Rom Lee Designs

Troy Lee's A1 helmet has to be one of the most popular lids on the trail today. It's a pretty nice little helmet. It's very comfortable, but now they've bought out a new helmet and it's called the A2. It's a slightly better ventilated, slightly smaller version of the A1 and is a bit better on trail bikes, arguably. Let'start with the basics though. As you can see inside, it's got the MIPS liner, so that's for your rotational impacts. Somet The other safety feature of the A2 is that it's made of two types of foam. You've got EPP and the more standard EPS. Troy Lee say that the EPP foam is better for low speed impacts, so it's got a slightly different density to the EPS and the EPS is there for the I've also done some fancy t Other little safety features include the rather neat, low profile strap dividers and also the easy to break away visor bolts, w In terms of safety, maybe the biggest difference between the A1 and the A2 is that it's a slightly lower profile helmet. If you compare the two, you'll notice that the A1 is a little bit lower at the bottom at the back of the head, w One of the biggest criticisms of the A1 was that it wasn't exactly the best ventilated helmet and it came out pretty sweaty a lot of the time. To combat that takes in big vents here and across the top and then bigger exit ports to help suck the warm air out the back of the helmet. Today I've ridden both the A1 and the A2 just to get a little bit of a comparison and it is noticeable how much breezier the A2 is. In fact, if you look at the vents themselves, you can notice that they're in very similar positions and very similar shapes to the ones on the A1, but they are that little bit bigger. One of the things we really What's noticeable about the A2 is that there's a little bit less padding in there and so the contact on your head is a little bit less, so you can kind of notice where it is touc For me, t It's not that it's uncomfortable, it's just that you notice the pressure points a little bit more than you do with the A1. If we're talking about the pads, well it's worth noting that they've got this ecstatic treatment which is something we've seen in a n This basically means that they've got Personally, I've never had a problem with a smelly head, but In terms of fitment and adjustment for your head, there's a pretty simple ratchet wheels cradle at the back. It doesn't have any particular padding, but it is pretty comfortable. It's quite light, it's quite flexible and you don't really notice it's there. Then these straps, well they're nice and the fixed joining point here keeps them out of the way of the ears so there's no interference there and they're flexible enough to be able to tighten and loosen on the clip pretty easily. They've also got a little reflective trim w One of the t With a lot more trail and enduro helmets coming out and the increased use of goggles, the fact that it never really adjusted out the way so you couldn't really put your goggles underneath the visor, I found a bit of a pain especially when compared to the big range of adjustments some of the other helmets on the market have. The A2 stays with there's not masses of adjustment for the peak and the peak itself is a touch smaller than that on the A1. The size of the peak doesn't really matter to me, but the fact that I can't put my goggles under the peak means that if I am riding with goggles saying poor weather or whatever it is, that's where I So as with a lot of Troili products, it's not the cheapest out there on the market. In the UK it's around u00a3140 and in the US it's around $170 so it's definitely a premi That said, it is a really comfy helmet and the ventilation has vastly improved over the A1. The comfort is still up there with some of the best trail lids on the market. So if you are looking for a cross country trail helmet and you're not looking for a full and enduro lid, and if you've got the cash then the A2 is definitely a good option.