A ventilated helmet with an add-on aero shell: How does the Uvex Surge fare in a wind tunnel test?

Prior to its August launch, the Uvex Surge helmet was first seen at full flight atop the head of Biniam Girmay at the 2024 Tour de France, a race in which the Eritrean became the first black African to win a stage, before doubling up, and then getting a third on his way to take the green jersey classification as the best sprinter in the race. 

Ahead of that race's start in Florence, I managed to catch Girmay, alongside his teammate Louis Meintjes, for five minutes ahead of the Teams' Presentation, and they were happy to tell me about their sponsor's all-new top-tier helmet. 

They explained that it was designed to be a two-in-one 'convertible' solution with a removable shell which converts it from a highly-ventilated helmet to an aero helmet, but that due to the UCI rules preventing such things, they had been forced to bring twice as many helmets to the race and superglue the shell into place on half of them. 

Luckily for you and me, those UCI rules don't apply, so we won't need to go to such extremes. 

This helmet has been on test here at Cyclingnews since before that conversation took place. Uvex kindly sent it to us for our wind tunnel road helmets group test, and I've been using it alongside a host of its competitors since then, so I've got a pretty good idea of how it stacks up against the best road bike helmets on the market today. 

Having a removable cover not only adds to its aero credentials though. It serves as a protective barrier against the weather, and I've ridden it in everything from freezing winter to sweltering summer to test its versatility. 

It has certainly impressed me. I like a product that offers versatility and value for money, but it didn't quite make it into our buyer's guide. The reason for that I'll explain below. 

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Design and specification

The headline feature of the Uvex Surge helmet is the already-mentioned aerodynamic 'shell' cover.

The cover itself is designed to sit over the front face of the helmet, closing the vents and leaving just three small air inlets at the centre, two sunglasses storage vents along the flanks, and three outlet vents towards the rear. 

It's made from a sturdy, lightweight plastic that has a small amount of flex to help you get it on and off. It features three protrusions at the front which hook into the vents to hold it in place, as well as three hooks at the back which grab onto a lip at the rear. The fit when in place is secure and unwavering, and it looks perfectly integrated.

The whole design is very well considered. I struggle to imagine anyone would realise there's a cover in place at all. And when you do remove it, there are no plugs or holes to suggest it was ever there in the first place.  

With the cover removed, the helmet has five channels that run front to back, separated by EPS bridges that run parallel, with small carbon fibre struts that run horizontally between them. Visually, it's hard not to liken it to the Specialized Prevail III, as the only other helmet to adopt this wide-open carbon-strut design.

At the rear, Uvex has used its own small retention dial. This is easy to operate, even with gloved hands, and the vertical adjustment of the rear cradle is easy to set yet sturdy enough not to self-adjust mid-ride. The rear is also adorned with a pair of reflective flashes, which are subtle but help to add visibility in low-light situations. 

The straps on either side are a traditional 10mm black webbed strap, with a basic clip buckle and Y-splitters that sit beneath your ears. These splitters cannot be adjusted vertically, but they do offer a modicum of fore and aft adjustment to help them sit comfortably. 

Inside, the MIPS Air Node additional rotational impact protection system is in place. MIPS, which stands for Multidirectional Impact Protection System, is a Swedish brand whose focus is on increasing the safety of helmets. Air Node is the brand's smallest, most discrete iteration yet, found in many of today's top helmets. 

Like all helmets, the Uvex Surge is subject to industry standard safety tests, so when combined with MIPS Air Node, should offer ample peace of mind in the event of a crash. However, there is not yet any third-party verification to compare the level of protection against its peers. Virginia Tech is the most well-known of these third parties, but it has yet to put the Uvex Surge through its paces. 

That doesn't mean it's any less safe than others, but the absence of an independent comparison and thus a validation of its credentials might be enough to deter the more safety-conscious buyers.  

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Performance

It's rather difficult to judge the performance of a product that offers jack-of-all-trades versatility because it will invariably be the master of none. That does appear to have rung true here, but that doesn't mean you should ignore it. 

