I am looking for a new road/training helmet, and I came across this one at the LBS today:
http://kaliprotectives.com/bike/maraka-r
I ride in Austin, so I am needing a cool/well-vented helmet. The vents look promising, but the 300g weight looks a bit high @ $189. In any event any experiences or opinions?
I hear you on the weight, but not sure if it’s truly 300 grams…that’s one of several “advertised” weights I notice. I own and ride Limar helmets for the most part and of course, can’t tell the difference in weight (although there could be some I suppose, especially with my one ultralight Limar). Ventilation is king on this helmet thought for sure and their strap system seems better than most. The shops I’ve sold the Miraka into like the helmet very much, but of course, the $180 pricepoint for helmets tends to be out of the budget for many (or the riders do not see the extra value if any from the $120 helmet to the $180).
I’ve used the Kali Maraka and liked it quite a bit. I chose it based on its dual-density foam lining, though, and not its venting, in an attempt to encase my head as safely as possible (Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute report) since I take low-dose aspirin. The weight didn’t bother me, but I can’t really say that the venting made a huge difference over a “normal” helmet. I can say that although I did knock myself out when I slammed my head into the ground at 35 mph, it was only a brief loss of consciousness and I didn’t get the intracranial bleed that scares the crap out of me. I obviously can’t fully attribute that to the helmet, but it did have a much more diffuse pattern of cracking than a previous helmet that hit the ground. When I replaced the helmet, I went with the Kali Phenom instead of the Maraka, but only because the smallest size of the Maraka felt a tad big on me. I love the Phenom.