While cycling often gets divided into disciplines, groups and even cliques, and with it the gear, kit and clothing, for many of us these delineations don’t exist. We might ride to work, enjoy a weekend club run and go bikepacking when time permits. We might even do it all on the same bike.
Certainly clothing and accessories that can work across a range of cycling landscapes make lots of sense for most of us. If this week’s round of products is anything to go by, the industry, or some brands at least, are in agreement.
Kask’s latest lid is both affordable and designed for riders of all styles, while MAAP’s refreshed training gear is designed to be used day in and day. Dutch brand Maium too are committed to producing clothing that’s practical and ethical, designed for everyday rides and useful when you step off the bike, too.
Kask’s latest lid is one for all occasions
(Image credit: Kask)
Italian brand Kask has launched its latest helmet, the Sintesi, which it’s billing as a highly versatile lid that works across disciplines.
A helmet for “any occasion” is perhaps a more intriguing concept than it at first seems. Sure, you wear any helmet while out riding and as long as it’s a good fit and is secured correctly it should do its job.
But let’s be honest a helmet is more than mere protection just like a cheese sandwich is more than just fuel. Comfort, ventilation, aerodynamics and styling are the condiments here that both elevate a helmet beyond its primary function and also make it more applicable to certain riding conditions and riders.
(Image credit: Kask)
So how has Kask tackled the challenge of creating a helmet that will cover all bases?
Regardless of whether you’re on a road ride, hitting some gravel or heading to work a lightweight helmet will trump something heavier, and with a claimed weight of just 230g for a size medium the Sintesi is suitably svelte. Shape wise, it appears correspondingly compact, with venting that looks to position it somewhere between an aero lid and a breezy summer one.
Affordability is also likely to broaden appeal and the Sintesti is competitively priced at £90 / $120. However, it boasts a number of features used in Kask’s more expensive helmets. There’s the EPS inner shell and polycarbonate outer shell, the breathable, antibacterial and antistatic Blue Tech padding and the Ergo Fit adjustment system. And like all Kask helmets the Sintesi has been developed using its in-house rotational impact…