Kask Mojito

Italian brand Kask has a gem of a helmet in the Mojito, a lightweight and relatively inexpensive design that fits brilliantly – to my head anyway.

Thanks in part to its sponsorship with Team Sky, Kask is now widely recognised as a leader in the lid market. The Mojito is now its mid-range helmet after being used by the pro team up until 2014, so still carries a lot of the ventilation tech and lightweight construction you'd hope for from a pro-level model.

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Even though the design hasn't changed much since 2012, it's still a classy piece of kit. Suitable for hot summer days, its cooling is almost unparalleled – in fact, the only helmet I've felt draws air through more effectively than this is the super Giro Aeon – which is largely down to the 26 holes that perforate the outer.

Unlike the Giro, however, is how the Mojito manages to have a small footprint on your head – that is, it doesn't sit atop your head like a mushroom. Instead, it looks a little like the leather-style head protection the pros used back in the 70s, only with 21st century protection standards, if you take a front-on view. The main benefit of this is it doesn't crawl into your peripheral vision, so you can genuinely forget you're wearing it at all after a while.

Fitting is secured via a dial adjustment system at the rear, which like most other adjustments systems these days, clasps to the back of your head to draw the internals of the helmet to you. It's an effective system, pulling the helmet down and around your cranium, ensuring a secure fit. More than that, it's very comfortable, with plentiful pads lining the inner shell too.

That comfort is burgeoned by the leather chin strap too. OK, it's an attachment to more traditional fabric straps, but I found the introduction of the leather to the contact patch around the chin a very comfortable addition. It adds a couple of grams, no doubt, but the comfort benefits by far outweigh any deficit in this area – especially when the going gets sweaty. And let's not forget that 220g for a medium is still seriously light.

This is a comfortable, cool and lightweight helmet, retailing at £110 – and in some spots a lot less if you're willing to scout around for a bargain. But even at full price you're getting a lot of helmet for your money. And, perhaps significantly for some, it's available in more colourways than I care to list, which is great for the colour-matchers out there.

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Flaws? The padding – which, as I've said, is very comfortable – can collect a lot of sweat. Admittedly, that's partly what it's designed to do, but if you're a bit of a 'sweathead' like me, the surface area can absorb more than it allows to evaporate. The result is eventually a need to squeeze them out by pressing the helmet against your head, so you free up extra 'sweat capacity' – a process one of my riding mates described to me as 'minging'…

Still, this only goes for hot days or on rides of particularly hard intensity – so it's only a small downside – just be sure to tilt your forehead away unless you want suncream-infused sweat deposited on your face and in your eyes.

Other than this, the Mojito remains a very high-quality helmet, at a price point that really is competitive even though it doesn't follow the latest in aero profiling and Mips technology. 

Verdict

An excellent helmet that, although missing the very latest technology, is still hard to top