MET Allroad helmet

The MET Allroad helmet is comfortable, with an easily adjusted strap, and features an integrated LED light and 16 large vents. With an easy-to-remove visor it can segue effortlessly between your roadie cocktail soiree and your gravel beer-garden meet-up, should the need arise. Unfortunately for the price point, there's no MIPS liner.

The Allroad shares the same shell as the MET Vinci helmet that Stu was rather taken with recently. The Vinci is £30 more and includes a MIPS liner, but no peak or integrated LED.

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It's the removable peak that MET is hanging the Allroad's all-road cachet on here. Whether you think a removable 25mm-deep peak is actually of any more use when you transition from tarmac to looser surfaces is a moot point – unless I'm missing something, the amount of sun, rain, avian discharge, 1000lb tunafish and anything else likely to come from on high is the same. The more vexing issue is whether adding 'Gravel' to a marketing description makes a product X% more Something. Anything. But I digress.

At 271g in a Medium for heads between 56-58cm, the Allroad is a reasonably light helmet, helped along by 16 decent-sized vents and internal channels. As Stu found with the Vinci, it shifts air nicely around your bonce. Testing it during a Scottish Highlands winter I was always wearing a skullcap, and could feel the breeze helping to evaporate moisture, which bodes well for the summer (no sniggering at the back please).

The straps and buckles are well thought out, with easy adjustability – required on a daily basis up here as weather dictates thickness of head covering, from thin beanie through thicker winter casquette right up to full rain jacket hood underneath. The strap ends in its own loop, with a squashed plastic ring preventing the buckle slipping off and ensuring the ends are always equal – a nice feature when adjusting the fore and aft strap lengths. There's a slider to push to the end, to make the loose ends sit flush with the strap once tight.

The head retention band is a single piece all around the head, meaning tightening of the wheel distributes the pressure evenly. There's a minimal yet effective amount of removable padding to make things comfy.

It's not at all obvious, but the rear of the band can be pulled down quite a way to fit under the rear of your skull for a snug fit. The design is 'ponytail-compatible' for those with flowing locks.

Included in the Allroad package (but not the Vinci) is MET's Safe-T Duo Lightcap – a buttoncell-powered three-LED flasher that sits over the twist knob in a nicely integrated fashion. One glove-friendly press for constantly on, two for flashing, three for off again. Using an easily changed CR2025 battery, it's not the brightest thing out there – but every little helps. Also aiding visibility are two rather narrow reflective strips set into the rear vents.

The best thing I can say about the Allroad is that I mostly didn't think about it, riding on road, gravel or mud. It felt comfortable, stayed secure, didn't move around and adapted easily to changing headgear choices. As Stu noted in his Vinci review, the two outermost vents are aligned so you can push sunglasses arms through them when climbing or when they fog up – but there's no friction material lining the polystyrene so check that your glasses sit secure before relying on this feature.

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As I suspected, the stubby visor did little to shelter my eyes and eyewear from rain or sun. Mountain bike helmets tend to have larger visors, which can be really useful when it's sunny to stop you from being blinded or your glasses/goggles getting dazzled – and for keeping rain off – but here, I'd say it's down to fashion/aesthetics as to whether you leave the 25mm brim on or off.

What makes a lot more sense to me for gravel riding is to simply wear a standard cycling cap under your helmet. The brim is flippable up or down, and fits much, much closer around the top of your glasses to shield them from rain and sun.

Value

Helmets of a similar ilk abound the £70 price point. Shaun really liked the Smith Signal MIPS – at £65 including a MIPS liner, and only 33g heavier, it would appear to beat the MET Allroad for safety and value combined.

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For a tenner less, Dave liked the Cannondale Intake, but there's no nice strap-retention mechanism, or LED light. Or, for that matter, Gravelly brim. Ahem.

Conclusion

The Allroad is a good helmet. I liked using it, and have no specific complaints. However, for the price a MIPS liner would be nice, a la the Smith Signal – but MET is pricing that £30 higher in the Vinci, which seems quite a premium to me. Maybe that 'Gravel' visor could be swapped out for a MIPS liner in future? What price fashion, eh?

Verdict

Decent, well-fitting helmet for any kind of riding, with optional brim for Gravel