Abus is probably best known for making bike locks, but the German brand is well versed when it comes to protecting heads too. Its latest piece of safety equipment is the HiDrop, it’s designed to offer maximum protection for both the head and face during DH and enduro riding.

The HiDrop comes with a sturdy chinbar and all the safety standards you’d expect of a DH-rated lid, while Abus athletes have already raced it at UCI World Cups in enduro and DH and at Crankworx.

The HiDrop looks stunning in polished black, it’s lightweight and feels protective too

Design and specifications

Let’s face it, the first thing anyone really checks out with a full-face helmet is how they look. Well, I’m not the oracle on helmet fashion, but I’ve seen a fair few and I reckon Abus has done a great job with the styling here (and my mates thought the same). It’s sharp and angular with modern lines a bit like the 100% helmets, but the overall effect is classy and muted, and that includes all the graphics and vents being more subtle and less in-your-face.

The gloss black outer shell uses ABS plastic, which is a tough and durable material you see used in all kinds of domestic products, and inside there are two types of impact absorbing foam. This EPS and EPP polystyrene layer sits between the outer shell and the interior foam pads, and does the lion’s share of impact absorption and energy management in the event of a crash. Like many other brands, Abus uses two materials as (presumably) each one is better at absorbing impacts at different velocities.

There’s no MIPS liner for rotational impact protection, instead what you do get is padding… and lots of it

There’s no MIPS here, or indeed any other rotational-impact specific protection to slow down an oblique impact in the event of a crash. But Abus does offer an AirDrop helmet that is more ventilated and comes with the cherished MIPS for £80 more money.

This HiDrop’s outer shell is fully wrapped so there is minimal exposed polystyrene, but there are some edges under the rim and chinguard where you can catch and nick the EPS lining and damage or ding it.

The HiDrop is almost fully wrapped, but there are a few spots where the EPS and EPP show

Matching the helmet’s minimal and plain styling, the retention features here are also minimal. There’s no rear adjustment dial at the back of the skull and no internal cradle wrapping the head to tune the fit and grip in a wraparound fashion like most lids.

Instead, Abus relies on a seriously padded interior and both cheek pads and the neck roll section employs thick foam, coated with a softer outer material against your skin. Abus also offers four sizes (S-XL), so you can get the fit right in the first place, although you should note this lid comes up pretty small, and the first couple of rides in a Medium were pretty tight on my 58cm head.

No fancy magnetic fixings or plastic buckles here, it’s trusty D-Loop retention

The HiDrop’s breakaway visor is fixed and un-adjustable and the chin strap uses a typical motorbike or DH-style D-Loop fastener that’s extra secure. There are multiple vents including several slits around the brow and larger inflow and exhaust ports on the top and rear respectively.

These are all lined with a plastic mesh to stop debris and insects entering, and inside the lid the padding is part of a continuous mesh net lining that’s suspended from the top of the helmet’s interior. There are no direct gaps in this fabric or the mesh to allow air to pump in and out like on some DH lids though.

The fixed position peak isn’t ideal, but it’s set in the right place and doesn’t get in the way of your vision

Performance

Squeezing the HiDrop on for the first time, there’s a real sense of protection and security, with the helmet connecting well all around the skull. The inside shape is sorted with no odds lumps or profiles.

You can’t adjust the visor, but at least it’s set pretty high and out of the line of sight. There’s also no internal fit adjustment, but it still feels stable and secure on the head in the car park with those fat, cushy cheek pads really pushing in against the side of the face.

The HiDrop relies on copious padding and perfect sizing to get a snug fit, without resorting to straps to tighten it to your head

These pads and the padding wrapping under the ears and around the neck are all removable for washing and it’s a good job too because the first thing you are going to notice in this lid is your head getting hot and sweaty really quickly.

I wore the HiDrop for two days at BikePark Wales in pretty warm and sunny weather, but eventually had to take it off half-way through the second day as my head was boiling up, even riding the uplift and not pedalling too much.

The Otocon feels almost chilly in comparison to the HiDrop

To double check it wasn’t just me running hot, I switched to POCs Otocon helmet (which is admittedly more money and more enduro-focussed) and the difference in cooling and ventilation was remarkable. Where I’d get to the bottom and immediately peel off Abus’ lid and pant like a dog left in a hot car, in the POC helmet I was happy to wear it even on the uplift bus. It was that much cooler and better ventilated. This is Wales I’m talking about too, not the south of France; so I really wouldn’t fancy the HiDrop in the Alps in scorching temperatures.

The tight fit is partly responsible for this, I should have gone for the size large. But mostly it’s caused by the fully lined interior and mesh fabric that doesn’t allow enough air in to circulate, flow through or, crucially, to escape to keep the scalp cool. Basically, the small vents aren’t effective enough at keeping a breeze flowing inside, so you build up a little tropical micro-climate inside – maybe the black paint job doesn’t help in the sun either, but I can’t say I’ve noticed this effect with other lids.

Nothing’s going to make its way inside your helmet, be it leaf litter or insects… nothings coming out either, so it gets hotter and hotter

This lack of effective cooling was already a total dealbreaker, but my tried and tested Smith Rhythm goggles didn’t fit perfectly either. I’ve worn these with multiple full-face lids with perfect comfort, but on the HiDrop the top of the frame is pushed just slightly too low into your line of sight. Even worse though, with nothing to tension it against the back of the head, Abus’s lid ends up tilting forwards a little while you’re descending on really rough tracks, despite being very tight fitting and arguably almost too small for my head.

The chinbar is well defended from insects too

To remedy this, I found myself going one-handed multiple times on easy sections of track having to nudge the chinbar back upwards to get the helmet to sit where I wanted it, and that’s clearly the last thing you need to being doing while trying to focus on technical trails.

The heat management takes some of the shine off the Abus HiDrop

Overall then, while this new Abus lid looks pretty cool and the weight is decent for a fully certified DH lid, it’s far too hot for me to want to use it regularly and also not stable enough when riding rougher terrain and jumps.