On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

Since it debuted last year on selected Garmin riders and on Lance Armstrong, among others, the POC Octave road helmet looked to be a game changer. Combining features which appear to provide a competitive advantage in safety with weights as light as anything else in the market, the POC looked to be the best of all worlds, especially considering the relatively round shape looked to be a good match to my relatively round head. I'm a good match for the Specialized helmets, for example the Prevail which I now wear. But the Prevail is going to need replacing, and the POC was a leading candidate. Just wait to March.... "190 grams in a size medium... certified worldwide". Amazing. Consider me in. The video was posted September 2013, 6 months ago. Then there were the reviews. From BikeRumor :. Tested against the two top selling high performance helmets, the Octal has 20, and 27% better ventilation, though POC isn’t leaning on that for a selling point. The Octal i...

Garmin-Sharp previewed the new POC Octal helmet in the early 2014 races in New Zealand and Australia. Here's Jack Baur finishing second in the sprint in the New Zealand championships in Christchurch: I love what I see on the POC: round shape should fit my head, light weight (195 g for medium), more padding in the temple area and the lower back of the head, and rounded profile which should reduce twisting moments which contribute to brain trauma and concussions. It seems to have it all, other than being soberingly expensive ($270 retail). Well, everything except aerodynamics. I was told it could be a dog in the windtunnel, something which Jack might be regretting in that photo, as he gets beaten to the line by Hayden Raulston. But POC also has an aerodynamic version, the Octal Aero . Here's a comparison: I've read the two are equivalent, except Octal used a cover on the vents in the Aero. To test this, I superposed the profiles, making the Octal red and the Aer...