(wooshing)
- POC have just launched a
brand-new aero road helmet
called the Ventral.
Their first in quite a
few years is designed
to be faster than their Octal
while still maintaining ventilation.
There is loads of great tech.
So, let's get ready; we're goin' in.
This is the brand new Ventral helmet
from POC.
And this behind me is also POC.
This is the HQ; they kindly invited us out
to Stockholm in Sweden to take
us through the new helmet.
So we're going to be hearing
from one of the engineers
that actually designed
it, but before we do,
let me give you the briefest of overviews.
So the Ventral is the result
of a two-year process.
It was designed to build
on the work of the Octal
which came before it and
was launched in 2014.
Now, that helmet wasn't designed as such,
but it was clear, very
quickly, that it was
an aerodynamic helmet still.
And so, the idea behind
the Ventral is that this
would build on that work without
compromising ventilation.
This is Magnus, who is one
of the two design engineers
who works on helmets.
And therefore, it's fair
to say, Magnus, isn't it,
that you are probably best
placed to talk us through
the tech on the new Ventral.
The first thing that I want to
come to is the aerodynamics.
I think for many of us, when we think of
an aerodynamic helmet,
we think of something
that's really smooth, that
air can pass freely over
the top of, but my impression
when I look at the Ventral
is actually, I can't really
see much helmet at all,
I just see vents.
So how have you guys managed
to make vents aerodynamic?
- Yeah, it's actually the
basic idea with this helmet,
that with experience we
have from the Octal helmet,
which is proven to be
super-fast and very ventilated,
we wanted to make an
even faster aero-helmet
with the same ventilation.
We use something called
the Venturi effect here,
which is, in aerodynamics,
you call the Venturi effect
when you make air travel
from a big volume into
a smaller volume and then
out to a bigger volume again,
and that's exactly what
happens in these channels.
So, the big volume is
here, and then it goes into
the vent hole, travelling through
these channels in
a really high speed, close to your head,
and then out again in the vent holes.
So that's the Venturi effect.
- The air inside the helmet
is effectively travelling
faster than the air outside the helmet.
- To see if the wind
would, shows that, exactly.
- Wow, so that's for,
presumably, that's moving
more heat away from your
head at the same time, right?
- That's correct.
- Now as Magnus was
explaining, a helmet that tries
to be invisible to the wind
can be more aerodynamic
than one that tries to get
air to pass smoothly over
the top of it, but one of
the conditions that it needs
is for air to be able to
re-attach smoothly after
the helmet, after it has
either gone through it
or over the top of it.
And so one of the things
that the Ventral has up
its sleeve is this
critical angle at the back.
I'm told that 22 degrees
is a commonly-known figure
in the aerodynamic world
that is very, very important.
One of the things to bear
in mind with aerodynamics,
is that with drag, it's not
only caused by pressure build-up
in front of an object, but
also by turbulence behind it
that's literally dragging you back.
The aim of this rear section of
the Ventral is to minimise this.
As you can see from the CFD
images, all the air flowing
through the helmet rejoins
the air flowing around it
with minimal turbulence
thanks to that rear edge
and the large exhaust ports at the back
that merge the accelerated
airflow from within the helmet.
We talked about the
performance of the helmet,
the aerodynamics, and
also the ventilation.
But that's not why you wear it, of course.
You wear it because you
hope that it's going
to improve your safety
in the event of a crash.
So Magnus, perhaps we
can go through some of
the more important features
and the safety features.
Now, I know that the padding
inside is a new thing for you,
so this is your own
design called SPIN, right?
- Yup.
- And so, this is, it works in effect,
a bit like MIPS, is that right?
You guys were the first to bring
MIPS to the cycling market,
but now you've got SPIN instead.
- [Magnus] A lot of
research recently shows that
oblique impacts are
really dangerous for you,
and so we want to minimise
that violence in a way,
and we still want to do it
in more-or-less the original
design of the helmet.
- Okay.
- And so, we came up with
this idea a couple years ago,
and we did a lot of
research and testing on it
and we've found really good results.
The system is, more-or-less,
in the pad itself,
it's a silicone
bladder,
at the bottom,
and it's a regular foam on top as you see
on all different paddings out there.
But the bladder makes it sheer like this.
So it actually is moving
inside the helmet.
