Giro Aeon helmet

I've had a Giro Atmos for 5 years or so and find it so much lighter and better ventilated than the Cratoni helmet it replaced. Didn't pay full price for it though; bought it in one of the CRC sales. It does look cool.

My son likes it too, largely because it matches the colour scheme on his bike, and wants to buy it off me. He was looking for a new one online, but he's too skint to pay the asking prices for the ones he likes the look of. (he's a Product Design graduate / DT teacher, so aesthetics are more important to him than function). It keeps going missing at times when he's out on his bike, so I know he's road tested it.

So I've been browsing online for a replacement for me. Originally decided I'd have the current Atmos 2, but the £95-£99 price was making me wince a bit. Then I found an Ionos on sale at Edinburgh Bike Coop. OK so it's now a discontinued model but it was one step above the Atmos in the Giro food chain and I've paid only half the original retail price. Less a small consideration from my son for the old one. And the family can treat me to the balance for my birthday

I could no doubt have found a cheaper helmet, but it wouldn't look as good and it wouldn't be as well ventilated.

I think there's something in the 'lower standards' argument. My 1980s helmet conformed with 'Snell B-90' standard, but apparently the current EN 1078 promoted by the helmet industry as a 'standardisation' measure has a lower impact test:

http://cyclehelmets.org/1081.html

I don't normally post replies that much but I thought I would in this case...

I own an Aeon and I find it is the best helmet I have ever owned; if you buy it sensibly as I did I only paid £75 for it from CRC then it is most definitely the best on the market.

I have experience of helmets actually working in an accident; I still own an old S-works helmet that is flat on one side from a 28mph impact with a car and an Ionos which smashed the windscreen of another after I was sideswiped on a roundabout.

These were both expensive helmets with in-mould technology and I firmly believe that if they had not been then I would not be able to be sat here writing this.

Personally, I would pay as much as I happened to have spare at the time of needing a helmet but I would never scrimp on the quality. You don't always need this season's colourways, don't be a slave to fashion.

My opinion, may not be yours......

I have owned previous models of this helmet, I can`t see where this one is much different. I found it uncomfortable, the straps never positioned right, the retention system rubbed my neck and the padding was very thin.

I know fit is a personal matter but it felt cheap and after 18 months the retention system disintegrated.

I have no problem spending £200 on quality products but I can`t see £200 of value here.

Now I use a Kask helmet, still not cheap but 2/3 the price and very comfortable. the fittings are a different league in quality. It weighs 220g

Glasses over straps......

Can't really see any issue here??? Giro do a fantastic range of cheap,mid-price,expensive helmets...you get what you pay for? Isn't this how it works or am I missing something.... Christ innovation in anything costs mega money...

Dear road.cc please stop offending the Btwin/Altura brigade with your reviews of pricey stuff.

I own an Ionos lid and if this one is anywhere as good as that then they are onto a winner.

Its a lot of money for what you get but thats cycling all round, mega amounts of money for very little difference in a lot of goods.

Very nice lid, one of the least ugly around. I hardly ever wear one but like to have a nice one for the times when rules, etiquette or common sense demand it, so I may consider one of these when my Ionos needs replacing. But no way will I pay £200, for thay I could have new tyres, Monkeylectric lights in both wheels and a Brooks saddle.

If I remember rightly, the top end Giro helmets from this one down to the Aeon have a carbon fibre cage sealed in between two layers of polystyrene. My Aeon certainly has visible carbon fibre for all the linking sections and if you look closely you can see it between the ps layers. And an excellent fixing system. That suggests at least a bit more design time and construction difficulty. The venting is amazing, no sweaty head at all.

By contrast I also have a £25 helmet I bought on holiday in Oz because you have to wear them. It's just a polystyrene bucket with holes in it, with straps that are only attached at the very top of the helmet in two places. And it's a sweatbox.

So maybe you do get what you pay for.

As to whether they do any good at all in any sort of crash, I dunno. BMJ says not.

I have one of these helmets and while they are quite nice, very light and all that. the straps are a pain in the a**e. They continually twist in the retention system so that every time you put the lid on you have to untwist the straps. On the other hand helmets like Specialized the retention system is so good that you just pick the helmet up, put it on and buckle up - no fiddling and twisted straps.

I'll gladly have a hobnob as long as they show precisely how much better they are as a percentage than Rich Tea, in terms of aero, tensile strength and structural integrity vs dunking duration.

Hob nob anyone?

