Looking to go aero yet keep a cool head? The Met Strale might be the helmet for you.
Performance
The Strale is an evolution of its elder sibling, the Rivale. It offers good aerodynamic performance while still allowing good ventilation. The helmet channels the air through the front vents, passing the cool air over your head and pushing the warm air out of the rear vents of the helmet, rather like an exhaust or as MET put it; “utilizing the Venturi Effect”.
When reading up about new products and what they apparently do, personally, I always take it with a pinch of salt. But this ‘exhaust’ system really does work! I have now ridden a good amount of miles in the helmet both on and off road and can really feel the design working and pushing the air over my head.
My day to day helmet is a MET Rivale (which I love by the way) and one in which I have never really suffered with overheating. But, you really can feel the difference between these helmets. The Strale being the cooler of the two.
The Safe T-Duo fitting system is very easy to use and allows for 4cm of vertical adjustment along with the micro dial on the located at the back of the helmet. Tightening this adjusts a plastic headband that encompasses the head allowing for equal pressure.
The interior padding is plentiful and I found it very comfortable. With the helmet weighing in at 255 grams, it’s very easy to forget you are wearing a helmet.
It also allows for those Peter Sagan Hair buns if needed!
The Duo LED light that can be attached to the mirco adjuster is an optional extra but quite a neat piece of design. Coming in at 6 grams , it is lightweight and saves you from sticking an ugly, heavy light to your seat post.
So the Strale performs well, but how does it look?
You can certainly see the evolution from the Rivale to the Strale. But personally, I prefer the look of the older Rivale.
The Strale, like most helmets is made from shock absorbing polystyrene.
High end helmets these days are beautifully made and conceal the polystyrene so well that you wouldn’t even know they were made from it. But this isn’t so much the case here. The helmet is quite chunky in appearance and has a fair bit of exposed polystyrene underneath and within the vents.
But, that said, this is not a particularly high end helmet. It comes in at £79.99, which for a “semi-aero” helmet is pretty cheap! For that price, it looks pretty good.
I have been testing out the Matte Black/Red colour scheme and would say this is the best looking of the range. The Matte finish looks pretty sleek on the bike whilst also drawing your attention away from the exposed polystyrene areas.
The Met Strale on test at Gravel Grinder
Summary
If you are looking for a ‘cool’, inexpensive, versatile aero helmet, this may be the one for you. It may not be the best looking helmet on the market at the moment, but for the price you can’t really go wrong.
It offers great ventilation, whilst maintaining good aerodynamic performance, is easy to adjust, and has a lightweight and a comfortable fit.
The Domestique Cycling Collective 