And that is lowering
the impact
in any crash
in an oblique crash.
- So, when it's on your head,
effectively, the helmet...
there's a little bit of
movement in there so that
in the event of those crashes
where, I dunno, let's not get
too graphic, but, you're
crushing, the tarmac is there,
and you hit it and instead of
your head being whipped around
by the helmet, the helmet's
taking some, literally absorbing
some of the energy in the padding itself.
- Yup.
So, inside here is, you see
these pads, and they are like,
you can move them around like
this, but they are still fixed
like normal pads.
- Yeah.
As Magnus was saying, POC
looked at the helmet as a whole
to try and reduce those rotational forces.
And so despite the effectiveness
of the SPIN system,
we shouldn't, they stress,
become obsessed by those figures,
because the helmet has to be designed
to perform in other ways as well.
So in this case, for example,
the EPS is actually designed
as well to absorb those
rotational impacts.
Part of it is done by the
central ribs which are designed
to collapse and absorb those impacts.
And then, as well, one of the other things
is the external shape.
Now, when the Octal was first launched,
that smooth outer layer
and smooth rear end
was quite distinctive.
And one of the reasons it's
in place was actually to help
the helmet slide in impact,
thereby reducing rotational force.
Now, when you guys launched
the Octal, Magnus, it looked
quite different to many other
road helmets on the market,
and part of that guess is
because it extended further
down in the temples and also
the back of the helmet here.
And this one, I gather,
you've beefed up even more
on the back of the helmet? Why is that?
Yeah, well, we work really
closely to the team sponsor,
and the providers, and we get
crashed helmets from them.
- Whoa.
- When they crash, we
tell them to send it here
so we can look into it
and see how it actually...
- Wow, whose is that one?
- W DeFormulo, from Pologne last year,
had a really bad crash,
and, over and over again,
we actually see that this
area is very common to...
This is Skujins, a
terrible crash last year.
- Yeah, his infamous
Tour of California crash.
- Yeah. It's also in the
same region, so it's proven,
again and again, that this
is a very important area
of the helmet so, we, in
the Ventral, we lifted up,
as you say, and on the
inside we also, instead
of taking away material here,
we actually added some EPS
to make it
even safer in that area.
- So, is that, there's a thicker...
- Slightly thicker, and
we kept the shape from
the Octal going as far down as there.
- Now, talking with EPS, the
density used in this Ventral
is ever-so-slightly
different from the Octal,
which I thought was
particularly interesting.
And the reason is, the size
of these large front vents
means that actually, they
have to use a different EPS
for structural reasons,
but, although you may think
that the overall look of
the helmet is that it's
a slightly lower profile
than the Octal, it's actually
exactly the same thing, this
EPS is used between both
of those lids.
But the reason it looks slightly different
is the design and the profile
of it has been softened
ever-so-slightly for that
slightly different aesthetic.
Back to these new SPIN pads very quickly.
As GCN's sweatiest presenter,
I was slightly concerned
that a silicone barrier in
there would make the pad
a little bit, well, impermeable,
but I've been assured
that the foam on top
acts completely normally
and so sweat is still wisked away.
Perhaps more importantly for me, though,
at the end of the day,
they are still washable.
And actually, although they're
new to the road helmet,
they were launched in the
Winter Sports' helmets
for this 2017 Winter Season.
So, it has been proven for sweaty people.
Before we leave this
video, you will, I'm sure,
wanna get back to performance.
However, they didn't really
wanna get into whats,
or comparisons with other manufacturers.
But needless to say, they
are quietly confident
of the performance of this.
It does weigh a little
bit more than the Octal,
although, it's still only 248
grammes for a size medium,
and you're going to be
seeing it on the heads of
EF Education First.
Drapac presented by Cannondale,
well, as of now, in fact.
And, indeed, it is also
in the shops as of now.
Price is 299 euros,
or 290 dollars.
Okay! So that is the
Ventral in a nutshell.
If you want to see a
little more about POC,
and I suggest you do, because
it's a super-cool company,
and we've had a great
day here in Stockholm,
then make sure you head
over to the main GCN channel
'cause we've got a really
good look behind the scenes
with the brand.
You can get the link just down there.
In the meantime, do make
sure you give this video
a thumbs-up if you like your tech, because
there's plenty of it here.
