Cycling helmets have come a long way since Giro founder Jim Gentes created the first lightweight cycling helmet in 1985(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Plastic and composite skeletons allow Giro to produce helmets with large vents(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
No, this is not part of Spiderman's costume; it's a template for sketching out possible graphics(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
A finished Xar helmet alongside the template used to creating its graphics(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Giro's parent company owns several other companies, including Easton, which allows for a bit of color coordination between brands(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
All Giro helmets must pass CPSC safety standards, this machine allows engineers to replicate impacts at various angles and on flat or hemispherical surfaces(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Data from the impacts is measured and recorded(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
This Giro Air Attack was subjected to vertical drop from 2 meters, which replicates the force of a rider falling from their bike(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
What not to wear(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Foam is blown into the molds and then baked under pressure(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Helmet production is a labor intensive process, with many parts going into each mold(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Half-size prototypes, known as eggs, as created to test shapes, you can probably spot some of Giro's past and present helmets in this collection(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
The Dome, as Giro's R&D facility is known, is where all helmet design, development and testing occurs(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Giro's first helmet was constructed entirely from EPS foam and featured a Lycra cover that could be color matched to team kits(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Lycra covers were soon replaced by polycarbonate covers that resemble today's helmets(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
There were versions with and without ventilation(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
This aero lid was less of helmet and more of a fairing...(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
This first of many aerodynamic helmets made by Giro(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
...as it lacked any sort of EPS foam(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
New helmet designs start with a set of ideas and themes that inspire the designers(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
Clay molds are also used to test new lines. Shown here is the evolution of the Atmos from clay to finished product(Image credit: Josh Patterson/Future Publishing)
At the beginning, Jim Gentes packed a crude, handcarved model of a cycling helmet into a brown paper bag and took it to a tradeshow to drum up some interest. Today, Giro Sports Design is part of the Easton-Bell Sports empire, and its new research, design and development facility — dubbed The Dome — buzzes with dozens of engineers, graphic designers and lab techs as the company pushes the envelope for helmets across a variety of sports.
BikeRadar visited The Dome in Scotts Valley, just uphill and inland from Santa Cruz, California, a surf town whose culture helps propel and inspire the work inside Giro.
Inside Easton-Bell, helmets are made for cycling, American football, baseball, lacrosse and snowsports.
"We have all these different applications, technologies, designs and materials that can cross-pollinate," said Eric Richter, Giro's cycling senior brand manager.
Some technologies don't carry over, such as the Vinyl Nitrile material used in football and some snowsport helmets. Unlike EPS, the expanded foam material used in cycling helmets that cracks after one crash, VN bounces back to shape — a necessary trait for high-contact sports. So why not use it for cycling, where a crash means throwing out an expensive helmet? "VN doesn't perform well in extreme heat," said Rob Wessen, Giro's director of helmet technology. One US CPSC standard requires structural stability at a wide range of temperatures, and VN "gets squishy" at about 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Also it's heavier than foam.
Easton-Bell doesn't makes helmets in The Dome, but both the design and engineering elements incorporate digital and physical work. On the design front, everything is hand-drawn. Some is hand-sketched and scanned, but much of the work is drawn using a gridded, 3D mold.
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Giro lead designer Eli Atkins said the design team benefits from being part of Easton-Bell, working with the Easton equipment team on color schemes for upcoming model years, for example.
"It's a cultural thing, and it extends beyond this building," Atkins said. "Sometimes we call friends at bike companies and ask what colors they're using."
Once a graphic is created for a particular helmet, it's transferred to the shell material then heated until it begins to droop. Then a vacuum sucks the shell into the mold, where it is formed with the EPS material. Suffice it to say, it's a more complicated process than applying stickers.
Like any company that sells helmets in the US and Europe, Giro must ensure that its helmets meet all the differing safety requirements. Wessen said Europe's CE standard are somewhat 'easier', as the limits are a little lower for some measurements. For example, the CPSC drop test requires a two-meter drop at 6.2 meters per second. The CE test specifies a lower height and velocity.
A 2m drop test, landing on this metal post, is one of many standard tests
With the Air Attack, Giro's new aero road helmet, the company tested cooling with the reduced venting as well as the aerodynamics. Giro capitalized on the front of the helmet being a high pressure area, setting the forehead pad back from the front of the to better channeling the incoming air. "That high-pressure air wants to go somewhere," Wessen said. "We took advantage by giving it a place to go inside, inside of channeling it around the outside of the shell."
Giro engineers used a system they call the 'Thermanator' to test how well different helmets handle heat. By heating a head-shaped fixture to a certain temperature, then blasting it with air in a wind tunnel at a specific temperature, angle and speed, Giro could measure differences in helmet aero flow with internal gauges. The end result, Wessen said, was the Air Attack was one degree Fahrenheit warmer than the Giro Aeon.
Click through the photo gallery at above right for an inside look within The Dome.
