The Aerohead II is definitely one of the strangest-looking bike helmets ever made. It should be right at home in the world of time trial racing, however, where aerodynamics are king and style just doesn't matter.
Announced this Monday (Mar. 4), the Aerohead II was created via a partnership between American helmet manufacturer Giro and Team Visma/Lease a Bike, a Dutch bicycle racing team. The team plans on using the helmet – which is custom-made for each rider – throughout the upcoming season.
Giro designed the original version of the Aerohead for American racing cyclist Greg LeMond back in 1986. He proceeded to win the 1989 Tour de France while wearing the helmet, beating his closest opponent by just eight seconds. The Aerohead went on to become a commercially available production model.
Considerably more radical-looking than its predecessor, the Aerohead II is focused even more on maximizing aerodynamics while its time-trial-racing wearer is tucked down in the aero position. To that end, it features a long wedge-shaped "nose cone" along with a tapered tail section which flares out to sit flush with the rider's shoulders.
When the rider is tucked down, they look forward through a transparent visor which wraps around the entire underside of the helmet's nose. The visor is considerably larger than that of the original model, reportedly providing much better visibility.
After being tested extensively over the past winter, the Aerohead II was used in competition for the first time this Monday in the opening time trial of the Tirreno-Adriatico road cycling stage race in Italy.
"The riders did look up a bit when they first saw the helmet, but in the end that didn't last long," says Team Visma/Lease a Bike's head of performance, Mathieu Heijboer. "After a few tests and seeing the gains, everyone was quickly convinced."
Sources: Team Visma/Lease a Bike, Giro via BikeRadar