Who gives a shit about the 'value'. Not for you? Don't buy it? Like it and have the money. Fill your boots. Theme on the comments on this site = any item costing more than the cheapest item in that category is by default shit and anyone buying it is a mug.

Choices people. Last time I looked none of us have to justify their purchases to anyone here.

I've got one of these and I'm very happy with it - very light, very comfy and well ventilated. And I paid half the retail price for it. If you don't see the value I respect your opinion, but I do.

OK, you don't want a spendy hat, fair enough.

But have you looked at them vs a twenty quid job? They ARE a higher quality and more complex product. Usually with stiff composite ribs in between the polystyrene, making more like the old leather and capoc hats of the Merckx era.

Do they work better? Maybe not.

Are they worth up to 10 times more? Certainly not.

Do I suspect the big brands deliberately make their cheaper stuff uglier? Yes I do.

But they are a luxury product, I like them and I do have a Mavic Plasma SLR, a pricey lid, I also have a giro transfer cheapo as a spare.

Though be aware, never pay anywhere near list!

What would be nice is for a study to be done showing the benefits of aero vs vented lids.

Does having a hot head on the climbs damage your performance by more than the reduced drag on the flats and downhills enhance it?

just nicer cradles and thinner straps, buckles you can operate when your hands are frozen, lighter weight, better profile and design

but i was being polite earlier and trying to be middle ground and say dont moan to much

but if your on the attack then you know what to do and all that

march with your wallet, dont buy it.. the other thing to factor also is pro teams ride this stuff, they get given it by sponsors like Giro, they develop stuff and it subsidises racing to a point/probably quite a lot.

i would rather be paying say a 10/20% premium on everything i buy for my bike to ensure pro racing is still supported.

world of sport would be dull without cycling and a magical gold generating unicorn doesnt fund pro teams we do.

if you have no interest in supporting pro cycling maybe you are 'a person that rides a bike' as opposed to a 'cyclist'

I have no interest in debating the ups, downs, pros, cons, lefts, rights, yays or nays of this or any other helmet, but I must say that I do particularly like your username, Peowpeowpeowlasers. I wish I'd thought of it first - mine is ridiculous. May I ask what inspired it? For anybody who is interested in mine, firstly I pity you, and secondly it literally has no reference to anything, it's purely two random words put together. Do I win a prize for most useful, thoughtful, life-improving post today?

I am slightly puzzled as to what the tech is that trickles down. It's not got any electronics in it, the harness system is just plastic buckles velcro and pads which are hard to re-invent unless you include messing about with the arrangement of said buckles straps and pads. The material of the helmet it self is a plastic shell, foam and mesh and it's all meant to break up on impact anyway so there is no engineering going on to make it any stronger or lighter as the properties of the materials them self are fairly set in stone given the application. Sure it may look whizzy and it's this years "pro" kit which instantly sells it to the gullible but there is no revolution in design or technology going on that makes it worth two hundred quid, it's not like it stops bullets or monitors your life signs and pings them to the paramedics on route to scrape you off the road .

It's like this years football top for Man United fans or the latest pair of designer jeans, it is not however a move forward in personal protection for cyclists.

Commenter who doesn't wear/want to wear a helmet moans about expensive helmet shocker.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

You realise you sound just like the "you could buy a car for that" non-cyclist, yeah? keep it up.

so long as things exist that you can buy, there will be expensive and cheap versions of said things, and the expensive ones that cost four times as much will be better, but not four times better, and some people will buy them because they want the better one and can afford it, and some won't. it really isn't rocket science, this.

Having owned one for the last two years I can say this is a fantastic helmet - extremely light, well ventilated and looks good which are my criteria. They all have to meet safety standards.

I'm a bit of a retail junkie when it comes to cycling stuff and always replace kit way sooner than I need to - this is a problem with the Aeon - I cant find anything better to replace it with and is evidence enough that this is IMO the best cycling helmet money can buy.

Low weight, extremely high amount of venting, more advanced construction and materials all go into the cost.

Cheaper helmets will be heavier bulkier and hotter, therefore not so comfortable or suitable for a race situation where you are exerting yourself and less weight etc can give per offer performance benefits.

Then Giro and the retailer need to make some money to pay their bills and keep their shareholders happy.

Your argument is that one is as safe as the other right. The standards are only a minimum amount of safety, we never now how much MORE safe they are than the minimum. After destruction testing helmets, (non scientifically) I would say the internal frame this giro has would make it much tougher than a cheaper helmet that is not injection moulded.