AGV's helmet cuts concussion risk sixfold. Says AGV

AGV, the Italian helmet maker owned by the Dainese Group, has unveiled a new race helmet that it says makes concussion "six times less likely". The Pista GP R3 made its debut at the San Marino MotoGP round at Misano, worn by riders including Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini and Franco Morbidelli. The technology behind it comes from a small British start-up in East London.

A six-fold cut in concussion risk would be a huge deal. So it's worth looking closely at exactly what's being compared.

To achieve this extraordinary result, we worked closely with RLS, an innovative and outstanding British startup which, like us, is fully dedicated to human safety in dynamic environments.
— Angel Sanchez, CEO of the Dainese Group, quoted by Visordown

Ball bearings on the outside of your head

The big idea is called AGV Sphera, "powered by RLS", which stands for Release Layer System. It targets oblique impacts, where the head hits at an angle and gets twisted. Bike Rider Magazine's launch report describes the resulting rotational acceleration of the brain as "one of the major causes of severe brain injuries".

Many helmets tackle this with MIPS, a thin slip layer inside the shell. According to New Atlas, AGV's approach flips that inside out, with more than 1,600 two-millimetre bearings between an outer layer and the main shell. In an angled impact, the outer layer is designed to come away in a controlled way, so less of the twisting force reaches your head. New Atlas says it adds "practically zero weight" compared with the previous Pista GP RR.

Six times less likely than what?

Here's the fine print. AGV's own launch wording, as reproduced by Bike and Auto, says tests showed "a 6-fold reduction in the risk of concussion compared to a configuration without the AGV Sphera system featuring RLS technology."

So the comparison is AGV's helmet with the new layer against the same design without it, in AGV's tests. None of the coverage we've read names an independent lab or publishes the test method. That doesn't make the claim false. But it does mean "six times safer" is a company figure, and not the same as being six times safer than the helmet you own now.

Headlines have also stretched it. Visordown's ran with "six times less likely to suffer a brain injury". Concussion is a type of brain injury, but not the only one, and AGV's claim is specifically about concussion.

A British idea, racing first

The more interesting part for UK readers is RLS itself. BikeRadar reports that the company was founded in East London by Henry Neilson and Jamie Cook, and first appeared in a Canyon mountain bike helmet in 2025. There, independent testing by the ICUBE lab at the University of Strasbourg found it cut peak rotational velocity by 56% to 66%, which BikeRadar says corresponds to a 68% to 84% lower probability of brain injury. That's bicycle helmets, not motorcycle ones, but it's real third-party data.

For now, the R3 is a racing helmet built to the FIM's FRHPhe-02 standard, the motorcycle racing federation's latest test. New Atlas expects a public launch next year and guesses at a US price of just under $1,800. That's a guess, not a UK price. To be worn on UK roads, a helmet must meet UNECE Regulation 22.05 or 22.06, or the British Standard BS 6658, and AGV hasn't yet said what a road version will carry.

To be fair to AGV

Racing is where helmet technology has always been proven before it reaches the rest of us, and AGV is putting this on the heads of MotoGP riders, which is not something you do with a gimmick. The FIM's newest racing standard is the one it's built to, and RLS says in its own FAQ that no helmet "with or without RLS technology" can guarantee performance "in every foreseeable accident", which is a refreshingly honest line for a safety start-up.

Mind the hype. Six times less likely sounds brilliant. Just ask: six times less than what?

Sources: Visordown, New Atlas, Bike and Auto, Bike Rider Magazine, BikeRadar, RLS FAQ, GOV.UK: motorcycle helmet law