5 days ago
This sleek new bike helmet protects your head and your lungs
Motorbike helmets can protect your head against fatal injury, but they leave you to breathe the noxious fumes of traffic. A Spanish startup called Zyon claims that its helmet addresses this problem by combining medical grade filtration with the most advanced shock-protection technology available, transforming every breath into clean air while keeping your coconut in one piece.
Premium helmet models like the $900 Shoei Neotec 3 look cool and offer ECE 22.06 P/J certification—the latest European standard for motorcycle helmet safety, which includes more stringent testing procedures and impact points than any other certification in the world—but leave riders completely exposed to pollutants.
One budget option—the $56 Indian Shellios Puros—provides basic HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtration for but fails both European and U.S. safety standards. Only the $850 Zyon— available now for preorder and delivery later in the year—offers both medical grade air purification and top-tier impact protection in a single system.
'There is currently no approved helmet on the market that includes an integrated filtration system,' Tanguy Uzel, founder of the Madrid-based Zyon Helmets, tells me via email. 'The only exception is a model developed by an Indian brand, which does not have homologation or European and American safety standards.'
The core of the Zyon is its Breath Safe System, which the company claims processes every molecule of air before it enters your body. How much do you need this? Motorcyclists suffer PM2.5 exposures of 75 micrograms per cubic meter, 5 times more than pedestrians and 15 times more than car occupants. This pollution penetrates lung alveoli and enters the bloodstream, causing chronic inflammation that has been linked to cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.
HEPA filters have demonstrated 48% to 60% reductions in allergic symptoms, outperforming many pharmaceutical treatments. Activated carbon neutralizes gases like carbon monoxide, whose exposure above 9 parts per million significantly reduces lung function in commercial drivers. While no portable system completely eliminates gas exposure, partial reduction provides significant health benefits during chronic urban exposure.
Multilayer filtering
The Zyon has three layers located inside the chin guard, where you can see its honeycomb openings and a mechanism to change the air-intake according to your speed.
The first hydrophobic barrier blocks water and insects. The second layer employs H13 HEPA filters that capture 99.95% of particles down to 0.3 microns, including the dangerous PM2.5 particles that penetrate deep into the respiratory system and enter the bloodstream, causing chronic inflammation.
A third layer uses activated carbon to absorb poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides that escape from exhaust pipes, the company says. A final layer protects the assembly and maintains filter integrity for one to three months of use, depending on the quality of the air during easy rides. This multi-layer filter design eliminates 99% of the pollution that motorcyclists would normally inhale in a city, where concentrations of toxic particles reach levels that would trigger health warnings if they occurred indoors.
That's for your lungs. For your cranium, the helmet uses the Swedish multidirectional impact protection system (MIPS), which reduces rotational forces during a crash. A low-friction layer allows the helmet to move 10 to 15 millimeters relative to the head during impact, deflecting energy that could damage the brain. This technology functions without interfering with the filtration system or the neck sealing necessary to maintain clean air, the company points out.
The ECE 22.06 P/J certification (introduced in the EU in 2022) triples the number of impact points tested compared to previous regulations and includes oblique impacts that simulate real accidents. The U.S. uses the Department of Transportation's FMVSS 218 standard, which is legally required but is considered a Mickey Mouse-level protection that provides ' minimum helmet performance ' rather than optimal protection.
Three-mode ventilation
The company claims its helmet maintains effective ventilation, even when stopped at traffic lights, through three modes without the need for electric fans. It offers Urban for slow traffic, Road for medium speeds, and Touring for highway use. A single mechanism switches between modes according to riding conditions.
The company says that air enters through the front intake, filters through the four layers, circulates through internal channels, and exits through rear vents. This continuous current maintains positive pressure inside the helmet, preventing dirty air from entering through small leaks in the sealing—a critical detail that makes the filtration effective.
'Our filter acts by electrostatic attraction to capture fine particles and by chemical reaction with a layer of active carbon to neutralize toxic gases. Unlike mechanical filters (such as those of masks), this system allows better breathability, but also requires regular replacement,' Uzel tells me.
The Zyon's shell combines fiberglass with organic materials in an integrated matrix. The materials are chemically bonded together during manufacturing to create a single, unified composite material rather than separate layers glued together. The glass fibers provide strength and prevent cracking, while the organic resin allows controlled flexibility that absorbs crash energy by deforming slightly instead of transmitting all the impact force directly to your head, which your brain will be happy about.
The helmet is loaded with some clever electronics too, including integrated air quality sensors that can talk to a mobile app that monitors what goes through the filtering system and warns when the filter needs changing.
'The duration of the filter depends on the environment, but it is recommended to change it every one to three months. Once opened, even without use, it begins to lose properties due to exposure to air,' Uzel says. 'The helmet detects flights and air conditions in real time. From that data, the app generates custom statistics on the filtered contamination level and filter performance, and notifies the user when to replace it.'
The helmet also has aviation-class accelerometers, which will identify accident patterns and automatically alert emergency services in your phone—a potentially lifesaving technology for riders who crash in remote areas.
The rear light activates when braking through the same motion sensors whenever they detect deceleration, improving visibility especially in low-light conditions or high pollution. The battery provides 18 hours of autonomy and charges via USB-C.
It looks like a great design, if it works like they say. The combination of medical filtration, MIPS protection, and smart electronics should protect you against the two main threats that motorcyclists face: accidents and pollution. For riders who spend hours daily breathing toxic urban air, this could be the solution.
The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
