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Tried a Large Giro Cinder as my old Bell Lumen is >5 years old and I wanted to try one in white with MIPS. Unfortunately the Cinder is quite shroomy: 0.5 cm thicker in the front and 1 cm wider horizontally than the Bell - looks bad on my long head and can't be aero ;p
Front is fairly thicc:
Bulges out to 23 cm (photo doesn't quite show it).
Is the Synthe any slimmer? Kask Utopida a good pick? Bell Stratus MIPS?
Giro Synthe (looks significantly slimmer than Cinder IMO)
Giro Cinder
Kask Protone (maybe the least mushroomy helmet there is)
My Large Synthe (non-mips) is 22cm wide. The front dimension is ~22m or ~29mm from the pads/liner.
It's not super shroomy, but most of the guys I ride with also have the Synthe but in M, and they look considerably slimmer (and sit shorter on top of the head).
Key to not shrooming is to find a brand you can downsize in. E.g, I can get a medium Evade II on, a Medium Kask Valegro on, but pretty much nothing else in medium. As soon as I go large, shroom.
Thanks Oggles, that's what I thought, about 1 cm narrower than the Cinder, not bad.
There's also the Kask Utopia, sacrificing a bit of ventilation and looks for marginal aero gains (10 watts at 40 km/h over the Synthe it seems https://www.radsport-rennrad.de/test-teile/aero-helme-windkanal-test-2/)
My head is so big that sizing down won't work I don't think, large is already small..
Kask Mojito is pretty low profile as well.
Giro Aether is lowest profile helmet I’ve owned.
Giro Aether is actually a bit wider than the synthe
Seems like I'm landing on Abus Gamechanger to my own surprise..
Gamechanger will be my next helmet if nothing else pops up in the meantime, nice looking helmet and the reviews are mostly good (bar one or two suggesting a lack of padding).
Dismissed it initially for looking weird, but then I saw it's around 10 watts faster than the Synthe (as fast as a non TT/Visor helmet gets, only 3 watts slower than a bare head at 40 kmh) plus it looks quite good in white and is very narrow profile, more modern than the Specialized Evade 2 which it ties with in aero tests at a much lower price - build quality seems excellent - only thing it lacks is MIPS.
Has sunglass ports both front and back.
Everyone who has one is very happy with it, better ventilated than the ballista too.
Specialized Airnet.
Subtle, super comfy and well vented/aero enough!
Kask Protone in large didn't fit me at all, my head is too damn long and it needed another .5 cm in inner length to fit - best for rounder heads.
Just got the gamechanger, fits like a glove. Large is 21.2 cm at the widest so narrower than all the other options, weighs 267 grams in large.
Had to scratch of the front Abus logo though, jeez.