Hands On: Mavic’s Lightest Helmet yet, the Cosmic Ultimate

DAVE – “And the fit is amazing and it is made in Germany not Asia. Nothing against Asia but the quality control on most helmets coming out of Asia is so so and I like to try and support brands that do not make most of their stuff in either the US or Europe.”

Did you not read that back carefully? I believe Germany is in Europe. Thinking you meant to say: and I like to try and support brands that make most of their stuff in either the US or Europe.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

@Dave What a heap of rubbish you speak. All helmets pass the same tests wherever they are made. The Uvex helmet you state is miles from the performance of any of these top level helmets and designed for a different user.

No MIPS? My next helmet purchase will have MIPS. So this is a no-go for me.

BOB – you are correct. I typed a bit too fast. One thing is for sure. Too many brands are trying to do everything instead of doing what they are good at and doing it even better. Mavic has / had great wheels so they then start producing clothing, shoes, pedals (just rebranded TIME) etc. They they leverage all this with the dealer. So if you really like carrying our wheels then we need you to carry our shoes and helmets and and and………..

Bell Sports does this with helmets by having you buying to other categories that you do not want. BlackBurn? crap. Giro shoes. one or two good models, the rest crap. But if you want good prices on the helmets you need to by our other stuff.

Again too many companies do this. Dealers need to smarten up and buy what they want not what they are told. They are called IBD’s for a reason though you would think that they are just company stores for many of these brands.

There are plenty of brands that do what these mega brands try to do. Examples below.

Sidi – just shoes and great shoes!!!!!
Uvex – just helmets and sunglasses. And they are fantastic.
Nightrider – just lights.
Light and Motion – just lights
CatEye – just computers and lights
Zipp – just wheels
Reynolds – just wheels

These are just a few examples but they give IBD’s freedom to buy what they want and not what they are told.

Sorry for the rant.

Bars

Greetings everyone. Chad from Mavic here to answer a few questions and give some insight on Mavic.

First of all, pricing. MSRP on the Cosmic Ultimate helmet is $199. We are very proud of this helmet for many reasons. It stands for what, we believe, is a very well engineered evolution of our very young helmet line. Without question, it is one of (if not the) lightest helmets on the market and still meets all test standards. As someone who has enjoyed the fit of Giro in the past I can say, from personal experience, that the fit of the Cosmic Ultimate (for me) is perfect. I’ve been riding it for a few weeks now and have been pleasantly surprised at how comfortable and unnoticeable it is on even the hottest of days.

Safety – of course there have been considerations for including MIPS and ICEdot in our helmet line. This technology is still new and we are doing our own research (along with consumer focus groups) on what, how and if we should include this in our product development. The design of the Cosmic Ultimate helmet was already very well progressed and adding new technology just isn’t something easily done when the development cycle is in the advanced stages. That said, there is always the chance we will offer an integrated solution for the highest level of protection and safety in the future.

Yellow – yes, we push it a lot. It’s our blood and makes us one of the most recognizable brands in cycling. Our heritage in Neutral Race Support is something we are very proud of and for our products that represent the highest level of engineering, design and performance we award them with this iconic color. If that isn’t your bag we always offer an alternative. Hopefully the black or white in the Cosmic Ultimate will satisfy those looking to be a little more understated. We understand the yellow isn’t for everyone!

Finally, a brief note on wheels. Any time a Mavic product review/feature is open for comment we expect to hear some common feedback on our wheel systems. I am certainly not here to argue those points. That said, we have technologies which are quite advanced and technologies which have very tangible benefits. I’ll mention Exalith2, TgMax, and FORE drilling just to name a few. While we may not be consistent with other wheel brands on some technical details of our products, we have consistently pushed the envelope and developed technologies to offer wheels that represent our passion for the balance of weight, durability and performance. Are there issues? For sure! We don’t ignore any of the comments and feedback we receive. Quite the contrary. Many of the changes we’ve made, and will make, are in direct response to the feedback we hear on BikeRumor.com – not to mention the discussions with our dealers, sales reps and industry peers. Just know that we’re listening, we hear what you want and that we’re working to meet those expectations.

Thanks to all of you for your time and for offering insight. I am always available if you’d like to have an offline chat – chad.moore@mavic.com

Jon, thanks for the note. While I am not an engineer I do have a marginal understanding of the properties and purposes for different foam densities in helmet manufacturing. That said, I’ll offer an excerpt from the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute – they are much more eloquent in their explanation.

“One of the major design parameters of every helmet is the specification of foam density. That is what “tunes” the helmet for a specific range of impacts. High density for harder impacts, lower density for a softer landing but with the possibility of bottoming out in a hard blow.”

So, the job of the engineer creating what is hoped to be a very lightweight helmet is to find the balance. Determine through testing the hardest impact areas of the helmet design and utilize high-density foam in those areas to be in compliance with the global testing parameters. The cost of utilizing multiple foam densities is higher than just using a single foam density – thus the higher price tag for the high-end helmets.

Hope this helps. For more information I’ll steer you to http://www.helmets.org/liners – if you would like to contact me directly I can be reached at chad.moore@mavic.com

So mips?

Chad, thanks for coming in to clear the air about the new helmet. I work at a local bike shop in Atlanta (part time / as hobby). We hear about Scott’s MIPS all of the time, and we do have them available for sale (since we carry Scott products). But if any of us are being honest when you are buying a helmet, none of the experts at our shop will tell you that the MIPS helmets are going to do a better job of saving your head than one without it. It’s a gimmick that may or may not work, except you pay an addition $25-50 for otherwise the same helmet without it.