Review: Lumos Ultra E-Bike Smart Helmet with NTA 8776 Testing
The Lumos Ultra eBike helmet is a dedicated urban helmet with a flip-down visor and integrated lights that can be used as turn or brake lights. It connects with the Lumos Firefly smart lights, has better NTA 8776
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- NTA 8776
- Integrated side lights
- Syncing with Firefly lights
- Limited sizing
- Visor blocks vents
Lumos Ultra eBike Helmet Highlights
The Lumos Ultra e-bike helmet is a beefed-up version of my everyday city biking helmet, the Lumos Ultra. It has a flip down visor, integrated lighting into that visor, and it also has a NTA 8776 rating, which means it’s designed for riding a class 3 e bike, which is assistance up to 28 miles per hour.
The weight is a bit heavier for the MIPS fit, at 530 grams, compared to 385 grams for my everyday Lumos Ultra with MIPS. Also, for comparison, the Unit 1 Aura smart bike helmet has a removable eye visor; when removed, the size medium is 476 grams.
The additional weight is coming from the installed visor, which also has an additional LED on both sides.
I leave my helmet in a cold garage in North Carolina so it doesn’t get extremely cold. But it gets chilly, and I’ve been getting 8 to 10 hours using the standard blinking setting. Yes, it is another thing to charge on your bike, but I now have a habit of charging everything on Sunday night, and it isn’t all that bad. I plug in my eBike battery, plug in the helmet, and then plug in my little Firefly lights. If you ride a ton, say an hour each way to work, get in the habit of charging at work instead of remembering it when you get home. I still have questions about the serviceability of this helmet.
This does not have a replaceable battery, but it is something Lumos is working on for future helmets; the visor is a concern I have because it doesn’t seem to be replaceable, but saying that, helmets do have a shelf life, experts say three to five years. For me, with these being exposed to lots of UV, me locking it up, I replace them every two to three years.
Daily Riding with the Lumos Ultra EBike Helmet
Over the last year, there are three key features that bring me to wearing this helmet over others:
1. That flip-down visor. The Ultra and this Ultra eBike helmet sit next to each other in my garage, and I grab this one when it is raining, cold, windy. And my wife wears it when it’s darker out or cold to protect her eyes when she’s not using sunglasses.
The visor does have some cons to it. I don’t like that when it’s flipped up, it blocks the airflow. When it is cold or windy, and I flip it down, the vents are now open when I don’t need them. The nose bridge really should have some padding, and my wife specifically would like micro adjustments so you can adjust where it stops on your face.
2. The lights are impressive. Your head is the highest part of your body, so when you’re on your bike, adding lights to your helmet makes you much more visible. Once you see someone wearing a helmet with 360-degree lighting, it’s really hard to go back to a normal helmet, even a normal helmet with just a simple backlight.
3. The NTA 8776 rating means this helmet is tested to a higher speed and impact, which I often ride with my eBikes.
Is it worth it?
There are three main things going for this helmet: the eBike rating for that Class 3 e-bike, the flip-down visor, and the smart lighting. If you’re looking for any of those individually, you should look at this helmet, even if you aren’t riding a Class 3 electric bike. My guess is you probably get up over 28 miles per hour once I’m down the hills.
The bad news. is that you are going to be hard pressed to find them locally to try on, so keep that in mind when you order it, and keep your packaging in perfect condition in case it doesn’t fit and you need to return it. If you like the look of this or the other Lumos products, I’ll put a coupon code below for you to use.
And if you like the idea of this 360 lighting but can’t justify spending that much I would check out the Lumos Ultra and the Nutcase Vio. The Nutcase lighting doesn’t integrate with anything, but the lights are super nice and the fit is excellent.
Final Thoughts
The Lumos Ultra eBike helmet is a great step forward in smart helmet technology with an integrated light system. I’m excited to test out the Unit 1 Aura against it, and also thrilled to see where this sector of the bike industry heads (pun intended.)
BUY:
Lumos Ultra E-Bike Helmet
Lumos Ultra Helmet
Unit 1 Aura
Nutcase Vio
Lazer Urbanize
