The 13 Coolest Road Helmets at the 2015 Tour de France

The Ballista is Bontrager’s newest aero road helmet, released around the same time as the 2016 Trek Madone aero road bike. Bontrager says it took two years to get the Ballista’s combination of aerodynamics and ventilation right. The Ballista sells for $175 and has a claimed weight of 262 grams (size medium).

Giro did extensive in-house testing before outfitting its helmets with the Multi-directional Impact Protection System (MIPS), which claims to reduce rotational forces in some impacts by separating the head and helmet with a thin plastic cage. Apparently it liked what it saw—one reason why so many Giro (and Bell) helmets now come with the system is because its parent company, BRG Sports, became part-owner of MIPS. At the Tour, Giro introduced a MIPS version (270 grams, $270) of their top-of-the-line Synthe helmet.

Like sister company Giro, Bell took its premier road-racing helmet, the Gage, and enhanced its protection by adding the MIPS system. The integration increased the helmet’s weight by 26 grams and drove up the price by $20 ($195), the cheapest MIPS upgrade in the industry.

One of the most distinctive helmets in the Tour peloton is the Suomy Gun Wind, and not because it comes in Lampre Merida’s signature colors. Suomy has been a motorcycle helmet manufacturer since 1997, only joining our little cycling sandbox at the beginning of 2015, and its heritage shows through in the shape of the vents with exposed reinforcements. So far, the company only offers four cycling helmets, all made in Italy: the inaugural Gun Wind for road, the GT-R for triathlon and TT, the Scrambler for dirt, and the Jumper for downhill. Suomy does not currently have a North American distributor.

Like several of the aero helmets in this slideshow, the POC Octal Aero shown is little more than POC’s standard road racing helmet, the Octal Raceday, with a thin cover glued over most of the vents. This could make it more slippery and save some watts (though POC offers no claims), and provide warmth and protection in colder conditions. Unlike some of the helmets here, Octal Aero ($270) is available in the USA.

It’s established that the number of vents isn’t necessarily an indication of how well a helmet ventilates. Still, it’s difficult not to look at the 39 vents dotting the surface of Catlike’s Mixino ($300) and practically feel air rushing over the scalp. Beyond looking like a foam cheese grater, Catlike claims the Mixino is the first cycling helmet to use graphene, a material that shows increasing promise for its strength-enhancing properties, in its inner skeleton.

MET uses the same primary shape to make two different helmets: the Rivale, shown, is an “open aero” helmet, while the Manta is “closed aero.” Both have claimed aerodynamic benefits – the Rivale saves 3 watts at 50kph, the Manta 10 watts at 50kph, though MET does not specify the baseline helmet – but the Rivale sacrifices watts for better ventilation. The claimed weights for the European standard are quite light: 200g for the Manta and 230g for the Rivale (yes, the helmet with more holes is heavier, probably because of the reinforcements required to add those vents and still pass the testing standard). Neither is currently available in the USA, but there are plans to bring both stateside in the future. No time frame was provided.

The R10 supplants the, er, interesting Odin as Orbea’s premier road racing helmet for 2015. Included with the helmet is a snap-on aero cover (or, depending on your climate, rain cover). Because of the UCI’s regulations, when Cofidis riders like Nacer Bouhanni (shown) want to use the cover, it must be glued to the helmet. The R10 is not yet available in the USA.

Want this helmet? Too bad. Scott only provides this covered version of the Vanish helmet, first launched in 2013, to its pro athletes. Like other helmet companies, Scott is forced to glue what could be a removable cover to the helmet because of UCI regulations. But the extra effort seems worthwhile—after 40 prototypes, Scott claims it found an aero road model that cuts drag 30 percent relative to the standard Vanish.

Like many companies experimenting in the aero road category, Giant claims its Rivet helmet doesn’t ignore ventilation. Three large forehead vents in the front pull in air, where it flows through channeling and out through four rear vents. Not only can you buy this helmet in the USA, but at $160, it’s the cheapest helmet on this list.

Though it looks like a traditional well-ventilated road helmet from the front, the Kask Protone is an aero road helmet designed in collaboration with Team Sky, which means it’s anything but. When I reviewed the helmet earlier this year, I found it to be a very comfortable helmet with several noteworthy features. Unfortunately, at $300, it’s one of the most expensive road helmets on the market.

First seen over two years ago, the Evade ($225) was one of the first aero road helmets. A comparative dinosaur in the category, the Evade is still frequently used by Specialized-sponsored Etixx-Quick Step, Team Astana, and Tinkoff-Saxo. In his custom painted Evade, Slovakian national champion Peter Sagan is easy to pick out in the peloton.

Thanks to Andre Greipel (four stage wins in this year’s Tour), we’ve seen the Fast version (with glued-on Aeroshell covering the vents) of Lazer’s Z1 aero road helmet quite a bit. The standard Z1 ($270), shown here, can be converted to look like The Gorilla's helmet with optional clip on Aeroshell ($15) when some weather protection or (claimed) enhanced aerodynamics is needed. You can also use without for a bit less weight and magnitudes more ventilation.