Snow and ski brand Bollé, known for helmets and eyewear, have been rolling out more and more cycling related products over the years. After the release of The One road helmet and Trackdown off-road helmet, Bollé went the commuter route with The Messenger, before adding the new Furo and Exo. It’s a fairly closed-shell helmet aimed at your next commute to the office, but as we have found, it also makes a great helmet for racing in cooler temperatures and bad weather. Read on to see why.
The Messenger is a pretty basic helmet. It uses the standard plastic shell with foam inner that we have seen on helmets for years. The shell does wrap around the bottom of the helmet, helping to protect the foam and provides a premium touch I appreciate that is not found on all helmets. Inside, it uses Bollé’s Click-To-Fit dial-adjustable cradle to comfortably keep the helmet in place on your head. The nylon straps, plastic adjustable splitters, and plastic buckle are, again, all pretty standard.
This unassuming helmet does have some tricks up its sleeve though. While the shell looks to be closed, there is a small, built-in peak or visor on the front. When you look closely, there are some openings that do let a little bit of airflow through. The internal sculpting and rear vents help let the air out the back and help keep your head cool.
Around the back of the helmet, there is a built-in LED light that turns on by covering a small pinhole on the lens with your finger. The red light can be set to steady or blinking. I didn’t test how many hours it will last on a battery, but you shouldn’t have to change the CR2025 all that often. The light can be popped out and replaced by a solid plastic plate if you want to lose a few grams for race day.
Over the summer, I used it for some commuting over an eight-mile rolling hill commute. On cooler mornings, I appreciated The Messengers closed shell design. There was enough air coming through that I was comfortable on climbs, but not enough that my head felt cold. On warmer days though, or my ride home, there were times I was wishing I had something a little more ventilated. Not all commuters want a sporty looking helmet though and the closed-shell design does have other benefits.
When cross season came around, I ended up using the helmet for later season races and also a wet, nasty event. For these cold, wet events, having a closed shell was a benefit. In the past, I had seen riders like former American Classic Pro Team’s Robert Marion using a Limar Velov instead of the Ultralight+ to add some protection. While the Velov is more like Bollé’s The One with removable panels, the idea of having a closed shell helmet is still there.
The Messenger is available in two versions. Like The One, it comes in Standard and Premium. The Premium version adds reflective accents to the webbing and helmet, along with a cold-weather liner that replaces the standard liner and covers the ears and the back of the head. The straps slide through some webbing on the ears to help keep them comfortably in place.
The Messenger comes in three sizes, with three colors for the Standard, and two for the Premium. The Premium with standard pads in size M weighs in at 297g with rear light, which isn’t all that bad for a full shell commuter helmet. At $119, or $139 for the added reflective treatments and upgraded liner, both versions are a great value for a helmet that you can use to get to work, and then race in cooler, wet races.
http://www.bolle.com
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