If you're looking for somebody to write ill of Giro's helmets you're reading the wrong site, for the simple reason that I (the publisher) was wearing a Giro when I fell-down-went-boom last year, and while the rest of my body lost its battle with the pavement, I never had as much as a stiff neck afterward. And that was in spite of an epic headsmack to the road. If I'd hit the highway any harder they'd have had to re-pave the Giro-shaped hole.
In the same way that I'd think well of a person who'd saved my life, I'm kindly disposed to a company whose product did.
Giro has been the leader in road helmets since shortly after founder Jim Gentes (who has long-since sold Giro) founded and built the company. It didn't take long for Giro's stylish designs and lightness of weight to overtake Bell. Now Bell and Giro are owned by the same corporate conglomerate, but that's a different story.
Giro continues to be a market leader, and its current road-specific models are worthy torchbearers.
PNEUMO
I don't know if there's a more stylish helmet than this. It's the helmet Batman would wear if he was a cyclist (specifically the Carbon color).
But it's the white (pictured) that's the best seller according to the shops we spoke with. And it's not just a good-looking helmet, it fits and protects well. Giro's Roc-Loc™ 3 system—which compares roughly to Garneau's Spiderlock® (Specialized and Bell have their own versions of an essentially similar mechanism) appears to work better (according to users with whom we've spoken) if you're adjusting it on the fly. But unless our collective memories fail us Giro introduced its Roc-Loc system into its MTB helmets first, while Garneau was first to slide its Spiderlock into the road helmet market. This would mark one of the rare times (when it comes to road helmets) Giro has been a Johnny-come-lately with a feature.
The Pneumo is going to be the best selling model of upper-end road race helmet in most pro road shops (in spite of its $160 price tag) for the reasons above. And there is, er, that one other thing: Lance Armstrong wears it.
For all that, though, the Pneumo, while still a light helmet, is about an ounce heavier than either Garneau's T-Bone or its Bikini.
ECLIPSE
This is a $100 helmet, which is nice because some of these helmets cost as much by the ounce as expensive perfume. The Eclipse features the same Roc-Loc 3 mechanism as does the Pneumo and is a big seller as well. But it's a 270g helmet, which would've been light three years ago, but nowadays?
The Pneumo deserves, based on it's unbelievably modernistic shape and venting and its great fit, to be the #1 seller to road racers at the top price point level. But is the Eclipse a worthy competitor to Garneau's T-Bone, considering that the latter is $10 less and 45g less as well? Depends. The Giro name carries a lot of oomph. Those retailers with whom we spoke—those who sell both Giro and Garneau—report that the Eclipse is the big sales winner at this price point when it comes to the general upper-end road customer. But the T-Bone is the big winner over the Eclipse among club racers (USA Cycling competitive cyclists). What wisdom can one derive from that? We haven't a clue.
Giro helmets can be seen on its website.
