Smith Route MIPS helmet review

The Smith Route helmet includes Koroyd inserts over the temples to absorb energy in an impact. We've tested the MIPS version of the brand's new mid-priced lid

(Image credit: chris catchpole)
Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Smith Route helmet is comfortable and fits securely. It has nice safety features, including Koroyd inserts and MIPS, but it is on the heavy side.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Koroyd inserts for extra impact protection

  • +

    MIPS liner

  • +

    Well vented

  • +

    Comfortable fit

  • +

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Heavy

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Most helmets use expanded polystyrene for impact protection, but the Smith Route helmet includes a material called Koroyd. It’s a plastic honeycomb structure that channels air towards the head. It’s also much more crushable than polystyrene and so will absorb more energy in an impact.

Its Overtake helmet has been around for a while and uses a layer of Koroyd all around the head, allowing Smith to reduce the depth of the expanded polystyrene and increase the size of the helmet’s vents, which it says reduces weight and at the same time increases impact protection.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.