Swiss Cheese Style/Super Man Strength

WHAT: Bell X-Ray HOW MUCH: $99.99 WHERE: www.bellbikehelmets.com

Okay, I’m going to start this review in an unusual fashion. I’m going to admit, right off the bat, that the product you see here is old. This funky, electric blue Bell X-Ray is a first-run model from, hell, I think 2001.

Normally, I wouldn’t feature that old a product, but the X-Ray is still in production and the design tweaks over the years haven’t been so major as to outmode the model sitting here. Plus, and this is the really important point: this helmet still holds its own against the latest generation of swoopy, swiss cheese-looking, cross-country lids.

So, disclaimer aside, here’s the basic design lay out. Vents: the X-Ray has 19 big, honking vents that channel air from front to back and keep your melon from overheating. I’ve ridden this helmet in 110-degree days in Arizona—and, well, it still felt like I was surfing Satan’s micro-wave, but the helmet did provide an impressive flow of air, even at speeds just a flicker above a track-stand.

Big vents, but composite rebar keeps it strong.

I imagine the tire-kicking type consumers out there are wondering how you could have 19 gaping holes in a helmet and still have it keep your head from blowing apart in a crash. Well, aside from some precise sculpting of a hell of a lot of EPS foam, the X-Ray also features an internal reinforcement skeleton.

The composite skeleton (think of rebar) greatly boosts strength and enables the company to cut weight, improve ventilation and up the pimp-factor with those deep vents.

Sure, I read that bit from the catalog and you might be saying, “Hell, that’s what Bell says, but does that skeleton thing really work?” Fair enough. Well, I’ll put it this way. I used to have two of these things. Then I crashed. Hard. Bad. Snap crackle and pop. That other X-Ray (now residing in a New York landfill alongside Jimmy Hoffa) basically kept me speaking in sentences and walking upright. So, yeah, I think there’s something, in this case, to the whole marketing spiel. I’m a believer.

I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend this helmet for dirt jumping, but for cross-country racing/all purpose riding, it fits the bill perfectly.

The X-Ray weighs in at 10.6 ounces, which makes it damn light, but not the very lightest lid on the market (if that sort of thing matters to you). To be precise it’s one tenth of an ounce heavier than Giro’s top of the line E2. If you’re the kind of person who quibbles about tenths of ounces….well, you know who you are.

While I appreciate the X-Ray’s lack of heft, I actually don’t think weight is as big an issue as a comfortable fit. The X-Ray excels in that department with an easily adjusted retention system dubbed Geared Positioning System (or GPS).

In a nutshell, dialing in the perfect fit is as easy as reaching back and twiddling the blue knob with one hand—I can even manage this with thick, winter gloves on. Impressive. Since I’m always styling (and I use that term loosely) a variety of stupid-looking doo-rags (trying to keep the sweat out of my eyes), I often have to readjust the helmet to accommodate whatever Axl Rose/pirate headgear I’m wearing. I’ve busted some other helmet retention systems, but GPS is admirably robust. It holds up to all my compulsive twiddling.

Adjusting the strap length is achieved by simply opening and closing the helmet’s Cam-Lock strap levers. It’s simple and it works. Enough said.

The X-Ray also comes with a visor that can be tilted for 15 degrees of horizontal adjustment. While that’s all good and well, I think the cool thing is the snap-into attachment system (long found on Giro’s high-end helmets).

The visor locks firmly into place and doesn’t slip and fall into your field of vision like so many of the glue-on visors or visors that feature less robust attachment designs. That’s nice. Having said all that, I’ll admit I never use the visor. I ride under trees most of the time so bright sun isn’t really an issue for me. Still, I figured some of you would want to know the option exists.

Well, that sums it up for me. I’m a big fan of the X-Ray. I know a hundred bucks is hard to swallow for a helmet that you crash once and toss in the trash, but Bell does offer an affordable crash replacement program and, shit, we’re talking about your head here—it’s not exactly a dispensable commodity.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot—colors. The latest X-Rays come in Matte Copper/Titanium, Matte Blue/Black, Black/Yellow, Titanium, Black/Red.

Sizing is pretty standard: Small, Medium and Large.