Dainese hadn’t made mountain bike helmets for years, but they’ve come back from their moto roots strong with the new world’s lightest DH-certified full face mountain bike helmet, this 570g Dainese Linea 01. It’s super open, well-ventilated, includes MIPS protection, international certification, and it’s competitively priced. Plus, there’s an equally light half shell Linea 03 for trail riding too with a few price point options and all the tech you could want packed inside…
Dainese Linea 01, world’s lightest 570g full-face helmet!
Dainese wasn’t messing around when they decided to get back into mountain bike helmets. While creating the lightest full face lid we’ve ever pulled on, it also promises to be one of the safest for aggressive off-road riding – from all-mountain to enduro to downhill.
Sure, it’s a lightweight in-mold EPS construction like we’ve seen from plenty of other companies, so not really designed for the rough-and-tumble life bouncing around in the back of your pick-up truck running shuttles like some hardshell carbon DH helmets might (or Dainese’s own motorsports lids). But it doesn’t skimp at all on safety.
DH-ready full face protection – Tech details
The new Linea 01 employs an internal grid reinforcement structure to make it one of the most open, vented designs we’ve seen – Dainese says 22 forward-facing vents & 8 rear exhaust ports. Plus it gets MIPS protection and is even the first full face to embed a TwiceMe NFC chip to store your personal information for times you can’t communicate, helping to keep you safer, before and after a crash.
If that combination of lightweight construction and hi-tech gadgets inside might sound familiar, it’s no surprise that even though Dainese did their product development in-house, the new helmets are being made in the same factory that that produces other well-known, embedded-tech helmets.
The new helmet also gets a perfectly matching set of goggles – unabashedly a pair of POC Ora goggles (with POC logos on them) that Dainese says were only slightly tweaked to seamlessly fit the new Linea helmets.
Focusing first on top-notch head protection, the new Dainese Linea 01 full face helmet uses a dual-density EPS foam specifically “mapped according to the areas of the skull that require the greatest protection” to better dissipate impact intensity, plus a multi-part polycarbonate shell that entirely wraps & protects the foam.
Inside the EPS itself is a continuous nylon skeleton structure, designed in an auxetic pattern like Dainese’s Trail Skin body armor, which is said to become more supportive as its shape deforms, to better hold the foam together dissipating energy in a crash. That allows for the dramatically open, vented design, without sacrificing on safety.
On top of that (or rather inside again) is a proven yellow, full MIPS Evolve anti-rotation, anti-friction-layer liner to limit the effects of glancing impacts on the rider.
The end result is a super light DH-ready helmet that Dainese says exceeds all international protection standards for mountain biking, including DH & BMX-certification, plus EU, US & the stringent Australian/NZ certification standards all in one: CPSC 1203, CE EN1078, ASTM F1952-DH, ASTM 2032-BMX & AS/NZ 2063.
Developed to provide maximum protection for more aggressive riding where you actually have to pedal as well – think all-mountain, enduro or freeride – the Linea 01 is as open and vented as you could ever hope for in full face protection. The idea of course, is if you don’t overheat climbing in a full face helmet, you’ll have better protection for the next descent as well.
It has a light & flexible, 2-position peak that offers some shading, which can be slid back to make room for googles over your forehead. Various thickness cheek pads & inner padding made with natural bamboo fibers wick sweat and dial in a perfect fit, while a magnetic Fidlock closure secures the chin strap easily even with thicker gloves.
Dainese claims a weight of just 570g for a size medium, which is lighter than any other full face we’ve seen. On our scale, the production medium weighed just one percent more at a superlight 576g. 
Compare the new Linea to other super light full face helmets like the 640g, $250 Endura MT500 or the even lighter 600g, $250 iXS Trigger FF, and the new Dainese Linear 01 is a bit more expensive. But at 275€ for the Linea 01 (~$330) it’s not a huge bump, especially considering neither of those slightly cheaper options include MIPS as well.
The world’s lightest full face Dainese Linear 01 helmet will be offered in three sizes and three colors – this white & black combo, an all-black version, and a matte gray with a red-orange lower shell.
Dainese Linea 03 MIPS+, lightweight 370g full-featured trail helmet
If you are looking for equally light protection without going full face, there’s also a similarly light and feature-packed Linea 03 half shell helmet. It also offers dual-density EPS inside a well-vented in-mold polycarb shell.
It features the same natural bamboo fiber wicking pads, a flexible 2-position peak/visor, Fidlock chinstrap closure, and adds a dial retention to adjust securely to your head. The Linea 3 is available with or without a MIPS Evolve liner, TwiceME NFC health data chip, and a Recco signal reflector chip inside for faster location by Search & Rescue (not found in the Linea 01 full face).
Weight is claimed at 370g for the medium Linea 03 MIPS+ with all the embedded tech, and again the production sample we weighed was just 1% over that at an actual weight of 375g.
The Linea 03 half shell will still set you back 150€ (~$180) in a basic version or 200€ (~$240) in the full Linea 03 MIPS+. All iterations will be internationally safety certified to: CPSC 1203, CE EN1078 & AS/NZ 2063. The Linea 03 will be offered in three sizes and three colors – this white & black combo, an all-black version, and a matte gray.
Dainese Linea 01 & 03 MIPS+ lightweight helmet availability
We haven’t really gotten a chance to put time in test riding with the helmets yet, as Dainese have so far only received final crash test certifications on one medium size for each helmet. But full availability of the new world’s lightest full face Linea 01 and the equally light feature-packed Linea 03 MIPS+ half shell is slated for mid November 2021.
And we hope to have full reviews of each by the time they hit the shelves late this autumn!
