Last year it was the ARO series of road helmets. Now, the sunglasses brand is introducing the Oakley DRT5 trail mountain bike helmets based on Greg Minnaar’s feedback. The helmet brings several new and unique features to the category, including integrated (and removable) clips to hold your shades, and the first helmet to use the new BOA dial integration to do more than just make it fit well.
The new BOA helmet system uses a soft, flat fiber lace to fit the helmet to your head. It sits on a height adjustable cradle, but it’s about more than just getting the helmet to fit well. Because it’s so thin and flat and sits directly next to your skin, it won’t interfere with your sunglasses’ fit. That system is worked around a MIPS liner to mitigate rotational damage.
The most eye-catching features is their eyewear landing zone, which uses mechanical clips to capture the arms of your sunglasses. These are set in place higher than normal, you can position them to rest lower so they are less likely to snag an errant branch. We’re guessing they’ll use mostly on long, slow, hot climbs…not while ripping through singletrack…but they did feel quite secure.
When not in use, they fold flat into the helmet so the clips themselves won’t snag anything, which is especially important during a crash so they won’t yank your head around. They’re also removable if eyewear stowage isn’t something you’ll use. Retail will be $200 when they start shipping in March 2018.
Going full enduro? The visor flips up far enough to stow your goggles on the front. And Oakley has two new goggles, the AirBrake and O-Frame 2.0 XL, both with lighter, more breathable MTB-specific foam and seven lens colors. For their glasses, they have two new MTB-specific lens colors: Prizm Low Light and Prizm Trail.
To complete the look, they have a new range of men’s mountain bike clothing including baggy shorts, bibshorts, jersey shirts (short and long sleeve) and a wind jacket.
