Giro Roc Loc Air
Monday 9th June 2014
From the earliest days of cycling helmet design and engineering, ventilation meant one thing: To create a cooler helmet, you had to have a lot of holes. This is a logical approach, but it's limiting - it quickly reaches a compromise between protective capability and cooling. Giro is interested in moving beyond both convention and its compromises.
Jim Gentes, Giro's founder, didn't just believe in challenging conventional wisdom, he was willing to invest in his ideas and see where they could lead. He worked with contacts at NASA to fine-tune the original Giro Prolight helmet, and he invested $100,000 in the early '90's to build the original Therminator head form to study how helmets actually cooled the head. Today, Giro's world-class DOME R&D facility in Scotts Valley, CA. continues his vision of critically examining, and investing in, new ideas that can enhance the ride.
Look no further than the Giro Air Attack helmet. By conventional measure, it has a mere six vents. However, its seventh vent, located inside the helmet, is an entirely new ventilation approach: Roc Loc Air. Roc Loc Air suspends the helmet slightly above the head, allowing air to flow into the helmet and quickly escape, taking the energy-sapping heat with it.
Physics. Aerodynamics. Thermodynamics. In simple terms, Roc Loc Air uses these things to supercharge the six main vents and internal ventilation channels, all of which cool the head quickly and efficiently. Beyond that, it provides an incredibly comfortable fit system, with micro-adjustable tensioning and vertical positioning, so you can quickly fine-tune the feel of the helmet to suit your needs. But the best thing about the Roc Loc Air isn't that it makes the Air Attack better. The best thing is its potential to improve other helmets and bring more cooling and comfort to riding. Which is what Giro believes technology and innovation are all about.