Helmets have long been plagued by an unspoken rule: Light weight, ventilation, aerodynamics- pick two, there's your helmet. As you can tell by now, though, Specialized prefers not play by such rules, or really any rules for that matter. They'd rather turn standards on their head and create products that nobody ever dreamed of. And you needn't look any further than the new S-Works Evade helmet for proof of this. Straight up, it's the fastest road helmet out there.

Beginning with the aerodynamic development, the engineers and designers basically lived in Specialized's Win Tunnel to create this Evade. Having their own wind tunnel allows the teams to develop products with aero at the forefront of the design, rather than merely testing them at one. With this tool, they carefully analyzed every aspect of helmet performance in the Win Tunnel, and combined that work with real world testing, to ensure that there was stone left un-turned in the quest for performance. This makes for a helmet that has countless testing hours and years of development, and ultimately, this adds up to the fastest road helmet of any brand Specialized has ever tested.

The detailed aero enhancement process not only took grams out of the drag, but did it without sacrificing safety. In fact, the designers switched the construction to favor the in-house Energy Optimized Multi-Density EPS product that optimizes the foam type in different places. As far as ventilation is concerned, free-flowing air through the helmet not only makes the helmet cooler than ever, but it also decreases aerodynamic drag. Going hand-in-hand with this, ventilation and aerodynamics were both optimized in the Win Tunnel together, making for the best combination of aerodynamics and ventilation out there. Now, the exterior vents and interior channels have been carefully considered to make sure that the helmet draws in the maximum amount of air through the helmet for extreme cooling. The 4th Dimension Cooling System has deep internal channels, large vents, and aligned exhaust ports. And the result? The new Evade is just as cool as a bare head with no helmet, making it the coolest aero helmet on the market today.

The measured net result of this dedicated, thorough work: the Evade saves 50 seconds over 40km versus a traditional road helmet and roughly six seconds over the prior iteration of Evade. This means that it's not only as cool as a bare head, but also as fast. For road race helmets, there’s nothing that can match this performance.

Except, perhaps the level of upgrades in safety. It all starts in the helmet itself with the patented EPS construction that relies on multi-density foam that's paired with a robotically woven, Aramid-reinforced skeleton. This delivered a reduction in the overall size, creating a smaller profile that fits lower down on the head for a better fit and safety, but that wasn't even close to the new safety concept they had in mind. They teamed up with MIPS researchers to introduce MIPS SL, a new, ultra-light, and supremely comfortable version of the proven MIPS that's available exclusively on Specialized helmets. With MIPS SL, the designers essentially integrated MIPS technology within the helmet padding itself. MIPS SL's minimalist "watchband" attachment system provides 10 to 15 millimeters of rotation in every direction and offers the same brain protection benefits as other versions of MIPS, while also ushering in a new level of comfort and weight savings. A huge win for road cyclists.... Read More