Video by George Marshall
Giro claims its latest flagship road race helmet tops its previous best – Synthe Mips – both in aero and cooling tests, but the bigger news is a new technology called Mips Spherical that could well be a game changer for the future of head and brain protection for cyclists.
Giro was an early adopter of the original Mips system that is now widely accepted and used by many helmet manufacturers.
Using Mips as an ‘ingredient’ product to its existing lines, though, Giro felt had a number of compromises, including adding weight, reducing ventilation, and also potentially causing less adjustability and comfort for the user.
The Aether helmet, three years in development, is Giro’s answer. It embraces the Mips concept, using the same slip-plane ideology proven to reduce rotational stresses and forces on the brain in a crash, but Giro’s engineers have managed to completely integrate it within the structural aspect of the design – with what it calls, Mips Spherical.
More about Mips
Mips’ Greg Shapley tells Cyclist, ‘It was founded by a Swedish brain surgeon, Hans Von Holst, who was seeing first-hand an increasing number of patients with brain injuries stemming from the rotational forces inflicted by cycling crashes, despite a helmet being worn.’
‘This is because in a bike crash the head will almost always be impacted at an angle and moving at speed, hence there is likely always a rotational force, which is particularly damaging to our brains.’
‘The concept is founded in scientific research, using some of the most sophisticated brain modelling software anywhere on the planet, even utilising human cadaver studies, at the Royal Institute of technology in Stockholm.’
‘After two years, with a great deal of 3rd party validation, it was beyond doubt Mips slip-plane technology inside a bicycle helmet did significantly reduce the rotational stress on the brain, thus reducing the risk of brain trauma.’
‘Mips works by allowing 10-15mm of relative motion between the head and the helmet’, Shapley Continues, ‘Which is enough in the vital milliseconds after the point of impact to reduce the strain on the brain.’
The same but different
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Giro’s engineers could clearly see the potential for Mips, and indeed carried out their own independent tests to verify Mips claims, and finding them upheld.
Giro, though, wanted to develop the idea further beyond simply being an ingredient product to incorporate into its existing helmet line.
Setting out to embrace the Mips concept but in a far more integrated fashion, so as not to compromise any of the performance attributes of a top level race helmet, such as aesthetics, weight, ventilation comfort and so on, became the goal.
Mips Spherical was Giro’s solution. Developed in collaboration with Mips, this new benchmark needs no additional inserts to be added to the helmet design.
Instead the EPS structure of the helmet itself is created in two moving parts, such that one can rotate inside the other (like a ball and socket joint) providing the same brain saving principles, wrapped up in a super stylish package.
Mirror test
‘No one’s going to wear a helmet that looks terrible no matter how technologically advanced it is’, admits Eric Horton, director of design at Giro, stating upfront, that aesthetics were high on the priority list too for the new Aether helmet.
‘This is the next evolution of the bicycle helmet’, says Horton, resolutely. ‘It will be a game changer. As far as helmet development is concerned there will be; before Aether and after Aether.’
Massive vents are now a thing again, and the Aether design has clearly got plenty of room to let air in, but as Giro’s Dain Zaffke tells us, that is only half the battle.
‘To achieve the level of ventilation we were seeking it was as important to vent the inside of the structure as the outside’, Zaffke says.
‘The internal channelling does a lot of the work in cooling, directing air across the scalp and out of the rear’, Zaffke continues. ‘This was much more tricky with previous generations of the Mips technology, but with Mips Spherical we can really open up the cooling potential and as such the Aether tests 2.5% cooler on our Therminator head form in the wind tunnel than our current best – Synthe Mips – which was already a class leading product’
What’s more Giro claims its wind tunnel data, taken from its own Dome Test Facility in Santa Cruz, California, also reveals the Aether to be faster aerodynamically than its Synthe Mips too, also by around 2.5%, and beating some competitors out-and-out aero helmets with very minimal venting.
To achieve such impressive ventilation and aerodynamics concomitantly plus maintaining the required safety standards Giro uses a 6 piece in-moulded shell, with what it calls, Aura – a reinforcing arch that bridges between the widely gapped segments and adds structural integrity whilst not impeded airflow.
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The EPS foam used is also a smaller Nano Bead density, which Giro claims reduces volume for the neatest silhouette that can still surpass the levels expected by all international safety test standards.
A new adjustment system, Giro calls Roc Loc 5+ Air, means contact point adjustment is possible in every way, including asymmetrical placement of the occipital locators, which will particularly please female users with long hair in a pony tail.
Elsewhere features like eyewear docking ports with neat rubber grippers to secure glasses are evidence Giro has left no stone unturned in the achievement of a helmet that truly looks set to be a new benchmark in integrated safety.
Giro claims a size medium Aether Mips weighs 245g, which keeps it amongst the lightest road helmets available.
Click through to the next page for our first ride review.
Giro Aether Mips first ride review
The most noticeable thing about the Mips Spherical as I put the Aether Mips helmet on for the first time was, well, that it wasn’t at all noticeable.
That’s a great start for the new technology, as in my experience previous generations of Mips have always been detectable within the general fit and feel on some level.
As an aside, if you have longish hair, as I do, you’ll also find it less noticeable when you take the helmet off too, as there’s none of the catching and pulling as with previous versions either.
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The new Roc-Loc 5+Air, might be a mouthful to say, but when it comes to adjustment Giro has got all bases covered.
The occipital contact points can be moved independent of each other, plus the whole cradle adjusts vertically too. The slimmed down dial is neat but perfectly functional for dialling in the fit, which feels really secure 360° plus is equally easy to tweak on the fly.
Fit wise, the Aether was spot on for me and I had no issues whatsoever getting it perfectly tuned to my head shape. From the time I took it out of the box to the time it was on my head and ready to ride was just a minute or so, much less than I often spend setting up a new lid.
My first rides wearing the Aether Mips were in sunny California. Literally. As temperatures were in the region of 27-30°C it was the perfect timing for a heat wave to show me what the new helmet was capable of in terms of keeping me cool.
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On long steady climbs through the iconic redwood forests of the northern California coast, the breeze was restricted by the dense trees and here was where the Aether Mips impressed most.
I was less aware of it as I was riding, than when I stopped at the top of a climb. My jersey was wringing wet with sweat, yet crucially I became aware my eyewear was relatively clear.
There were not the usual torrents of sweat pouring down my forehead and onto the lenses, something that I can only attribute to having a cooler head than my heavily sweating body might suggest I would otherwise have.
Back on the coast road and with a sea breeze, the ventilation became more noticeable in terms of actually being aware of those wide open frontal vents letting in plenty of air.
But the best testament to how proficient the design seemed to be at channelling airflow, though, was only revealed my riding partner, George, took his helmet off.
His hair was spiked in neat lines, like mini-Mohawks, which was a perfect visual simulation of how the air had pushed through the helmet channels (clearly pulling his hair with it) and exhausting through the top and rear.
Overall, what I want from a helmet is not to be aware that I am wearing it. The Aether Mips came as close as any helmet I have worn, including some very lightweight non-Mips designs, which given the potentially huge leap forward Giro has made with this next generation of brain protection, I think is a great achievement.
Thankfully I didn’t need to test the latter though.
