Okay, not that it’s official, I can tell you my thoughts and experiences with the new Aerohead.
First, Giro is actually being pretty conservative with it’s time savings estimates, but that’s not the story I think needs to be told. In my opinion, there are a few points which should be of greatest interest to all of you…
While I haven’t conducted all the aero testing, I do know our results and the results of the tunnel tests, and will say the most remarkable thing about the helmet is it has tested as the fastest helmet for every athlete that I know of except one, and even for that athlete it was a wash against the LG P09. I don’t know the total number of those who’ve tested with it, but I do know it’s more than just a handful. We have never seen a helmet work so well for everyone who’s tried it. It really becomes the new helmet for, if you can’t test, its the safest bet.The fact that the shield covers the ears instead of tight flaps means that T1 (and T2 for removal) will be easier. This may seem like a small point, but I believe it’s important. There’s no pulling this helmet around your ears and on to your head. You simply put it on and go. Easy peezy.Working off of point 2, because the ears aren’t covered with flaps you can hear what’s going on around you very well. This is a nice safety feature. I don’t know if it was intended, but it works well in this manner nonetheless.I’m shocked at the $250 option. Honestly, I would be charging you geeks a lot more than that! To be completely honest, and to risk you all getting angry with me, I was asked for my opinion on this and suggested a price of $350 - $400 would be reasonable. Kudos to Giro for not listening to me.Given at least a tiny peak inside the design process, I was surprised at the time and energy spent on the shield(s). Honestly, this was the bulk of our testing since last year. You want to know why it’s taken so long to bring this to market? They were adamant in getting the shield just right. Let me give you an example. During testing with Rohan Dennis, there was actually one shield that tested faster in the wind tunnel than all the others. Problem was, once testing was done with us, it became quite clear it was a non-starter because he simply couldn’t see when he was actually riding his bike. Again, I was only privy to a very small part of this helmet’s development, but we tested a bunch of shields.This was the first time I worked with Giro, but my experience resulted in a new found respect for the company. This rings true for pretty much every company I’ve worked with. These guys really want to put out a great product, and worked hard to do so.
I’ll try to answer questions, but I have a pretty busy schedule over the next several days.
Edit: Sorry for the first incomplete post. I just learned not to post to this forum using an IPad.
your experience with the ultimate or the cheaper version and how much difference in drag is there between the two? any ability to rotate this helmet back on ones head for folks with tall foreheads?
Jim, what were you seeing in time differences between the standard and Ultimate versions?
Has anyone seen an official release date? VN says “Fall” and Aerogeeks says “Summer”. An actual date would be great…
The numbers Aerogeeks is reporting come from our testing and tunnel testing, so that’s the easy answer.
Again, I have to give credit to Giro, they’re not reporting “pie in the sky” numbers. I actually expect most people will see greater time savings than they’re quoting, but they’ve chosen to be conservative and I respect that. For that reason, I can’t really give you any other numbers.
I did forget one thing from my original post. Aerogeeks also quoted 15 watts over the Advantage 2. That number is absolutely correct, but there’s more to the story. Rohan really liked the A2 and wanted it to test faster. This is always dangerous for us because when an athlete wants something to test faster, they’ll sometimes give a little extra shrug or do something else to “help” the product, whatever it may be, to test better. I’ll be honest, the guys from Giro didn’t want him to test the A2, and it was the last test we did on that particular day. Let me tell you, there was a big sigh of relief when it immediately became clear the Aerohead was crushing the A2 and, when Rohan completed his run, he stopped and smiled knowing full well it was slower before we ever gave him the results. He could feel it. Just a little behind the scenes info for all of you.
would you have info on how each of these two new helmets ventilation system will perform in very hot ironman races? From first look those helmets don’t seem to provide a lot of ventilation, the $250 helmet seems to be better than the $550 in that regards, and the time savings comparison between the two helmets are not very different.
they also claim the salad bowl is faster than the advantage in that report, which I think is suspect as I haven’t found anything faster than the advantage on myself yet.
I also don’t want a weighted yaw that includes 10 and 15 deg in it
Now I am upset. I wanted this helmet, but then saw the $550 price tag, so I then planned to just buy the specialized TT helmet which is available now and I get at a reasonable price. Now they also release a $250 version! That just messes up my plans and now I need to wait for this stupid thing.
According to piece on Lava, if you ditch the shield and use glasses the “drawback isn’t that much”. Of course, I’d trust Jim’s word more than a marketing piece form Giro.
I’m interested in this helmet but I had really bad experiences with the AA shield so I’m more interested in how the shield on this one handles fog and sweat.
Boy, if only it came in pink and white like the original Specialized helmet, things would have truly come full-circle (well, not really…but the shape is quite reminiscent):
