MET Rivale MIPS in review – More than just good design?
Safety, comfort and efficiency: this is what the MET Rivale MIPS promises, aiming to leave a lasting impression on the road bike scene together with its aggressive design. Read on to find out if it’s more than just marketing hype and what you can expect from the Italian helmet.
Design is a matter of taste and you can argue one way or the other. And that’s exactly where we’ll start with the MET. The Rivale MIPS is claimed to have an aggressive design but we don’t see it. With its rounded shape and a slight hint of a spoiler at the back of the head, we think it’s more inconspicuous and even friendly looking. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. Once it’s on your head, it looks great and matches well with almost every pair of sunglasses. Its restrained look is what makes it so appealing.
What about the inside of the helmet? Here, we must mention the MIPS-C2 system. With the latest generation of the safety system, there’s a plastic shell inside the helmet that completely encloses your head. In the event of an impact, it can rotate independently of the outer shell up to 15 mm in all directions. This reduces the rotational forces that would otherwise occur, which is a big plus regarding safety. Unfortunately, there are no additional safety features such as a crash sensor. The MET Rivale MIPS retention system surrounds your head and can be finely adjusted with a small ratchet at the back of the head. As such, the inner shell does a great job of accommodating different head shapes.
The MET Rivale MIPS weighs 268 g (size L) and costs € 150. This puts the helmet in the middle of MET’s portfolio both in terms of price and weight. Besides the white model we tested, it’s available in seven other colours. The available sizes are S (52–56 cm), M (56–58 cm) and L (58–61 cm).
The MET Rivale MIPS on test
The first thing you’ve got to do is adjust the helmet, and with the MET Rivale MIPS doing so is easy and intuitive. Simply adjust the position of the harness at the back of the head, tighten it with the ratchet and adjust the length of the chin strap around your ears and you’re done. However, the right side of the chin strap is very long and once it’s been adjusted, there’s a lot of excess strap hanging around, which is somewhat annoying. One solution would be to cut off the excess bit.
With everything adjusted, the helmet sits snugly on your head and encloses it generously all around, making you feel safe and well-protected. We must mention that no two heads are the same and the fit will feel different for everyone. Because of this, you should always try a helmet on before buying. That said, the MET Rivale MIPS could easily adapt to our tester’s rather slender head, though it seemed to offer enough room for wider heads too.
Despite the snug fit, the helmet’s outer shell is able to move. It can feel like the helmet is loose but it’s due to the MIPS-C2 system, proving how it mitigates rotational forces on impact. Another thing that we noticed is that the MET Rivale MIPS doesn’t have anywhere to put your eyewear.
Although the helmet does have what MET claim to be sunglasses ports, they didn’t hold our glasses in place. On the upside, the close-fitting straps don’t flutter in the wind, reducing wind noises, and you can comfortably wear sunglasses over the straps. The pads on the forehead are located deep inside the front of the helmet, ensuring a comfortable fit and effectively preventing sweat from running into your eyes on hot summer days. Speaking of hot summer days, the MET Rivale MIPS provides excellent ventilation via the numerous, generously sized air vents, allowing cool air to flow around your entire head. However, you’ll have to wear a thin beanie or headband to keep warm in the winter.
The MET Rivale MIPS is characterised by a very comfortable and easily adjustable fit while being able to accommodate a wide variety of different head shapes. It’s a coherent, lightweight helmet featuring the MIPS-C2 safety system and a good-looking design. And all that in a package that’s fairly priced too. However, the sunglasses ports didn’t work and we missed having a place to put our eyewear. The overly long chinstrap can also be somewhat annoying.
Tops
- intuitive adjustability
- very comfortable for many head shapes
- additional safety thanks to the MIPS-C2 system
Flops
- sunglasses ports don’t work
- very long chin strap
For more information about the MET Rivale MIPS, visit met-helmets.com.
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