Ekoi Aerodinamica by Pininfarina helmet

The Ekoi Helmet Aerodinamica by Pininfarina was conceived, according to its maker, to achieve six goals: aerodynamics, protection, comfort, ventilation, design and lightness. I'd say it achieves some of them, but for this kind of money I'd expect it to be nailing all of them.

For other options that are lighter both on the wallet and the head, check out our guide to the best aero helmets.

> Buy now: Ekoi Helmet Aerodinamica by Pininfarina for £231.12 from Ekoi

The main reason you'd be looking at buying the Aerodinamica is, as its name suggests, for the aerodynamic claims. Ekoi says that its engineers have developed the helmet in a wind tunnel to reduce the coefficient of drag when speeds exceed 40km/h (25mph), in collaboration with Swiss Side.

As we don't have access to a wind tunnel here, they will have to remain just claims – and to be honest, I can't even tell you whether the helmet feels aero or not.

One downside with many aero helmets is the lack of venting because of the need to keep the structure as smooth as possible, and things are no different here. You get three tall but slender vents at the front…

…and a rear opening to vent warm air.

It works okay, but even when the temperature is the mid-teens Celsius I could notice things start to get warm inside, and if you hit any sort of climb or you have to work hard, you'll soon be sweating. If you have a lumpy ride before you get to your flat finale, this isn't the helmet I'd recommend. I'd probably go for something like Trek's Ballista Mips helmet, which I found much cooler.

It's okay in terms of comfort, though. I didn't put it on and go, wow, this is really comfortable, but after rides of a couple of hours or so I didn't find any issues with it. The padding is plentiful, and the strap feels comfortable against your skin.

It has a magnetic buckle as opposed to the more usual clip, and there's plenty of adjustment to the cradle. Helping further to get as good a fit as possible, Ekoi offers it in three sizes: the small covers 52-54cm, medium 55-58cm, and large 59-61cm.

In terms of weight, this medium tipped our scales at 336g, which is more than 60g heavier than that Trek Ballista and 56g heavier than the aero Abus GameChanger 2.0 Mips.

For comparison, my daily fully vented Specialized S-Works Prevail 3 is 273g, so being aero doesn't necessarily mean heavier.

Extra protection

In terms of extra protection, Ekoi has chosen to work with Koroyd, which is a honeycomb-like inner helmet structure designed to increase the strength of the EPS (expanded polystyrene) by allowing the tubes to crumple instantly on impact, absorbing forces in a controlled manner. You can read more about it in our feature, What is Koroyd?

There are four sections in total, two at the front and two on the sides (the green elements you can see below). Should things go pear shaped, this should give more protection than a standard EPS helmet.

Value

I really like the overall design; it comes in either this black/red option or a white/red. The initial design was sketched by Pininfarina, the Italian design house famous for its creations for the likes of Ferrari – which may or may not be an incentive to part with over £300!

Its RRP of £330.32 is much more than the £260 asked for by Abus for the Gamechanger mentioned above, and over £100 more than the Trek Ballista's £229.99.

Kask's Utopia Y aero helmet is both ligher at 261g and cheaper at £245, while the Specialized S-Works Evade 3 is £250. This was a helmet I was also impressed with when I reviewed it a few years back.

Conclusion

Taking price out of the equation, the Ekoi is a good helmet. It's not as ventilated as some, but if you are buying an aero helmet that's probably not your main concern. It's comfortable, and even though the weight is a little bit more than most, it's still not exactly heavy.

What stops me from strongly recommending the Ekoi above the competition, though, is that it performs no better in the real world than many others I've tried, but will cost you much more cash.

> Buy now: Ekoi Helmet Aerodinamica by Pininfarina for £231.12 from Ekoi

Verdict

Does a good job and offers a comfortable fit, but heavier and pricier than the competition