Bell Super Helmet

For at least the last five or six years the lines between cross-country and downhill disciplines have been getting increasingly blurred; most 130-160mm travel bikes can be pedalled on an all day adventure, and then thrown down a trail that wouldn’t seem unsuited to a DH rig. The problem is that protective gear, and particularly helmets, have changed at a much more sluggardly pace. Riders have either had to tolerate the sweat factory of a full-face helmet on the climbs, or more commonly risk the minimal protection of a glorified road helmet on fairly serious descents.

It’s true that for a year or so many companies have been incrementally adding more rear coverage to their designs to try and meet the demand for ‘trail’ helmets, but they’ve mostly been just that; small modifications to existing designs which still don’t really stray far from their XC roots. The Bell Super is not one of these; it’s a total rethink of what a modern ‘mountain biker’ needs in a helmet, and it’s got some pretty unique traits as a result; since its overseas launch a year ago we’ve been itching to see if it lives up to the name, or if it should be called the Bell ‘Mediocre’ instead.

Hard facts out of the way first; in Australia the Super is available in three colours (bright green, white and ‘black star’) and three sizes, and retails for a quite reasonable $179. Our small sized sample weighed 387g including the visor whilst the supplied, removable GoPro mount adds another 10g and each size increase adds about 40g to the overall weight. It has 25 vents plus four ‘over brow’ ports, there’s internal channelling to keep air moving over your head. The removable padding is made from funk-fighting X-Static fabric, and like most helmets today its outer shell and EPS inner are moulded in one piece.

So Enduro!

The hard outer shell extends all the way down to the edges but doesn’t actually wrap around the lower portion of the helmet; this makes it a little more vulnerable to damage from being dropped or rolling around in the car, but shouldn’t affect its on-trail durability. The ratcheting ‘Speed Dial’ at the rear of the helmet can be adjusted through three different height settings, and the mechanism itself, whilst slightly bulkier than some others, is comfortable and easy to use with one hand. Goggle guides are also supplied with the Super for those who wish to run the ‘Euro Enduro’ look of goggles without a visor; we’ll leave that style decision entirely up to you.

Fit is always going to be a personal issue but we found the Super to be very comfortable and secure, with nice even pressure throughout the helmet. Having three sizes instead of the more common two will certainly help to ensure a good fit for a broader range of riders. It’s the first helmet I’ve tried where I really felt like my head was completely ‘in’ the helmet—the dramatically extended coverage both at the rear and also around the ears and temples undoubtedly helped with this. Despite the outstanding coverage, the Super still manages to look quite streamlined, with a thinner and more head-shaped EPS layer than commonly found on MTB helmets; here’s to not looking like a total mushroom when you’re out riding!

The visor is quite long but with 30-degrees of adjustability you can always push it up if your vision is obscured, although we never found the need. This large adjustment range means you can also push it up to store goggles on the helmet should you wish to use them; even if you don’t it shows that Bell have been thinking of features that aggressive trail riders and potential owners of the Super might be after. The visor also has breakaway bolts to help minimise rotational stress to the head and neck in case of a fall, which is another well considered detail.

The inclusion of a removable GoPro mount is completely in line with the increasing prevalence of POV cameras on trail. In this case the mount simply plugs into one of the front vent ports and is held in place with velcro straps securing it to the inside of the shell. We say securing, but unfortunately the self-adhesive velcro tabs on the inside of our helmet slowly came unstuck, so if you’re a regular camera user you may need to renew the velcro occasionally (be wary of using glue as it may damage the EPS liner). When it’s working properly, the mount is rattle-free and easy to fit or remove.

Given the dramatic increase in coverage that the Super offers you’d expect there to be a significant decrease in ventilation, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. It may not be quite as breezy as the best XC helmets, but you can definitely feel air flowing around your head and through the over brow ports. The designers at Bell have really sweated the ventilation and liner details so that you don’t have to sweat into your own eyes—it gets the thumbs up from us for all weather comfort.

It might have been a while coming, but we’re going to give huge props to Bell for their new Super helmet. It’s not quite perfect, but instead of taking baby steps to try and catch the runaway ‘enduro’ scene, they’ve taken a huge leap of faith. The result is a completely new design that’s up there with the absolute best trail/enduro helmets on the Australian market. Cross-country racers can keep their ‘lids’, downhillers can hang onto their full-face sweat buckets, but for those of us that ride just about everything, calling it ‘Super’ perfectly describes Bell’s latest helmet.

Sheppard Cycles Australia 1300 883 305 / www.bellsports.com