In low gears, you can ride leisurely and watch the scenery along the way. The MET Rivale MIPS combines aero and ventilation features for an all-road road helmet. It has 18 vents which are predominately at the front to keep the air flowing. The shaping of the vents at the back and a more enclosed rear keep the drag low.
More than one review indicated a longer post or stem was needed, neither of which addresses the fact that the frame is a “one size fits most”. 3 gears at the pedals and 7 gears at the rear wheel make up a 21-speed drivetrain, a relatively rare multi-drive system in mountain bikes of the same price range. You are going to be wearing the helmet a lot, potentially for over five hours at a time, so it’s imperative that the fit suits your head, no matter what a review says. It is also advisable to try on a variety of makes and models to see which is most comfortable and the best road bike helmet for you, as they are often different shapes internally.
The glasses port, sadly, is not particularly good as it is too wide to accommodate most sunglasses. Team Ineos’s favourite helmet, the Protone Icon is lightweight at around 200g and aero as well as comfortable. Like most modern e-bikes, the Fuel EXe Alloy is compatible with a mobile app, in this case, the Trek Central app, which gives you access to additional settings, as well as system updates. The application also offers bike setup tips, activity tracking, and a handy navigation system. There is no possible way a company can sell a bike with a proper drivetrain and working front and rear suspension for $150.
There’s a reason bikes with fully functional brakes and shifters cost more than typical department store and X-Mart bikes. You don’t need an expensive bike to enjoy cycling, but don’t be fooled into thinking a cheap one is worth the money either. The wheelset is genesis mountain bike lightweight with an internal rim width of 19mm that will take good sized rubber which means you could add some float to the ride with some high volume tyres. The Core 26.4 came fitted with 2.2 Mountain Kings, the originals not the much improved Mountain King II.
An impressive fork at this price point and sensible kit are great and the wheels finish the package off nicely but the main attraction here is the geometry. At around 27lbs the Core weighs in somewhere in the middle of the scale that you would expect for a 120mm trail blaster but it feels nippy and easy to spin up to speed thanks to the lightweight rims and fast rolling tyres. The Core range is based around a 6061 aluminium tube set that is butted where needed with some gentle manipulation to ovalise the down tube as it meets the seat tube at the bottom bracket shell. There are strengthening gussets where the down tube and top tube meet the tapered head tube and the seat stays are an old school wishbone style, the lack of a bridge gives ample mud clearance. With its proportions, and tapered headset it can have many higher end components added the bike to make it comparable to bikes much more expensive than it is. This includes new forks, better derailleurs, better handlebars and so much more.
The latest version of the Prevail helmet has very wide vents and uses a minimalist MIPS implementation for great airflow. Sure they are cheap, heavy, made with really crappy components, and can get you from genesis bicycles a to b. But, being assembled improperly is half the battle when buying a “Big Box Brand” bike. That if you are not an avid cyclist with basic bike skills can cost you as much as the bike to get repaired.
We certainly found it to be both light and airy during our review period. An absolute favourite road bike helmet for us is the Giro Aether MIPS. On test we called it a game-changer of a road bike helmet due to its unrivalled all-around performance. Like its more premium sibling, the Fuel EXe Alloy is powered by TQ’s silent HPR50 motor. Designed to offer a more natural pedal feel, it only has 50 Nm of torque on tap, but that should be more than enough to boost you up the trails with enough energy left to tackle the descents with ease. As standard, the bike is fitted with a 360-watt-hour battery pack.