Most of us Slowtwitchers ride with Louis Garneau helmets, so it’s easy to write about them. Perhaps we use Garneau for the same reasons we use Apple computers—style, function, ease of use, and nonubiquity. As for that last word, if it is a word, Giro/Bell is the Microsoft of helmets, and while both the helmet and operating system conglomerates make top-flight products, not everyone wants to use what almost everyone else uses. Garneau, in other words, is the helmet for poets.
We would assume that a higher percentage of left-handers ride with Garneau helmets. We also suspect users of this Quebec company’s brain buckets tend to be fans of Coen brothers’ movies. They read for pleasure, enjoy gourmet food more than is good for them, and tend toward red wine over white. They’d prefer not to live in a tract home. Otherwise, they’re exactly like Giro helmet wearers.
BIKINI
I chose a really bad ride (in the best sense of the word) on which to debut this helmet. The ride was seven hours up and down hills, and while I managed to break my own legs the helmet was perfect. For $130 you get a top-of-the-line road helmet from a top-rate company and that's a good price.
Garneau is not just another company nipping at the heels of the market leaders. It's got its own designers and it's come up with it's own innovations. Its Spiderlock® mechanism—a twist of the knob and it’s flush with the back of your head—is patented and only more recently, in the Spiderlock's third year of existence, have the major companies done a reasonable job of catching up.
T-BONE
As I was rounding the turn that occurs right at the 20-mile mark of the Wildflower long course race last month a volunteer shouted out, “Nice helmet.” A lot of things have been shouted at me during 22 years of triathlon racing, but I’d never heard that one before. Not that it surprised me. It was a nice helmet. Yes, I owned a Prologue as well (reviewed below) but I was frankly scared of that helmet for Wildflower, because of the length of the bike course (56mi), its difficulty, and its tendency to get very hot right when it gets hilly. But I like the T-Bone so much I've just kept racing in it, even on the cooler weather courses.
Yes, the T-Bone is probably a second or two or three slower per mile than the Prologue, but it’s packed full of vents and at 226g it’s light as heck.
The T-Bone sells for US$90 and not only compares favorably with the top-end models by Giro, Bell and Specialized, I consider it equal to Garneau's higher priced Bikini. My T-Bone started its life looking fabulous with its neon green and light gray cosmetics, but it’s not quite as pretty any longer because it's got the remains of helmet numbers all over it (those numbers never come cleanly off). And, speaking of racing, in buying this helmet instead of its higher-priced competitors you’ve saved enough for another entry fee (in any country but the U.S.).
PROLOGUE
This is the helmet that is causing all the fuss in the triathlon community. Slowtwitch reader and top age-group athlete Mike Plumb has more extensive experience with this helmet than anyone we know, so we asked him to write his impressions:
"When the first pictures of the new Garneau Prologue helmet were publicized, I knew I had to have one. Would it make me faster? Who cares? Would it make me look faster? Yes!!!
"I took delivery of mine in April and was very pleased with it right off the bat. The fit was good, I really liked the ease in adjusting the fit with the Spiderlock dial on the back. My Prologue came with a clear visor. The visor can be rotated upward without sacrificing much of the "aeroness" of the helmet. This comes in handy on hot days or when climbing. It allows a bit more air circulation into the helmet—the three vents on the front of the helmet provide a minimal amount of air flow. Since I race primarily short course, the air circulation is less of a consideration for me.
"I am sure the helmet is worth a couple of seconds per mile in overall speed, but more importantly it will make your fellow competitors think you are capable of going much faster since you will look even more aero. It's not how well you do, it's how well you look doing it."--Mike Plumb
You’ll see many helmets that look like the Prologue during the grand tour time trials. We’re often asked, “Why aren’t those helmets for sale?” The answer is, they’re not helmets. They’re head fairings. They’re for aerodynamic purposes only, and they won’t save your noggin from the pavement if you zig while your bike zags. The Prologue is the only approved aero helmet (CPSC and ASTM), and as John Cobb put it, “Since it’s the only aero helmet, it’s by far the best aero 
helmet.” The Prologue is a head fairing, and a protective helmet, and it's approved. It costs $100 without the visor and $120 with (it is most commonly purchased with the visor). The only complaint we’ve heard from dealers, besides not being able to keep them in stock, is that they doesn’t cost enough. “People would pay a buck and a half for this helmet,” one retailer told me. “Why doesn’t Garneau charge for this helmet, and then we’d all make some margin?”
There are other helmets Louis Garneau makes that dip lower in price point. The best of them is the LeMask (at left), which at $70 has all the whiz-bang features of those above and looks dynamite. And Garneau has lower-priced helmets still. For my money, though, the pick of the litter is the T-Bone, which only stands to reason since it has gotten me my only on-the-road compliment this year. I am not the only one who feels this way, I'm told, as the T-Bone is YTD Garneau's most popular helmet.
Louis Garneau's website is here, and they've got a dealer locater on it.
