Met Veleno

MET’S VELENO DESIGN SITS between a lightweight vented road helmet and a deeper-coverage mountain bike trail helmet. The rear of the Veleno is deeper than your average road lid, extending right up to behind your ears with its extra coverage, helping to protect you from spills on rougher terrain.

The polycarbonate shell over the EPS foam core is in-moulded and very well finished, the tough shell covering all of the edges and underside, which helps protect the foam core from wear and tear. Its midsized peak is neatly colour matched and big enough to do its job but it doesn’t have any adjustment, so it was always just in my eyeline (it’s removable though).

The compact dimensions make for a good fit and a good-looking helmet, and, with no fewer than 26 vents, it was plenty breathable for hot, dry summer gravel excursions. The seven forward-facing vents force plenty of air across your brow, and internal cutaways and channels ensure a good flow through that helps regulate temperature well.

The rear micro-adjust cradle offers excellent fine adjustment to the fit, though the vertical adjust requires you to pop out the mount and refit to one of five positions. It’s a little fiddly, but because of the low back to the helmet I never felt the need to adjust the cradle from its standard height setting. I like that the strap has a neat slideto-tension adjustment and that it has sealed ends so the clip system can’t accidentally be pulled off the straps. All of this meant that my 305.8g Large helmet fitted as well as my favourite helmets. Minimal high-quality pads are comfortable and quick to dry, removable and washable.

Overall, the Veleno is an excellent option for gravel riders and, with the peak removed, it’s a good-looking, road-going helmet too. There’s also a MIPS version for £120.