Review: Oakley MOD3 MIPS Helmet
What we liked
Nice and light for touring
Great adjustability for head and goggle fit, and for ventilation.
What we didn’t
That fiddly Fidlock buckle system
The Verdict
THE SHORT READ…
An excellent touring-weight helmet that still feels like it would actually protect you, with really good fit via the glove-friendly rear Boa and goggle/helmet fit via an internal adjuster. It has a ventilation on/off slider to let some steam out on hot days but shut out storm winds if you are unlucky with the weather. The only real downside we found was the Fidlock strap buckle system, which even with gloves off you’ll be lucky to get it snapped together on first attempt, unless you are much more skilful than we are! On balance, a winner for touring.
THE LONG READ …
The Oakley MOD3 MIPS helmet has a few great features in it’s arsenal. We used it extensively during the 23/24 season - are still using it - and we generally love it, though it does have one aspect that causes us some frustration. Read to get the low-down.
MIPS - This is the new big-deal in helmets, whether in cycling, mountain sports or any other helmet application really. It’s basically a technology that allows the helmet to rotate a bit on your head under impacts, so that some of the force is directed away from it, or as Oakley say, “…a low-friction layer designed to decrease rotational motion to the brain, helping to reduce the harmful forces that might otherwise impact the wearer’s head.“. Sounds very good for your noggin, and is really quite unobtrusive - it doesn’t seem to obviously impact the fit, though MIPS helmets tend to look a little more ‘spherical’ in overall shape, to let that rotation happen.
Fit - Yeah, lovely. I mean, ok, I’ve got a relatively norma- shaped head I guess, in that no-one goes around calling me ‘pin-head’ or ‘flat-head’ or such. Oakley’s sizing charts seemed bang on when I chose the Medium, and I when I dropped it on the first time, it just felt.. great. An instant feeling of security and comfort. And it still feels like that. Nicely cushioned, no slop in any particular direction, including rotation. Also:
The BOA dial at the back is easily operated with gloves on - dial that baby in and it really secures the helmet nice and snugly under the rear of your head.
Goggle/helmet interface position adjuster (which is, er, my own terminology for this particular thingy…) - Now I know we all think that manufacturers who make both helmets and goggles try to make it so you can only use their own helmets and goggles together, if you want to get a nice fit between top of goggles and helmet at the front, right?
and Oakley do say the helmet is ‘optimised’ for Oakley goggles, but firstly, the underside of the helmet is perfectly flat above your goggles, so any flat-topped goggles will work here.
And secondly, to help make different sized goggles and faces work with this helmet, it includes a nice internal adjustment mechanism inside that allows the position of the Boa under the back of your head to be adjusted up or down a little, which effectively lifts or drops the vertical position of the front of the helmet where it meets the goggles - when I first put my Smith googles on with these, the helmet pushed those goggles down too hard on my nose, but using this adjuster, I was able to pull the front of the helmet up a little. Now I’ve no gap between goggle and helmet and the goggles are in the right place on my face.
There are only 3 positions but this was sufficient in my case.
Weight - The MOD3 MIPS in Medium comes in at 498g on the nose. My old go-to-for-touring Smith Vantage is 480g (£230-265) - another really well vented touring-weight helmet - so basically there is little difference to me here, unless you count yourself a proper weight-weeny. It certainly feels light enough, to me. Unlike the Oakley MOD5 MIPS (for which a review is coming soon), which feels, and is, quite a bit heavier. Yes, you can go next level lightness by going for a hybrid ski/climb helmet - which can get you down into the 200 (!) -400g range but often this means losing ear-flaps, and almost always means losing adjustable ventilation (and in some cases, comfort).
Ventilation - This comes in a couple of forms on the MOD3 - and makes it great for touring:
On the top of the helmet is a slider that allows or cuts off airflow through the 22 holes on the top of the lid. Slide forward - shut off the flow. Slide back, let your brain cool down a bit. You can have it part-way as well. Now, is this really useful? Are we wearing our helmets much while touring, you say? Well, let’s say you have to do a boot pack up a steep, maybe rocky, face on a hot day, ice-axe out. I’ll want my helmet on, so yes, the venting is very useful then. And while riding, on a hot day I’ll keep those vents open, but if a storm comes in or it’s just super chilly, I’ll close them and keep my head a bit warmer. I love adjustable top vents for this flexibility.
There is also a front goggle air intake port, which you can’t close off, which lets a bit of airflow down into the top of the google, to help prevent fogging up. This is great if you have a good tight fit between top of the goggles and underside of helmet.
Lining - The Polartech inner lining is removable for washing, well vented to let steam out, but also warming when you need that.
Buckle - This, for us, is the less successful part of the design. Fidlock is used by other manufacturers as well, but honestly, I don’t think it works nearly as well as the old style male/female click-together simple plastic buckle system that’s been around for years.
It’s magnetized, so the idea is that you get the two bits in close proximity to each other and they just click together from almost any angle. And do it in your hands, while looking at it with the helmet off, and they do exactly that.
But, try it with gloves on, when it’s under your chin and you can’t see where the two bits are, relative to each other, and it becomes - for me anyway - remarkably difficult to get those two ends to snap together! I end up trying like half a dozen times, with increasing outbursts of profanity each time until I eventually get it. Plus thse are heavier than those old style buckles.
We remain unconvinced.
For the buckle strap, Oakley have provided a very short and light bit of padding under your chin. Minimal, but it works well enough. The buckle strap is quite long and for smaller heads, there can be quite a bit of excess that can flap around. The loose end actually does have a silicon band attached to that goes around the main strap and you can slide that band up quite high up alongside the ear flap - I’m not sure that’s intended, but it works - and thus taughtens the excess.
Ear flaps - Removable, great. And interestingly those flaps are hollow inside. That is, your ear kind of sits inside a well-cushioned “cup”. I initially thought this wouldn’t be warm enough, but it is, and I think it helps you hear better what’s going on around you, than other types of flaps where padded material sits right against your ear. I’ve worn this helmet in a couple of real hoolies, blasted with freezing winds, and my ears have been perfectly comfortable, thank you.
Colours - None are particularly colourful, it has to be said - the light blue shown here, a lilac, a white, and then a range of darker colours.
SUMMARY…
A superb touring helmet. Adjustable in almost every way you could want - for head-fit, goggle-fit and for venting. Not the very lightest, for sure, but can handle all types of weather conditions - fully shut down the vents for cold and storms, but open them up again for hot days. I love that flexibility and am willing to carry a few more grams for it - and yet the MOD3 never feels heavy on the head.
Nice work, Oakley.