Home > Clothing-Gear-Tools

Giro Elevates their Trail Helmet Range with New Montaro and Montara MIPS

10 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04797

Back in the day, it seemed everyone had a Giro Xen (myself included). The popular helmet offered additional coverage at a time when most helmets were still geared towards XC. Eventually though, the helmet market exploded with new options and the Xen faded away. It has taken some time, but by the looks of things Giro is back with a helmet that is a worthy successor to the venerable Xen.

As the latest Giro helmet to incorporate MIPS Technology, the men’s Montaro and women’s Montara are packed with all the necessary features to make the helmets work for the modern trail rider. Blending good looks, improved protection, and integration of goggles, lights, and cameras, the Montaro and Montara look like the Giro helmets we’ve been waiting for…

 

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04799

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04798 giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04804

Officially called a trail helmet rather than an enduro helmet, the Montaro uses a shell that offers full coverage but is still well vented with 16 ports. All of the vents are connected with internal channeling designed to flow the air between the helmet and over your head.

Even though a number of people still seem to think that wearing goggles with a half shell is a fashion faux pas, that won’t stop riders from taking advantage of improved eye protection when it’s needed. Because of that, Giro wanted to make sure goggles easily integrated with the Montaro so the helmet includes a few features to help keep them in place. At the back, a channel is built into the helmet to act as a guide for the strap and the vents in the channel have a rubberized border to increase the grip of the goggle strap. Up front, the POV visor indexes upward to provide a storage spot for the goggles when not in use.

Trail riders are also likely to want to add a light or a camera to the top of their helmet so the central vent includes an in molded mounting bracket for a mount that is yet to be seen.

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04800

Fit is provided by the Roc Loc Air fit system which has plenty of vent holes built in to allow air to flow through the helmet unrestricted. Because the harness is attached to MIPS liner at the front, the Roc Loc Air system provides more airflow between the scalp and the inside of the helmet. The system also retains the single-handed dial adjustment at the rear plus a three position vertical adjustment internally.

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04806

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04805 Montaro-4

At this point most readers are probably familiar with MIPS (Multi-directional impact protection system), which uses a low friction liner on the inside the helmet that is attached with rubber mounts to create a slip plane that is said to offer more protection in certain impacts. Since investing in the company, Giro has been slowly introducing more and more models with MIPS.

For sweat management purposes, the X-Static padding is antimicrobial as well as hydrophilic and is said to absorb 10 times more sweat than standard urethane pads.

giro montero montera enduro mips helmetDSC04807

Montaro-2 Montaro

Montaro-3

Weighing in at 367 g for a medium, Montaro MIPS Will be offered in eight Matte colors from a matte/gloss all black model, to the wild Matte blue and lime shown above. The Montara MIPS Will be available in three color ways (including the matte turquoise above) and both helmets will sell for $150 (USD) / €180 (EU)/ £129 (UK). Available this fall.

www.giro.com.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
craigsj
craigsj
8 years ago

“As the latest Giro helmet to incorporate MIPS Technology, the men’s Montaro and women’s Montara are packed with all the necessary features to make the helmets work for the modern trail rider.”

I’m curious what feature(s) have become “necessary” due to the “modern”-ization of the “trail rider”? Is MIPS? Does MIPS pack features or is it just a feature itself?

These look nice and Giro makes helmets that fit me well, but is the rhetoric really necessary? All the doodads and “necessary” features, in all honesty, distract from the fundamental mission of a helmet to provide safety. Camera mounts, visors, goggle docking…these things can’t provide increased protection but can do quite the opposite.

As a “modern trail rider”, I want protection with as little burden to comfort as is manageable. I don’t view other features as necessary. Why a female-specific model? Can’t more sizes work? Shame to the guy who finds the Montara fits his head better, right?

holmes
holmes
8 years ago

Needs a built in gopro mount!

Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago

I was a long time fan of Giro, close to 15 years it must have been. These look really, really good but it’s going to be hard to tear me away from my POC.

Dave
Dave
8 years ago

I would find it difficult to find a better fitting helmet than my Troy Lee A-1. And the TLD helmets are more stylish as well.

Kristian
Kristian
8 years ago

Now they just need to add a removable full face like the Bell Super and this will be my next helmet!

duro
duro
8 years ago

@ craigsj. Here’s the reality. Giro now has an enduro styled helmet to carve out some of that market because, lets face it, the Bell super is a little funky. So here is their offering. Hopefully people like how it looks. Regardless of why people say they buy a helmet, it’s ALL about how it looks. If it doesn’t look good to them, it doesn’t matter if it will pedal the bike for them, they ain’t buying it.

hellbelly
hellbelly
8 years ago

I still wear glasses and not googles. One of my far and away favorite things about my current helmet, a Bell Super is how perfectly they can be stored beneath the articulating visor. Glasses stay put and don’t get in the way visually as well as being simple to place and remove when needed.

This being said, the Super is a hot helmet and dumps sweat down my face throughout every ride. I have gotten used to it, but it would be something if the Montaro actually ventilates as well as they claim, soaks up more sweat with it’s padding and will hold my spectacles like the Super. If so I’m in.

chasejj
chasejj
8 years ago

duro- I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I actually prefer the looks of my Bell Super slightly over these. Particularly the color options. My Bell fits pretty close to how my Giro’s did. The price on the Bell’s is pretty reasonable as well. Made by the same parent company.

Mk2wolfsburg
Mk2wolfsburg
8 years ago

@duro is right, I see it time and time again. people have different taste and peoples opinion of what looks good on them varies from customer to customer. This helmet spoke to me as a consumer. Will I buy it no, but I don’t race enduro races and don’t ride an enduro bike…. but if I did would I? maybe? But I can say that I like it better than the POC offerings for my self. @Antipodean_eleven I,m curios what it is that you like about your POC? They are great and I enjoy selling them but the only thing I hear is that they are super visible and they look cool (but only in the small & mediums). MIPS is changing the helmet game and just like when tubeless came out people didn’t go for it right away, but now its the only way to race or ride… but then again, I’m sure someone on here is still running tubes on the trail.

Bob Schaefer
Bob Schaefer
8 years ago

Nice looking helmet, but comfort is king, and I had not found a helmet to fit my head, like the TLD A1, it’s amazing how well it fits while riding and even during impact, which I had 3 months ago, and I suffered no concussion or damage to the helmet. A lot of great looking helmets these days, but try them all on, nothing worse than an ill fitting lid.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.