Tried & Tested: Giro Emerge Helmet
The Giro Emerge helmet was put to the all-mountain test by Amy in the Portes du Soleil.
The Giro Emerge helmet is a low profile, customisable helmet intended for freestyle use. It comes with removable ear pads and goggle clip, space for goggles to be worn underneath the helmet, Giro’s Stash Fit size adjustment system, lightweight feel and in built MIPS technology designed to protect your noggin’ from high impacts.
In Use
I put the Giro Emerge helmet to an all-mountain test as my park skills are fairly limited, ahem, zero. I love the freestyle shape and low volume look of this lid and the great colour choices. The helmet feels lightweight and on first wear it felt snug around my head. The Polartec lining was particularly effective, given that the vents can’t be closed. It kept me warm on cold days and the ear pads worked great too – no need for an extra hat underneath.
My main bug bear with the Emerge is the fit, but given that heads are all different shapes, perhaps this one just wasn’t for me… FYI I tested the women’s medium (55-59cm), my head is 56cm.
The Stash Fit system feels like a lower level (yet presumably cheaper) alternative to the cog/dial fit we see on most helmets. I struggled to get it to provide me with a really snug fit.
The Emerge does come with two additional foam strips to place inside the pocket at the back of the head to help customise fit. After two weeks of use the helmet padding seemed to pack out and some extra filler was needed, but it still did not give me the snug fit that I was looking for. The helmet also seemed to sit quite high up on my head and there I didn’t feel as if there was much protection around the back of my neck. I tried it on with a huge range of goggles but none seemed to fit particularly well underneath, including a Giro pair.
Unfortunately my freestyle exploits don’t quite merit me me skiing around with my goggles under my helmet, but I tried out the style and it felt very comfortable. There’s also a recession in the inner liner to allow space for the strap.
The Emerge comes with in-built Spherical MIPS technology which allows the the outer layer of EPP foam to rotate independently around the inner layer, redistributing the impact on certain crashes.
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