A Unique Approach to Safety: Suomy Gun Wind
From Issue 94
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
We like a plain black or white helmet as much as anyone. But at the same time, we can’t shake the feeling that it’s a bit bland. With red accents and distinctly Euro’ styling, the team edition of the Suomy Gun Wind adds some flair to your ride with serious safety considerations to boot.
PELOTON
The initial split second in a crash is the most important window a helmet has to reduce potential trauma. Knowing this, helmet manufacturers have adopted technologies like MIPS that allow helmets to rotate independently of their liners, reducing traumatic forces on the brain and neck from impacts. While this concept is nothing new, adopting it in places outside of the actual helmet itself is. Suomy is blazing a path distinctly its own with its Smart Strap. This helmet strap employs elastic absorbers in four places on the strap, two on each side, to absorb some of the rotational energy of a crash. Additionally, the elastic deformation of the Smart Strap reduces deceleration forces on the head. After a certain amount of deformation, the strap stretches to its limit and works as any other strap does, keeping the helmet securely fastened to your head.
In addition to the Smart Strap, you may also notice another unique safety feature in this helmet: two red bars running along the top of the helmet. These impact-resistant thermoplastic resin composite bars allow for a more compact and rigid structure and help distribute impacts over the entire helmet.
Featuring 24 vents, the Gun Wind is adequately breezy for our tastes, with noticeable airflow over the top of the head thanks to eight vents placed like abdominal muscles.
The biaxial size adjuster has five different vertical settings, helping you dial in a proper fit. And the retention system applies even force around the head, with no bothersome pressure points to speak of. Suomy helmets run a little smaller in our experience; if you’re normally a medium, consider sizing up.
Sweat management is a detail that we think many helmets could work on. There’s nothing worse on a hot day than having sweat drip down your brow into your eyes, especially after it mixes with sunscreen. Luckily, with its comfortable padding system, the Gun Wind does an admirable job or guiding sweat down the sides of the helmet, safely away from the eyes. And because sweat tends to linger in helmet padding—and most of us don’t clean our helmets nearly as often as we should—Suomy uses antibacterial fabric and materials in its padding as well as in its Smart Strap, keeping odors at bay.
$230; 308g (size large); suomysport-usa.com