Trek's 30 Year disruption (WaveCel Helmets)

https://wavecel.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/

Its a helmet

Fair enough but I’m sure someone else makes a honeycomb type helmet instead of EPS

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First time I have seen a company say we will replace free if crashed within the first year. Normally you just get a discount for replacement.

My XXX should arrive today. Interesting looking designs and I hope to never need it’s new abilities.

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doesn’t Kali already do this?

How did you get it early?

I am thinking that I may need to replace the road helmet I am using on the MTB with one of these. I don’t crash often, but when I do, it can be pretty spectacular!

With REI being a Trek distributor now, that really opens options up for folks.

Employee purchase. All dealers were notified 1 week early, so they can get stock on hand and ready for purchase the same day as the announcement.

And the REI / Bontrager deal is a sore subject for long-time dealers…

Thankfully, we don’t have REI here. Others are not so lucky.

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Trek/Bontrager also promotes a study showing advantage of the new technology, can be found here.

Too bad, most of the authors are somehow involved in this development (see Disclosure at end of the study). Would love to see some more independent reviews in the future.

Having said that, its good that there is some development going on around helmet safety.

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Smith make helmets very similar to this.

https://www.smithoptics.com/uk/Root/Men's/Helmets/Cycle/Overtake/p/HB18-OTRISMMIPS/sizeVariants

Mike

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I hate to be that guy, but ripping off Smith is a revolutionary product? This reminds me of a few years ago when Trek said they would NEVER have disc brakes on road bikes. I’m sure the helmet is great, just don’t love the marketing BS. I could be wrong though, it’s happened before.

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It’s not the same as Smith. Smith uses a honeycomb structure, this is different. Honeycomb is hexagonal shapes, you can see from the pictures that this is not the same. They go into more detail in this article:

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Did not mean to bring up a sore topic.

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Wonder if this one will backfire on Trek. While it probably won’t have a lasting impact, their veiled / staged promos spurred on all of the bike industry commentators to speculate about some really exciting developments - like new frame materials, 3-D printing that dramatically reduces manufacturing time (and speculated to reduce $), among others. And they put out a…helmet. A helmet that may be great, even if it resembles a product already on the market. And who doesn’t want to not die. There is nothing more exciting that that. But somehow, the run up leaves me flat.

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…kind of how marriage left me feeling

:open_mouth: :boom: :see_no_evil:

  • I won’t be surprised to see a negative response to this. Hopefully not, as it looks like promising stuff.

  • I feel they really screwed up in the way they played this. It may well be revolutionary, but the hints in their teasers lead nearly everyone into a ‘bike focused’ direction.

  • They could have done a better job of hinting at the safety aspect. It is a common direction for them over the last few years with emphasis on lights, visibility and such, all with RIDER SAFETY as the focal point. It is something I really value and think Trek is doing a good job at setting direction for the industry.

  • Time will tell and hopefully more independent testing will confirm their claims (although there may be some level of that already available).

For clarity, I do work at a Trek retailer, so take my comments with a grain of salt, despite my hope for no bias.

How it looks and how it performs may well be very different. Trek is making some large claims and I have not reviewed the data they offer in any real depth. Basic info shows this new tech to be vastly superior to simple foam helmets, and even better than the recent MIPS versions.

I don’t know if they have comparisons to things like the Koroyd or other new helmet tech offered by others. I hope to see more direct comparisons to validate the performance of the Wavecel design.

hehe, just my sense of humour :sunglasses:

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I’m no expert in any way. But I am looking for a new helmet. I’ve been thinking through options and remembered Virginia Tech’s independent helmet testing lab. I make no claim as to the how good the lab is, or their testing protocols, but the the Trek Specter WaveCel is their highest rated helmet, higher than all the Smith Kyroyd helmets even if it is a similar technology.

Bicycle Helmet Ratings.

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I plan to read the white paper they offer, but if it lives up to the claims on concussion prevention, it is well worth the fanfare.

Let’s remember (despite it being early in the research) there appears to be a strong link between concussions and subsequent issues of mental illness (some potentially leading to suicide). Cases like the loss of Dave Mirra, Kelly Catlin, and some from other sports (specifically football) seem to point to the concussions as a leading issue. Even without those extreme examples, reducing concussions is a very worthwhile pursuit.

It’s all probably inconclusive (and I have done no specific research outside of what I come across in the general news cycle), but to the potential, I think anything that is likely to reduce concussions is always going to be a good thing. This tech stands to have a possible impact (sorry for the pun) on the short term safety and long term health of riders who experience a fall and related head trauma.

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I think compared to Specialized ANGi, this is way more impressive. I’m not going to run out and get one, but it at least doesn’t feel like something I care literally 0 about.

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