AustrAliAn triAthlete | 61Reviewed by: THE TEST LAB
Craig McKenzie and Patrick Legge are The Test Lab. Two guys with an obsession for trialling all things
related to swimming, riding and running and telling anyone who will listen what they think. Having 20 years each
in the sport, they’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly, but always loved the innovation triathlon brings to the
world stage. Craig raced as a professional triathlete, winning four National Duathlon titles, and has worked as an
exercise physiologist, osteopath and coach, while Pat has built a career running a personal training, massage and
coaching business, working with State, Australian and World Champions, including Australian Olympic and
Commonwealth squads whilst competing himself.and it would be five years old by now.
Getting the chance to view the full
range gave us a great insight into the
helmets available and those relevant to
the triathlon market. While, once it was
solely the Bambino, now there are no less
than three time trial helmets and three
aero road helmets, which would suit
triathletes. The Bambino Pro, the soon to
be released Bambino Pro Evo and the
just-released Mistral are the traditional
time trial style helmets, and these are the
helmets that will appeal to the non-
drafting Ironman 70.3 and Ironman
athletes amongst us. However, with the
ITU now making all sprint triathlon and
duathlon world championships draft legal
the very aero Protone, Infinity and just
released ‘super aero’ Utopia are perfect
options.
For now, though we are going to look at
the newly released Mistral time trial
helmet, which was developed in
cooperation with the AIS Australian track
cycling team. And for those of you with a
keen eye, variations of the Mistral could be
seen on the heads of our track team over
the last few years. Development of a
helmet can take a couple of years with
lots of real world and wind tunnel testing
to go through before it even makes its way
to market. The final product was on show
for all to see at the recent Commonwealth
Games on the Gold Coast, where pretty
much every Australian track rider and time
trial cyclist wore one. And, we might add,
to great success. A few special edition
models were also on the heads of
sponsored triathletes as far back as
Hawaii Ironman last year, but it’s only now
that we are getting our hands on them.
Getting hold of the Mistral in person,
you get a real feel for the quality of the
helmet with its tight welds and sleek
edgings. Add in the 3D padding and
adjustable retention system, both
vertically and `horizontally, and you have
one of the most comfortable fitting TT
helmets going around. Then finish it off
with a little bit of Italian class, in the form
of a leather chin strap, and you have the
new KASK Mistral.
So, what makes the Mistral different
from the Bambino Pro? It might not look it
@thetestlab
at first glance, but there are quite a
number of differences. While the visor fits
both helmets, this is really where the
similarities end. On the outside of the
helmet, the ear flaps are more flared,
which is a good thing for triathlon as it
makes the helmet much easier to put on.
The back of the helmet tapers around the
shoulders and continues down to a short
tail with an exhaust port. So, while it is
longer than the ‘snub tail’ of the Bambino,
it is by no means as long as the old style
time trial helmets. Interestingly, we were
told one nickname for the Mistral is ‘the
talking helmet’. This refers to the noise it
makes when you dip your head too low,
and the wind starts to catch the tail, and
while it certainly makes you want to
correct straight away, you actually have to
dip your head quite a long way before the
Mistral makes said noise. This is pretty
reassuring, as it would seem to indicate
that it is quite hard to dip your head into a
bad aerodynamic position.
Another feature of the Mistral that
makes it a lot more attractive to triathletes
than its older brother, the Bambino Pro, is
the supposed improved ventilation. To be
honest, if you were basing this solely onthe front-on profile, you would be
hard-pressed to see how this is possible.
The Mistral essentially has the exact same
configuration of six tiny vents. It also has
very similar internal channelling, however,
the rear exhaust ports and side channels
are much bigger and seem to draw the air
through the helmet better than that of the
Bambino. This, in turn, feels like hotter air
is expelled faster and more efficiently.
As we mentioned earlier, the visor,
which comes in clear, orange or silver, is
interchangeable between the Bambino
and the Mistral, so we think that there
hasn’t been much development in this
area. While it’s nice to know that if you
already have the Bambino, you won’t need
to buy a new visor for the Mistral, we were
really hoping that the Mistral was going to
have a new visor, which helped the fogging
in some conditions. Even a few ventilation
slits along the top of the visor would
probably help that situation. Either that or
provide such a visor as an option. Having
said that, we like having the visor on as it
completes the spherical front-on shape,
which should be more aerodynamic, even
if just marginally. As on the Bambino Pro,
the Mistral visor snaps into place via three