With the aero shell removed, the Uvex Surge is a genuinely excellent ventilated helmet. That's probably not too big a surprise given just how open it is, but it outperforms other vented helmets such as the Trek Velocis and the Kask Protone with aplomb. 

Its closest competitor in this space, both visually and functionally, is the Specialized S-Works Prevail III. Having ridden the Surge and the Prevail back-to-back on a few occasions, I feel the Surge runs slightly warmer. It's a close call, but if you're seeking the very best in ventilation, the Specialized would be my pick. It also has Virginia Tech testing to back up its safety credentials. 

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With the aero cover popped back into place, the vents are closed off and the intentions of the helmet switch into a different gear. Uvex would have you believe it transforms into one of the best aero helmets, but when we tested it in the wind tunnel, it came out as one of the slowest on test. 

We tested it both with and without the cover in place, and although the cover saved 1.3 watts at 45kph, neither performed particularly well against its peers. Even with the cover in place, it was half a watt slower than the aforementioned Prevail III, and it was 7.5 watts slower than the fastest road-style helmet on test, the Specialized S-Works Evade III. 

Now, there's a big caveat to this in that a helmet's aero performance is quite an individual thing. One that performs badly on our test rider – in this case, our esteemed Tech Writer Tom Wieckowski – might work really well for you. We can only go by the data we have though, and in our wind tunnel test, the Surge didn't perform. 

Beyond these metrics, though, the Surge does shine. It's truly comfortable all day long, with no pinching or pressure points across the head, and the straps sit snug against my face without any flapping. 

It's worth reiterating that the Y splitters cannot be adjusted vertically though, and they sit reasonably high beneath the ears, marginally lower than the Van Rysel FCR Aero helmet, and at around the same height as the POC Ventral. This isn't something I've ever found an issue with, but if you find either of those to be uncomfortable in that area, you might find a similar issue here. 

Value

At €249.00, the Uvex Surge is unlikely to ever find itself on our guide to the best budget road bike helmets, but there is an argument that you're getting twice as much functionality as many of its peers. 

If, as Uvex tries, you argue that this dual functionality comes in the form of ventilation and aerodynamics, our wind tunnel results disagree. If you value ventilation, you'd be better off just buying the Prevail III, given it is fractionally better in the heat and is faster than both Surge variants. If you value aerodynamics, you'd be better off with an Evade, or a Scott Cadence Plus, given they were only a fraction slower than the Poc Procen Air and their ventilation is far from bad. 

But if your idea of dual-purpose is staying exceptionally comfortable in both scorching hot and frosty cold climes, there is a case for owning the Uvex Surge.

With the Prevail III, an uncovered Uvex Surge, or indeed other well-vented helmets, riding in winter is a recipe for brain freeze. And riding in the height of summer in most dedicated aero helmets is equally uncomfortable for the exact opposite reason. 

But the Uvex Surge, with its impressive hot-weather ventilation and the ability to cover them up, allows you to ride comfortably all year round. 

With that said, the Scott Cadence helmet can also be bought with 'plugs' for its vents. The outright hot-weather ventilation of the Cadence isn't as good as with the Surge, but if you're in the market for something that offers this weather-based versatility while also helping you go faster, that'd probably be my pick. It also comes with a clip-on rear light too, for a bit of added safety. 

Verdict

I really like the Uvex Surge helmet and I was genuinely a bit sad when it performed badly in our wind tunnel test. 

Despite that result, I still wear it a lot, both in races and for longer easy rides. I also take it with me if I go away and I'm unsure what the temperature will be. 

I think Uvex's attempt to offer customers a versatile product that performs at the top level is worth celebrating, and I have no qualms trusting the helmet's safety credentials, even without third-party testing.

Regardless, I can't objectively say it offers more ventilation than the Specialized Prevail III, better aero performance than the Evade, nor better value than the Scott Cadence. The only real use case where the Uvex Surge comes out on top would be someone who wants a helmet to wear year-round and is likely to experience the extremes of both hot and cold.