Bicycles

Giro Aerohead II bike helmet streamlines the head into slippery bullet

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The Aerohead II helmet – definitely not designed for just riding around town
Team Visma/Lease a Bike
The Aerohead II's design starts to make sense when you see it in tucked-riding action
Team Visma/Lease a Bike
When the rider is tucked down, they look forward through a transparent visor which wraps around the entire underside of the helmet's nose
Team Visma/Lease a Bike
The Aerohead II complies with UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) regulations
Team Visma/Lease a Bike
The Aerohead II helmet – definitely not designed for just riding around town
Team Visma/Lease a Bike
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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.

The Aerohead II's design starts to make sense when you see it in tucked-riding action
Team Visma/Lease a Bike

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.

The Aerohead II complies with UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) regulations
Team Visma/Lease a Bike

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

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7 comments
Stanislaw W. Zolczynski
What`s next? Vedge shaped breast and shin plates?
Trylon
You're wrong about the 1989 Tour de France. Lemond only wore the helmet in the final stage time trial while Fignon went bareheaded with his ponytail blowing in the breeze. While the overall margin of victory after totaling all the stages came to 8 seconds, Lemond had destroyed Fignon in that time trial, beating him by almost a minute.
Bob B
I'm wondering when these helmets will become large VR headsets that allow the riders to keep their head in an optimal position while viewing a screen that shows their surroundings via cameras in the helmet.
McDesign
I've read analyses that calculated the aero drag of Fignon's ponytail over the entire race. It lost him the race, no question.
bobmeyerweb
I think maybe the designer forgot that the primary purpose of a helmet is to protect the head. With all those hard edges sticking way out past the rider's head, an accident is likely to break the rider's neck with the helmet catches on the ground. Lawsuit in 3, 2, .....
Adrian Akau
We need better car aerodynamics.
ReservoirPup
You can have a recumbent bike for that price but this helmet is mostly about the airdynamic gains then pecuniary.