The Inflabi Inflatable Helmet Will Take a Hit for You

This is where a bicycle helmet comes in, as does additional safety gear. Over the years, we've heard many arguments against wearing helmets when riding a bicycle in traffic, but the recent consensus is that cyclists are better off with one as opposed to wearing none at all. It's common sense if you think about it: should the worst thing come to happen, it's preferable to have a helmet to break your forceful fall.

Then again, bicycle helmets tend to take up a lot of space, especially when you're not using them, so they're cumbersome, inconvenient, and quite a bore for the city rider, for whom style is also an important aspect to consider. When you live in the city, and you're always on the run and probably always carrying a lot of stuff around, it's best if you keep everything light. Including a bike helmet.

The idea is not new, of course. Various startups have been working hard these past few years to create helmets that are ultra-portable and ultra-light, that take up less space, and add a touch of personalizable style to the rider. Most of these startups have also been trying to achieve this seemingly magical helmet by means of inflatable structures, either full-on airbags or helmets.

German-based startup Inflabi is the latest to go down this route. Inflabi is also the name of their product, a final prototype for which they presented at the 2023 edition of Eurobike in Messe Frankfurt GmbH, Europe's largest bike fair. It's not the production-ready model, but it's the closest thing to it – and Inflabi is hoping to launch pre-orders for it in August 2023, with a delivery timeline for later this fall.

Inflabi is an inflatable bicycle helmet, but one that's different from similar products in that it doesn't act like an airbag deploying at the moment of impact. Instead, you inflate it with a pump right before you set off, which means you can deflate it back to a fraction of its size when you don't need it anymore. This way, you won't have to worry about storage or having to carry it when you're not effectively using it, which adds to convenience. You simply pack it tight and throw it in your bag, and forget about it until you need it again.

As you must've gathered already, the Inflabi is not your regular bicycle helmet, so it's not made with foam to absorb the forces of an impact. It's made of a seam-welded abrasion-resistant fabric that integrates thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) air chambers. According to the makers, this makes it highly superior to foam variants in that it's more personalizable, safer, and reusable. Since air is… air, it's also more sustainable and doesn't encourage waste.

Because it's inflatable, each Inflabi fits the contour of the wearer's head in a way no amount of sizing could ever with a foam helmet. Further customization could be offered as an option once the helmet goes into production. Inflabi describes it as an elegant and sleek option for the city commuter, but both words are used a bit too generously. It's not the ugliest, more ridiculous piece of inflatable safety gear, but it's not those things either.

Here's to hoping brawn is where Inflabi excels, not looks. The air chambers absorb the impact in a crash without cracking ("air doesn’t break" is a phrase actually used in the official description), so Inflabi is reusable even after a crash – at least in theory and as long as the fabric itself doesn't give out. This means it's more sustainable than foam variants, as they have to be replaced after a collision and thus add to the waste cycle.

The makers say that the final production model should bring slight differences to the design, specifically to the rear valve to which you attach the provided hand pump. But the overall style should not suffer too drastic modifications: Inflabi promises a 20-second inflating period and under 140 g (4.9 oz) total weight when inflated. The final price is estimated at €150 (approximately $164 at the current exchange rate), with a very optimistic delivery timeline set for November.

Though the clock is ticking and Inflabi is close to the final production version, the prototype still needs work. The makers note that they're hoping for a full European EU1078 certification for safety, which means further testing is still necessary, and that may or may not translate into design changes.

On the other hand, even if this ends up derailing the release schedule a bit or changing the design more than anticipated, it's for the best. No one wants to be wearing a slightly silly-looking helmet that they inflate by hand and not even get the kind of safety they were promised.