Smith Ignite MIPS

£229.99 Toughened aero helmet with MIPS

SMITH MAY BE better known for its eyewear, along with ski and mountain bike lids, but it does also offer a sharp line in road-going helmets.

The Ignite is the veteran US brand’s aerodynamically optimised road helmet and it’s striking in its small volume and generous vents. While it has plenty of smooth surfacing, it also has four huge forward-facing vents that vary from 35mm wide on the brow to 85mm long on its flanks. Most of the rear is taken up with a massive 120mm wide and 40mm deep exhaust port. Large cutaway channels on the inside of the helmet then channel air through, keeping you cool and sweat at bay.

Smith has used Koroyd (ultralight, thin plastic tubes in a honeycomb formation that are designed to crumple on impact to protect your head) in its helmet designs for a few years, but here it’s only using it along the flanks.

Out on the road, I noticed the Koroyd sections also allow a lot of air into the helmet. Plus, at just 299g for a Large, it’s light for an aero road helmet, outstripping Specialized’s Evade II and Kask’s Wasabi.

The fit is excellent, and the soft-touch straps and fittings are great quality. Add in a neat, compact retention system and a matt-finished hard shell that protects the foam/Koroyd core, and the Ignite has lots going for it. The only downside is the implementation of the MIPS safety system. Unlike Specialized and Scott’s latest lids, Smith uses the more traditional slip-plane insert. Yes, it’s cut away to a bare minimum and supplemented with quality pads, but it does reduce the helmet volume to the point where I couldn’t wear a cap underneath it in bad weather, as it’s on the smaller limits of its sizing with the extra layer inside.