Lazer Wasp Air Review

Thought I might take the chance on this relaxing Sunday to do another review. This is another one that was suggested to me by somebody who reads this blog. Who am I kidding, this is another one that was suggested by Dave Glass, who I think is the only reader of this blog I chat to regularly who isn't related to me.

For the review this time I thought I would do a bit of kit that is reasonably new, both to myself and to the market. My Lazer Wasp Air.

The Wasp Air came out in the first half of 2015 and it is a variation on the existing Lazer Wasp which came out the year before. To anyone who has seen a Lazer Wasp, the big difference between the Air and the Wasp should be fairly obvious, the Wasp Air has a significantly truncated tail.

The whole bobtail TT helmet is not new having been done by a number of other brands already. The idea of the bobtail is that you get most of the aerodynamic benefits of a full tail TT helmet, whilst not paying as many penalties if your head position is not completely correct. A lot of people don't realise that as aero as a TT helmet it is, typically once you put that tail into the wind it becomes a massive handbrake. This is important in long course triathlon because you tend to spend a bit of time moving your head around to look around, look down, hang your head in despair etc. The bobtail TT helmet tries to reduce that effect. The theory is that in the real world a bobtail helmet is just as quick as a full tail one, because, whilst it isn't as aero, it also isn't slowing you down as much, so it all balances out.

The other improvement that the Wasp Air tries to make over more traditional TT helmets is one of massive importance. It tries to not look terrible. This is a helmet that attempts to eliminate the conversation you usually have to have with non triathlon family members that goes something like:

That helmet looks horrible.
It saves me 38 seconds.
Yes, but you look like an idiot.

To a large degree I think it succeeds. In fact with the mirror visor in place I think it is a fine looking bit of kit, giving you a look somewhere between a jet pilot and a bowling ball. Sweet.

So moving on to the helmet itself. What is it like?

Well firstly, it seems aero. I obviously don't have any way to quantify that, as far as I am aware we don't have a wind tunnel in Perth. However, looking at it compared to the competition, I can't imagine it being any less aero that the others. No vents, smooth shape, visor, pretty much everything a fast TT helmet should have these days. Looking at the info on the Lazer website certainly indicates that it is pretty speedy and I am sure they wouldn't misrepresent their aero testing results (now excuse me for a moment I am chatting to a Nigerian Prince on e-mail who really needs my help). Seriously though, independent testing has shown the Wasp to be very aero, and Lazer's track record indicates that they know what they are doing. So I am fairly confident in the aerodynamics of this helmet.

So what else about this helmet. I have used Lazer helmets for quite some time and one thing I like about them is that they are consistently well thought out. They usually have a nifty feature or two that on first impression seems gimmicky but actually works well. For the Wasp Air that feature is the visor. One problem with a visored helmet with no vents is that they tend to be on the warm side. The Wasp Air is certainly no exception here (more on that later), but they have tried to address this issue through design. What they have done with this helmet is introduce the ability to slide the visor forward. Doing so creates a narrow gap between the helmet and the visor. Like so.

That gap allows air to suck in around the visor, coming in through the two big vents in the front of the helmet that you have just opened up. By all accounts, doing this doesn't cost you all that much drag.

The air that comes in through the vents moves through channels on the inside of the helmet and then out the back, moving heat away from the top of your head. Nice idea, and I have to say it is one that works well. Within reason.

Okay, so this is probably a good time to address the issue of temperature. This is a warm helmet. Not overly so, but warm enough. Even with the vent open I would say that this helmet does not cool well enough to use in your average race in the tropics. I would say that if the temperature was below 30 degrees Celsius, no probs, if it is above 30, time to consider alternatives. Particularly if it is humid, tropical heat. I used this helmet up in Japan without a second thought. I didn't use it up in Putrajaya and am glad I didn't. I will not be using it up in Bintan in 2 weeks time either. Just too warm for that in my opinion. Depending on where you do most of your racing that may be something to consider. Particularly considering how good aero road helmets are these days as a viable alternative.

Something else to be aware of is that opening the visor is no easy task. It is simple true, it just slides forward in the slot you can see in the photo above, but sliding it forward requires a bit of force. Not the sort of force you can apply on the bike. So it needs to be a decision you make before you start riding.

Temperature aside though, all other aspects of the helmet are top notch. It goes on easy. The ear flaps are flexible and so it is easy to get over your ears in T1 without accidentally ripping them off. It fits well and sits comfortably on the head, using the fairly standard adjustment dial design on the back to change the fit. I have a very big head (about 63cm around) and this fits me, so the available sizes cover a large range, unlike a lot of other brands (looking at you Kask).

The helmet comes with two visors, a mirrored one and a smoked one. The mirrored one looks 'fully sick bro' but is a little bit darker to look through. You can get an idea from the photos below

View through mirrored

View through smoked

The mirrored looks so sweet though that if there is enough light, then that is my go to preference.

Changing the visor over is a fairly simple job. Once again though it takes a good bit of force, enough that the first time I did it I had concerns about snapping the visor. The visor is held in place by the little black slot you saw three or so photos ago. There is a slot on either side of the helmet and little lugs on the visor fit into those slots. That is what is holding the visor in place, and it sure holds it tightly. It takes a fair bit of force to pop the visor free of those slots. The visor is certainly secure, but it isn't the most elegant solution.

So all up a very good helmet. Not a perfect helmet, but not far off. The limitations this helmet have are shared by a lot of the top aero helmets on the market today. Limitations that have been created by our demand for less drag. If you consider this helmet with those limitations in mind though, then I am confident that it won't disappoint.