a little too wide for small or narrow heads.

Some testers reported it feeling “a bit loose”, but my 6-year-old with a big head looked good in it and it fitted well.

The adjustment tightens at the rear but the band is fixed to the outer of the helmet at its broadest point, meaning the adjustment is in the length rather than breadth of the helmet.

This leads it to wobble from side to side on a smaller or narrower head. Hornit does offer the helmet in a smaller size, so it's best to size down if possible.

Tightening is easy with the big dial but this sits quite high so is a little tricky to grab as an adult adjusting it for a younger child.

For the right head, which is at the upper end of sizing the fit is comfy and the big soft pads do a good job.

Our ponytail test was a win, with space under the rear cradle but we did find hair was snagging on the velcro that the pads stick to.

How does the Hornit kids bike helmet fit with long hair?

When the weather is good, this helmet gets a bit hot, especially with long hair as the vents are small. this may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your climate, but worth noting compared to the greater number of vents on more traditional bike helmets.

It is noticeably heavier than many other kids' helmets which has more of an impact on smaller children but does add to the robust nature of the helmet and means I wasn't worried when it was inevitably dropped on the floor.