Giant Rivet

Giant's Rivet aero helmet has been used by the pros and won some big races. Giant-Alpecin's John Degenkolb wore one in his Milan-San Remo victory, so it has a bit of provenance. And for us mortals, it does appear to offer a small-but-measurable advantage. I didn't find it the most secure or comfortable lid I've tried though.

The point of the Rivet is to be a bit quicker than a standard helmet, so let's jump straight in to that. "It's designed to produce maximum speed in real-world rider positions and critical sprinting situations," says Giant. So I took it up to our local closed road circuit for a bit of testing.

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I'm not John Degenkolb (not sure I want to be at the moment, seeing as he's out of action after being hit by a car), so I can't tell you what kind of advantage you'll be getting at 70kph at the end of a Spring Classic. But at the speeds normal mortals ride, the data is interesting enough.

This is a graph of my laps of Odd Down circuit wearing the Giant Rivet and a standard helmet for comparison, a Scott ARX Plus. I was using a set of Garmin Vector 2 pedals to measure my power, and the power spread is from an easy 150W average for the 1.5km lap up to about 270W average, which for me is going pretty hard. For reference, that's a fastest lap of 2:22, which is just under 4th cat race pace (2:18 on Saturday, when conditions were similar).

What do the numbers say? Well, the trend line for the Rivet is above the trend line for the Scott, and depending on where you measure the offset you're looking at just under or just over 10W of difference. Put another way, 2-3 seconds a lap. It's not a rigorously scientific test and there are always going to be other variables at play in an outdoor environment, but it does suggest there's a measurable difference in the real world. Every little helps, right?

All of which is for nought if the helmet is shoddily made, or unwearably uncomfortable, or as heavy as if it were made of bricks, or head-cookingly hot. Thankfully it's none of those things. The ventilation, for an aero lid, is good. There are three big vents at the front and they channel air through deep cuts inside the helmet and chuck it out the back. It works pretty well even in high temperatures.

At 299g it's not the lightest lid out there, but there's more material in an aero helmet because there are fewer holes. Compared to its peers, it's about par.

I didn't find the Rivet the most comfortable helmet. It dug in a bit at the front and I would have liked the retention system at the rear to sit a bit lower. The padding is pretty minimal inside but I didn't find that an issue. The thin, soft webbing straps are pretty comfy but the yoke under the ear isn't adjustable, so make sure the fit suits you if you can before you commit.

I wore it mostly for racing and fast ride training, but I stuck to my trusty and very comfy Scott for other riding. I'm not sure a bongo hat is really a look you can get away with commuting on a bike with mudguards, anyway.

General build quality is good, and the helmet conforms to a raft of standards: CPSC, CE-EN 1078: 2012 and ASNZ. In a spill it should be as effective as any other certified helmet out there. How effective that might be is always a good place to start a robust exchange of views, but I think it's moot here: this is a helmet designed for racing, and you don't get a choice of whether to wear one or not when you pin a number on your back.

> Check out our guide to the fastest aero road bikes here

Overall, the Rivet is a good option for racing. It's one of the cheaper aero hats out there and it does appear to make a measurable, if slight, difference to the speed you cut through the air. If you're looking for every advantage in your next race then it's certainly one to look at. I didn't find it the most comfortable but it's okay, and head shapes differ. For the duration of a race it's not really an issue anyway. And it's won Milan-San Remo, so you're out of excuses.

Verdict

Good quality aero helmet for racing, race-proven but still at the cheaper end of the market