Abus Tec-Tical Pro Race helmet

At £99.99 the Tec-Tical Pro Race is the flagship model from German company Abus. Construction quality is good but it lacks any real standout features with plenty of competition from more performance orientated brands.

The Tec-Tical Pro Race weighs 245grams; light but not market-leading for £100. That weight is achieved thanks to the multi-shell in-mould process (so Abus say), which joins the outer skin to the EPS shell – a process not uncommon in most top-end lids.

It features 23 vents with 14 inlets and 9 exhausts although vent size is not notably large. Cooling was okay, but from my experience not quite as good as Cratoni or Specialized.

Other features are easily removable straps for washing and a little pad to protect your neck from the buckle. Not that buckles are particularly annoying but those with beards might like it.

Abus are more associated with the lower to mid-end of the helmet spectrum. The Tec-Tical Pro Race is a snazzed up version of the, you guessed it, Tec-Tical. The heritage shows in details such as the harness and adjustment system. The Abus has a slightly cheap feeling to it with a rather large and overly plasticky adjustment wheel.

Side by side with a Bell Sweep it is pretty clear that the Bell takes its harness from a more expensive model; better materials, adjustment and in general a more secure feeling.

The shell is relatively shallow and sits on higher than some on your noggin which doesn't fill you with confidence. That said, testing the protective nature in the field of helmets is always impossible unless you are road.cc's Liam Glen who seems quite happy to bin it in the name of product testing. Having not crashed the Tec-Tical Pro Race we can only take the EN1078 compliance as sufficient evidence that it will do its real job when asked.

Verdict

Lightweight and well-constructed offering from Abus but there are better options at this price point