Met Manta helmet review

Tempo di lettura: 6 minuti

There are still people who think that the bike helmet is an unnecessary nuisance; its use relegated to the most sporting fanatics. I, on the opposite, firmly believe that the helmet is necessary, as any other safety protection, and that’s why I am proposing the test of another helmet: the Met Manta.

A top one of the sport range, often used by racing professionals and characterized by the absence of the big front air intake to facilitate the aerodynamic penetration. The company estimates the advantage at about 1o watts at 5 km/h compared to similar helmets.

I tell you right away that this is not what prompted me to ask to the Met Helmets a Manta to test; I would not be objectively able to check if the watts are really 10 or 8.

On the contrary, I wanted to know if renouncing the front intake would have affected the comfort, drastically reducing the ventilation. Because none of us steadily pedals at 50 km/h and we can also disregard if we have more or less watts: we all pedal in the heat; and a helmet that becomes a little stove can give all the possible benefits but I would not use it. If I stay equally cool and in addition I get an aerodynamic advantage, the I’m happy 😀

In this blog I have already reviewed another Met Helmets’ helmet, and it was the Strale; a classical helmet with an enviable quality/price rate. Some drop in a couple of finishes, but it would have been impossible to do more in exchange of the few Euros asked at the purchase. Then I thought of testing an aerodynamic helmet to understand its comfort, especially now that the suffocating heat is here, and it was natural for me to turn again to the Met Helmets; both because it has the Manta in its catalog and because demonstrated a great professionalism and a great willingness to adhere to my requests and therefore I thank them.

The focal point of this test will not to determine if this Met Manta gives a watts advantage. I don’t have the tools to quantify it nor an available wind tunnel. I have no reason to doubt the effectiveness of the tests carried out by the company, so I will focus on understanding if and how much we pay in terms of comfort and ventilation when we have a helmet with the front area closed. Assuming that there is an improvement in the aerodynamic penetration, the question I will try to answer is: what should I sacrifice to obtain this advantage?

We will follow the usual pattern of my tests, starting with the static presentation.

Let’s turn over the page and let’s see how it is done.

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