My Virgo Move helmet has finally arrived. I supported the Kickstarter for the helmet in May of 2023 with an estimated delivery date in August. I was looking for a full face bike helmet that did not have a mountain bike vibe, and I figured that three months would go by pretty quickly. Little did I know that after multiple delays, I would receive my helmet over a year later.

Why I Backed The Kickstarter

I was looking for a full face bicycle helmet. At the time, all that I could find were mountain bike helmets, and I was looking for something that had a sleeker vibe. I just happened to stumble across the Virgo helmet on Kickstarter when I was researching all of my different option. I liked the design and their safe goals. The website currently mentions that the helmet meets EN1078, NTA8776, and CPSC safety standards.

In The Box

My helmet just arrived. It was protected inside the box by a cloth drawstring bag. There was other padding to keep the contents from bouncing around. Even though the box was banged up, the helmet did survive the shipping process.

• Size M helmet with visor
• Cloth drawstring bag
• Helmet light
• USB-C charging cable
• Instruction book

The instruction book has instructions in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Unfortunately, the font is so small that the instructions are very difficult to read. The first page of the manual is unique and only in French.

Fit and Finish

The helmet is sized well. I selected the medium helmet (55-58cm) since I kept measuring 57cm for my head. I measured multiple times just to make sure.

Like most bicycle helmets, this helmet has an adjustable dial at the back of the helmet. This is one of the things that I dislike most about the helmet. The plastic pieces had several little leftover burrs from the molding process. I scratched the back of my head putting the helmet on the first time. The adjustable dial in my helmet is basically a one way dial. It will tighten the fit, but it will fight me trying to loosen it it back up. I was finally able to loosen the helmet with some simultaneous gentle pulling and dial twisting. I do not plan to change the dial setting any more. I suspect that it will fail if I snug the helmet before each ride. Luckily I am at the top end of fit range so I do not have to rely on the adjustable dial.

This chin bar is very close to my face. I only have 1 finger of clearance between my chin and the bar. The thin padding at the crown is just thin. I had to add another pad to the helmet to prevent the ventilation channels from digging into the crown of my head. The helmet is relatively comfortable with the additional padding.

The rear light fits securely. I do not think that it will bounce loose during a ride. The safety standards are inked onto the helmet right below the light in very small font.

First Ride

In any case, I was excited to get the helmet on and go for a ride. My first ride with the Virgo helmet was a 20 mile ride on Las Vegas streets in 90F heat. I set out early just to avoid the 100+ temperatures. The helmet only has 5 front/top facing vents and 4 small vents in the rear. I was worried that the air flow would be minimal, especially since I had to add an additional pad over one of the air channels. Luckily air flow though the helmet is pretty good. Wind noise was not too bad either.

Visibility in the helmet is good. The visor is wide enough to not interfere with my peripheral vision. I was able to glance over my shoulder and navigate traffic without any issues. I ordered my with the crystal visor which is a light smoke color. I have enough room in the helmet to wear my regular glasses or a pair of sunglasses under the visor.

Unfortunately, the clearance from the chin bar made drinking from a bite valve pretty difficult. I will need to research what my options are for this. I might have to do some creative routing for the tube. After a while, the side cheek pads started to get a bit uncomfortable. I had to pull over to adjust their position. This was just a minor inconvenience.

Overall Impressions

Overall, it is a decent helmet with the exception of the adjustment dial. The dial as designed is junk. The helmet is comfortable to wear with the additional padding that I added. Visibility in the helmet is good. It seems like a relatively solid helmet to wear for cycling or ebiking, but I am still not sure about the chin bar. I only have 20 miles of ride time in the helmet so I cannot speak for the wear and tear on the helmet over time.

Knowing what I know now, would I buy this helmet as a regular retail purchase? The €219 price (approx US$220) for not-so-great build quality would really bug me. If you have not purchased the helmet already from Kickstarter or Indiegogo, I would recommend waiting a while for other reviews to come in from other buyers. Maybe Ventoux Cycling can get some of the production issues cleared up before they start fulfilling retail orders.

I will do another follow up post after I get a few more miles on it.