Giro has announced its new flagship helmet, the Aether MIPS. The new helmet gets an update of the MIPS rotational impact management system, designed to reduce the effect of shear forces in a crash. It's also published aerodynamic testing results showing a 2.4% efficiency gain over its Synthe MIPS helmet.
Giro and its sister brand Bell are big advocates of MIPS, with their own facilities to assess its effectiveness. The Aether helmet has a two part foam liner, which Giro says helps across a wide range of impact energies, by rotating between the outer shell, which has taken the impact, and the rider’s skull.
MIPS Spherical lets Giro add plenty of venting to the new Aether helmet
(Image credit: Elliot Layda)
Called MIPS Spherical, the new MIPS technology has been three years in development and allows Giro to include large channels in the helmet for excellent ventilation, which it says is as good as a non-MIPS Synthe and better than that helmet with MIPS. The shell itself consists of six longitudinal ribs, with shatterproof reinforcement.
Giro quotes a weight of 250 grams for a medium sized helmet, with the retail price set at £259.99. The Aether MIPS will come in three sizes and Giro will offer nine colours at launch, three of which are limited editions.
According to Scott Junker, Giro Helmet Product Manager: "The demands of professional-level road cycling helmets are unique and intense: protection must be accompanied with comfort, low weight, and optimal ventilation.” A pro level helmet, the Aether MIPS will be worn by the BMC Racing team at the up-coming Tour de France.
MIPS Spherical integrates the sliding plane into the body of the helmet, eliminating the separate liner
Giro says that it also has a new fitting system, developed for the Aether MIPS. It’s called the Roc Loc 5+ Air and offers three-way adjustment to the fit. The helmet also includes a sunglass docking port and anti-microbial padding.
Giro has also revealed numbers for the new helmet’s aerodynamics, which have been tested during development. Wind tunnel testing was carried out at different wind yaw angles from 0 to 15 degrees and, says Giro, showed a 2.4% aerodynamic efficiency gain over the Synthe MIPS, putting it above some competitors' more enclosed aero helmets and closer to the results for the Giro Vanquish MIPS aero helmet.
Retail availability of the Aether MIPS will be from August 1.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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