The Giro Eclipse Spherical is a new aero-road helmet that claims to be the fastest and coolest – in the ventilation sense – of its type on the market.
Sitting alongside Giro’s distinctive Vanquish MIPS as a another dedicated aero-road helmet, the Eclipse Spherical joins the Aether Spherical and Helios Spherical at the top of Giro’s road helmet range.
The Eclipse Spherical costs £239.99 and despite its aerodynamic pretensions, remains competitively lightweight at 267g in a size medium.
Giro Eclipse Spherical: Aerodynamic performance
As one of the more prominent parts of the total frontal area the rider presents to the wind, a helmet can have a disproportionately large effect on overall aerodynamic efficiency.
Consequently, Giro has long since considered aerodynamics in the design of its helmets. It has had a dedicated aero-road helmet in its range since 2012, when it released the bowling ball-esque Air Attack.
Thankfully the Eclipse Spherical is decidedly more elegant, despite Giro claiming it is the fastest helmet it has ever tested.
Using its own Aether Spherical helmet as a baseline, Giro says the Eclipse Spherical saves 163.5 seconds over 160km, based on measurements taken at 40kmh.
According to Giro, the Eclipse beats an unnamed next fastest competitor by 14 seconds, and Giro’s other aero-road design, the Vanquish, by just over 60 seconds.
Giro credits the Eclipse’s slick, compact outer shell along with 14 ‘Wind Tunnel’ vents as responsible for the helmet’s aerodynamic performance.
The ‘Wind Tunnel’ vents are heavily sculpted internal channels that link the openings at the front and back of the shell. Giro says they serve double duty, pulling air through the helmet to decrease drag and as well as cool the rider.
As a result, Giro says the Eclipse Spherical isn’t far behind its airy Aethos Spherical in terms of cooling effectiveness.
Giro Eclipse Spherical: Spherical Technology
Eagle-eyed fans of the brand will have spotted the Eclipse Spherical being raced undercover on the heads of pro teams like Canyon-SRAM for much of the second half of the 2021 season.
Giro says the feedback from its sponsored riders helped finesse the final design of the helmet, but it being designed around the Spherical version of MIPS was a given from the off.
Spherical Technology presented by MIPS is its proper(ly convoluted) name, and it is a specific variation on MIPS’ slip-plane liner technology that is used in all of Giro’s top-tier helmets.
The Eclipse Spherical is no different and its overall shape has clearly been informed by Giro’s other premium road helmets.
Instead of the MIPS liner being added inside a conventional helmet shell, the slip plane is created by splitting the shell into inner and outer halves.
The outer shell can then move independent to the inner shell, allowing the helmet as a whole to function exactly like other MIPS liner systems, which claim to reduce the rotational violence experience by the user’s brain in the event of a crash.
Giro Eclipse Spherical: Weight, colours and availability
Despite the Eclipse Spherical’s complex design and aerodynamic styling, Giro has done an impressive job keeping its weight down. Cyclist measured its medium sample at 267g, which is 9g lighter than the heavily vented Aether Spherical helmet.
The Eclipse Spherical comes in 3 sizes, 5 colours (black, white/silver, black/red, ‘ano’ (metallic) blue, ‘charcoal mica’ (grey with metallic flecks)) and is available now.
Cyclist has a sample in for review, so be sure to check back soon to read our thoughts on the new design.