I was surprised to see a helmet I’ve never heard of and so cheap score near the top of Virginia Tech. Has anyone ever ridden a P2R? Is there even a way to buy it?
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Also, what do I not understand about helmet design if some random company can do so well compared to established players
If you read their website, they started in helmets in 2009 and have been focused on markets other than the US for most of the time. Only started in US in 2023.
The fact that you have never heard may also be related to why they are cheaper. They aren’t out there sponsoring Jumbo Visma with a brand new helmet every couple of years. How much you think of the newest Giro helmet is marketing cost? Probably a lot.
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The fact they’re unknown to you does not make them a “random” company.
They literally don’t advertise the helmet on their website and the only place I saw it for sale is Taobao. It does not appear that they emphasize safety either as the main selling point. That sure seems random to me.
I’m not trying to speak poorly of them though. They have clearly out-engineered every other helmet brand except Poc.
Presumably it’s been replaced by the A30 where the marketing emphasises safety pretty heavily leading with safety certification and MIPS being the first two features listed:
https://www.p2rbike.com/products/p2r-a30
Guess “out engineered” depends on perspective. Did they set out to make the safest helmet? Or does their helmet just happen to particularly suit the Virginia Tech testing methodology? Are other companies trying to engineer their helmets to be safer, or simply safe enough to meet or exceed the necessary certification requirements and after that focusing on aero, weight, comfort, cooling or looks? My guess is more the latter, certainly it’s pretty rare for me to hear cyclists talking about how they bought a new helmet because it was safer. MIPS gets mentioned and is a feature a lot of people will look for. But after that it will be because it’s more comfortable, has better aero data, comes in cool colours, has a lot of vents, etc.
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Do a quick google search on POC Cytal. All the reviews mention that they are top for safety in the headline. It’s clearly a big deal. Safety is the only reason we wear these things.
And yes out-engineed seems appropriate. The helmet is light and has lots of vents and looks great (subjective on this but it looks at least very similar to every other helmet). They did not appear to make any functional sacrifices to get such a safe design.
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The reviews headline safety because the marketing team headlines safety, because that’s it’s point of difference. My point is that customers don’t seem all that interested in buying the safest helmet (or maybe they’re not reading the reviews and the Virginia Tech tests and aren’t aware that it is the safest helmet) because I see very few Cytals out and about and if I sort helmets by Bestselling at a major bike shop (Sigma Sports in UK) the Cytal comes a fairly lowly 18th out of 72, behind 2 other POC helmets and plenty of similarly priced or more expensive helmets.
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POC helmets and how much I see them depends on the area.
I used to visit SoCal for work a few times a year and I’d see them a lot as people rode up and down the coast. Especially the bright orange ones. But other places I frequent they’re not as common as say Trek, Giro and Specialized.
Had a quick look around. Couldn’t find them for sale in the US.
Oh yes, I’m very much in agreement. The POC Cytal only recently became the top rated and prior was the Giro Aries for a long time but that helmet is also way down the sigma sport list which reinforces your point.
We only wear these things for safety so if Im gonna be hot in something then Im personally optimizing for safety assuming vents,size, styling match reasonably closely to a road helmet. Im sure a football helmet is safer but not terribly practical.
Not seeing it either.
Quick point: The VT testing only addresses safety. Not cooling, comfort, looks, or aero/performance if that matters to you.
Both the Specialized Prevail 3 and Evade 3 test well. The former is great for really hot conditions, and the Evade 3 great as long as you’re moving and one of the more aero helmets on the market.
There’s 167 helmets with a 5 star rating, imo that’s a lot of options to find a good/ safe helmet.
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I don’t think a football helmet would be safer, they are for completely different types of impacts. Similar to DH helmets being designed for DH MTB speeds, where as a moto helmet would be less safe (DH courses are getting faster, but that’s a separate issue).
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Yeah agreed, I was more just trying to say if size and weight weren’t limiting factors then Im sure you could create a safer cycling helmet than what is currently available. Within the constraints of size and weight of road cycling helmets, the P2R is better engineered than the rest except the Cytal.
I’m sure people rank helmets for ventilation or aero or whatever when making a decision, I just think the only reason we wear these is for safety so that’s what Im going to optimize for. I hope the P2R is released in the US because it offers excellent safety at a super low price.
Fair point, and basically in line with a recent POC interview on Blister, space to slow the head down is the most important factor. https://blisterreview.com/podcasts/current-state-of-helmet-tech-pt-4-poc-ep-152
I actually just ordered a POC Kortal for trail riding. I’m in need of a new XC/gravel helmet, and finding the gap in the market strange these days, it goes from trail/enduro to road, starting to feel like we need XC helmets, the demands cant be the same as the road. I previously used the Octal X, which they marketed as such, at the moment, I actually just took a visor off my POC Axiom, as it has a bit more back of head protection than the octal.
I’m with you 100%, as a receiver of far too many cycling concusions in my youth, safety is the only thing I care about when purchasing, unfortunately it hards to get the details of whats actually safer. VT Tech helps, but it seems to not pick up on some features (like dual density foam, look at the spec Ambush 2, testing worse than the Tactic 4) that seem logical to me, so I try not base my purchases entirely on that. I have typically put my trust in POC, as its at the forefront of their marketing. I did buy a giro spherical full face, since they seemed to be at the top of the game, and I had no regrets racing some terribly difficult enduro tracks.
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