Giro Xen

The ‘Khaki Cross Bomb’ Xen is a helmet for trail dudes and divas. It provides trail riders with a serious amount of function but some pretty blinged up form as well. Ultimately it is still just the classic Xen, so well tried and tested, but with the added luxury of being covered in stretched khaki fabric stitched over the shell, and with a gold and black printed design on the back.

More on the Cross Bomb’s bling appeal later. Let’s start with the helmet’s functionality and fit. We cannot argue with the Xen’s heritage. The old Giro E2 was a trail riding classic and the Xen takes the E2’s best bits and adds a bit of extra skate-style protection in the form of a moulded upper and lower hard body to really protect against brutal falls.

As a result, the Xen is cut low at the back and sides to extend its coverage round your loaf, allegedly inspiring confidence for the more hardcore xc riders. In reality the experience was not so much noticeably confidence inspiring but more fit, forget and sublimely comfortable. The plushly padded interior sits snugly and evenly round the head (whereas the old E2 had a few headache inducing pressure points) and the 17 channeled and sculpted ‘Wind Tunnel’ vents keep you surprisingly cool on the climbs. The helmet felt like it should be hot (there is a lot of shell surface area) and racing in it seemed off the cards, but during a 3 hour sweaty xc blast, it went unnoticed (in the Autumn at least). Thumbs up.

No mtb helmet is complete without a visor to keep out the hail, rain or sun. The new Xens have a patented POV system which keeps the visor stable and firmly in position whilst tackling any rocky roller-coaster single track. Although there is 15 degrees of adjustment, sometimes the low profile of the helmet can obscure vision on the rare occasion when you don’t want your eyes firmly planted down on the trail.

it’s a head turner too for sure...

There were no pressure headaches from the Xen either, with the RocLoc 4 system allows lateral and vertical adjustment and seems to spread the grip right round the back of the head.

So the Xen is comfortable and packs in a lot of safety features, as you would expect from a high end helmet. At 300 grams it is not the lightest, and neither is it the most ventilated helmet on the market, but it was more than cool enough in mild autumn conditions and only proving a little sticky in hotter summer climes.

In terms of appearance, however, the Cross Bomb shoots for the stars. Helmets have recently moved away from the shiny primary colours of a few years back and started being produced in matt multi-colours with urban designs. However, the Cross Bomb takes the artistry of headgear in a whole new direction. The khaki is understated and will complement any trail outfit, but the gold and black design on the back turns heads out on the trail as much as it does track standing at traffic lights. The fabric stretched and stitched over the lid is, “simply gorgeous”. As well as being a decent head protector, it’s a head turner too for sure. For the added joy of blinging up your lid, you pay no more compared to lesser styled and finished Xens either!

seems to clean up well after muddy rides...

In the first few months of use, the fabric covering showed no signs of wear and seems to clean up well after muddy rides. It remains to be seen, however, how well the stitching and glue will last over a winter of hard abuse in the rain and grit of Welsh mountain rides. Watch this space.

The Xen is something of a classic, first released in 2002 and only seeing incremental improvements over the years, it’s definitely a lid that Giro got right first time and it’s really stood the test of time. With the new Giro Xar likely to supersede the Xen next year and looking a bit more flash with it’s sharp lines, you could argue why you should buy the Xen? But it’s a helmet that still works and its stylish but more organic lines and shape will always have its fans, and the latest colours and styles give a contemporary and bling look but in a more understated package. 

Gorgeously stylish and unsurprisingly decent performance from a Giro classic.

Comments