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review
£199.99
VERDICT:
Very good pro-level lid that's light and comfortable
Weight:
197g
Contact:
www.zyro.co.uk
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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Giro's Aeon has been in the range for a few years now, but it's still easily holding its own as a really well ventilated, lightweight race helmet. It replaced the Prolight and Ionos at the top of the Giro pile; the Prolight has since been discontinued and the Ionos moved down to the second tier, £40 cheaper.
With our test model creeping under 200g by three grams, the Aeon is one of the lightest helmets out there. The fact that it's hugely ventilated helps with that; the Aeon features a thermoformed skeleton inside the EPS foam to keep the structure rigid. The shell is bonded in the mould for extra resilience, as you'd expect from most lids these days. The Aeon conforms to European CE standards.
Retention on your bonce is taken care of by Giro's Roc Loc 5 which is a minimal-but-very-effective clicky dial affair with enough up and down adjustment to get it just so on the back of your head.
The lightweight theme is carried on to the webbing straps that are noticeably thinner than usual. They're a bit more flexible as a result, and sit very comfortably against the sides of your head. The strap guides at the side of the helmet have shrunk a bit too, but they're still very usable and you can adjust the length of the front and rear straps for a perfect fit, which isn't possible with some lightweight retention systems.
Once it's on you'd barely know it was there. The 24 vents let masses of air through and the pads, although minimal, are perfectly placed to keep the lid comfy. They're contain silver antibacterial fibres too to keep the whiffs at bay. It feels plenty comfortable with the flexible straps and lightweight retention keeping everything firmly in place. As always, helmet fit is a pretty personal affair but I found the Aeon to be nigh-on perfect for my averagely-shaped bonce.
At a penny under £200 this is at the top end of what you can pay, and with helmets like Giro's own Savant providing much of the performance for a lot less than half of the price, you're properly in the rarified realms of incremental gains here. But it's a very good, very light, pro-level race helmet so if that's your kind of thing, you won't be disappointed with the Aeon.
Verdict
Very good pro-level lid that's light and comfortable.
road.cc test report
Make and model: Giro Aeon helmet
Size tested: Medium, Fluo Orange
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
MAXIMUM VENTILATION, MINIMAL WEIGHT, ZERO COMPROMISE
You wanted a lighter helmet, a cooler helmet, a better helmet '' so we created one. Starting with a full roster of our best features, we optimised every component in the Aeon™ including the shape of the helmet itself, reducing weight by 28 percent compared with its predecessor. We also sculpted massive vents with interior channeling for best-in-class cooling power and integrated the adjustability and comfort of Roc Loc® 5, for a luxurious feel with all the performance you need.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
FEATURES:
X-Static® padding
Featherweight webbing with Slimline buckle
CONSTRUCTION:
In-Mold polycarbonate shell with EPS liner
Thermoformed SL Roll Cage™ reinforcement
FIT SYSTEM:
Roc Loc® 5
VENTILATION:
24 Wind Tunnel™ vents with internal channeling
SUPER FIT™ SIZES:
S 20'-21.75' / 51-55cm
M 21.75'-23.25' / 55-59cm
L 23.25'-24.75' / 59-63cm
Sizes Available:
L 59-63CM
M 55-59CM
S 51-55CM
Colours Available:
BLACK
BLACK/RED
BLACK/WHITE
BLUE/BLACK
ORANGE/WHITE
TITANIUM
WHITE/SILVER
Rate the product for quality of construction:
9/10
Rate the product for performance:
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
8/10
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
10/10
Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
8/10
Rate the product for value:
6/10
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Very well indeed
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Fit, weight.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
The fact that you can get Giro's excellent Savant for £140 less.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.
Would you consider buying the product? No, I'm more comfortable a few rungs down the helmet ladder.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes, if top-level gear was their thing.
About the tester
Age: 40 Height: 190cm Weight: 102kg
I usually ride: whatever I'm testing... My best bike is: Genesis Equilibrium 853
I've been riding for: 10-20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
Latest Comments
- ubercurmudgeon 1 sec ago
Kona makes practical, affordable commuter bikes and goes bust. Colnago makes toys for the affluent and it is booming. Just goes to show that the...
- Kendalred 10 sec ago
Harrogate innit. Too posh to push(bike)....
- brooksby 31 min 48 sec ago
Yes - you keep them in a box, buried in the ground with an X on a map to mark the spot
- BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP 1 hour 17 min ago
Bro needs to be in primary position.
- Mathemagician 1 hour 19 min ago
To answer your question, yes you can sometimes feel the difference. Built a set of wheels for a friend and he installed them with new lightweight...
- Geordiepeddeler 7 hours 58 min ago
Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
- chrisonabike 8 hours 10 min ago
Ah but taking pictures of things to defy the man (avoid a fine) is righteous. Taking pictures of people to grass on them to the cops (perhaps...
- jaysa 11 hours 21 min ago
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...
- andystow 12 hours 12 min ago
Same. I also have gone through a bunch of their tyres, and only the extralight disappointed (torn sidewall) but the standards are fantastic....
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39 comments
um... dont buy one then.
pretty simple, we have to thank the lovely people that do buy them though as the tech trickles down to the £50 helmets
savant is what i would buy as i know its basically the same but if mr large wallet feels faster in his £200 one then just remember to thank him for making yours cost less
lmfao. It's just a piece of polystyrene with some coloured plastic bits here and there. There's no "tech" to speak of.
The cheap helmets available today look no different to the cheap helmet I bought 25 years ago. Trickle down, lol.
3 - 2 - 1 helmet debate (snigger)
So what extra security does this helmet provide when compared with cheaper helmets under £50?
I mean, that's the only reason we wear them, right? For safety? So why review a safety product and not include anything about safety?
Surely its not £200 worth of materials and manufacturing costs. But whilst people pay daft money for these helmets the makers will slowly up the cost as has happened over the last 10 years since helmets became compulsory in the pro peleton,
hang on is there a like there!!!!!
My value scale for all polystyrene helmets:
£20 2-stars
£40 1-star
£60 and above 0-stars
CTC Helmet Debate
You need to work harder to get a better paid job then. Our take away last night cost about £60. £60 for a piece of safety equipment sounds fine to me, not 0 stars.
See what I did there? Its perspective isn't it? Don't like it, don't buy it. Just stop wasting our time ranting about things you cannot or want to afford.
Perhaps the website should only review lids from poundland/Lidl/Aldi all the time? Will that make you happy?
Sounds a lot like Top Gear's embarrassing, boorish "Work harder and buy a car" line, designed to bully and infuriate by knowingly misrepresenting cyclists as poor and jealous (half of London's cyclists are architects and IT workers, as TG well knows, even if their less urbane fans won't). Let's not even start on the link you are suggesting between the low pay of groups like nurses and soldiers and their not working hard enough.
You could rebut this daft "poor value" point easily and cleanly - there's simply nothing wrong with people buying and enjoying upmarket pro-level bike gear - without going down that embarrassing, boorish road.
That a boorish prig - bet he's got a small penis as we'll?
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