Kask Mistral Aero Helmet

The Kask Mistral slices through the cold northerly winds. To be fair, it slices through all the winds, leaving nary a trace in its wake. The track and triathlon helmet from Kask is their new fastest lid, cutting drag and reducing times. Kask has a fair amount of experience building fast helmets. The Bambino Pro is a time trial helmet that has seen more than its share of success covering the noggins of rider on Team Sky. National championships, world championships, Tours de France have fallen to the attack of the Bambino. But that wasn’t fast enough. Kask went to the windtunnel with the Australian national track team, the cycling pride of that small country, and a feeder system for world champions and WorldTour pros, and worked with them on making something faster. That something became the Mistral. It shares some design cues, like the six front vents, the magnetically-mounted shield, the self-adjusting lateral divider, the octo-fit secondary retention system. The vents are air intake ports that lead to channels inside the helmet that move air over your head and exit via two exhaust ports in the rear. The shield can be installed and removed while riding. The helmet strap position doesn’t need to be adjusted by your ears. That is set, you use the octo-fit to both adjust the position of those straps and snug the secondary retention system to your head. As usual, Kask utilizes CoolMax-covered 3D dry padding. The pads are three-dimensional open-cell foam that both keeps air moving and holds your head in place. The CoolMax top layer wicks well and keeps the point of contact as dry as you can expect a pad to be when you’re going 110%. And, as usual, Kask makes the chinstrap out of eco-leather for a more comfortable tactile contact point. Those similarities are great. But what makes the Mistral greater is that it is faster. The windtunnel testing lead to both new contours on the helmet and a new shape that’s been tugged out a bit in the rear. It’s still somewhat bobtailed like the Bambino, so you can feel free to move your head about and still get low drag numbers. The helmet comes with a clear shield and soft travel bag. There are spare shields available in Orange for higher contrast and Mirror for sunny days. Weight for the helmet, including the visor, in a Medium is 375g. The Kask Mistral helmet is what track riders and triathletes are donning to blow past their previous fastest times.