POC Ventral Air SPIN Road Bicycle Helmet Review

Before I start my POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet review, let me first disclose that I do not totally understand the science and technology that goes into protecting human heads from bicycle accidents except perhaps for the famed MIPS system.

With that in mind, my POC Ventral Air SPIN bicycle helmet rating will be based on my personal experience with it based on how it feels when I am out there from casual rides or to bike touring journeys across Canada or around the world.

In Autumn 2019 when I was on my European leg of my world tour by bicycle to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief, the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet was provided to me by the company as a way to support my adventures and they also included lifestyle and cycling sunglasses in the care package and later on, they even contributed apparel to keep help me survive the Winter months that were looming.

The POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet started protecting my head with a 200 km ride from Bristol to London in the United Kingdom and the last two hours into the already miserable epic due to the weather, I had a nasty headache. I do not ever remember being in such agony.

I hopped into a pharmacy and asked for headache tablets and swallowed them on the spot and the pain would not go away. I got to the end of the ride and took the POC Ventral Air SPIN cycling helmet off and right there, the pain stopped immediately!

What was the deal then? Well it turns out that I had squeezed the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet a little bit too tight and it was squeezing my head thus the excruciating migraines. 

The reason why is actually in the POC Ventral Air SPIN road cycling helmet name…

It is so light that I was scared that it would fly away on descents that I tightened it just to be cautious but I went way overboard so it was a user mistake.

This whole POC Ventral Air SPIN anecdote is to illustrate how it’s one of the lightest bicycle helmets that I have ever worn and to this day, one and a half year later, I sometimes leave the house without it because I cannot feel it!

The second reason why the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet is so great is that even in the hottest of the hottest suns, my head never overheats because it is so well ventilated.

As a matter of fact, the POC Ventral Air SPIN is an oddity in road cycling helmets because it feels like the designers were on a mission to include as many vents as possible. But there is method in that madness because even with cycling hats, the cooling effect is effective.

The other benefit of such large vents is that when I quickly need to get off my cycling sunglasses and replace them with my reading glasses, I can quickly tuck them in the huge POC Ventral Air SPIN vents without fumbling around as I would with other bicycle helmets sometimes forcing me to stop and do it on a stationary mode which costs me precious seconds especially when I am racing against nightfall.

Who is the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike for? People who want ultimate protection. They do not use the famous MIPS technology that other bicycle helmets use but instead they feature the company’s proprietary patent-pending SPIN (Shearing Pad Inside) pads. Your guess is as good as mine as what it means but I can speak from wearing it for 18 months that it is comfortable, breathable and I really do not want to find out how well it works because that would mean me falling off my bike and bumping my head.

So far, I have ridden across Europe wearing the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet. From the UK to Switzerland via the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany in the hottest sun and the nastiest rain.

And when the COVID-19 put a hiatus on my world tour by bicycle and I was forced to return to Canada at the urgent request of the diplomatic authorities, I would eventually ride across Canada again from Victoria to Rivière-du-Loup with the POC Ventral Air SPIN cycling helmet on protective duties.

When it comes to Winter cycling the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet is actually a great candidate even at -10C! Those large vents prevent the head from overheating because as we know sweat freezes and then makes the rider cold which is why I am not that fond of wearing ski helmets when it’s beyond freezing but I have no choice. 

The secret is to wearing POC Ventral Air SPIN and stay comfortable is to wear an equally breathable merino wool cycling cap and when the head overheats the air escapes into the frozen air and there is no sweat even when climbing tough icy mountain passes.

Am I a fan of the POC Ventral Air SPIN road bike helmet or what? Yup! It’s not the cheapest of bicycle helmets but as someone who rides bicycles seriously and needs the best tools available, it will be an easy decision to purchase another when my current one expires (bicycle helmets have a shelf life, you know that, right?) or protects my head, something I am praying never happens.