The C-Bolt from Cratoni is a helmet that punches well above its £86 pricetag. Styling is quirky, with its little duck tail at the rear, but we became quite fond of it, and in the black colour option (white and red also available) it isn’t going to be a talking point on the club run.
Weight is a feathery 238g, just 10g more than Specialized’s £160 Prevail – and though you might worry that it could feel flimsy and ineffective, in reality this German design has the assured feeling that you get from slamming shut a heavy Mercedes car door. Solid, safe, secure.
The full in-mold construction extends under the rim, a feature we like as it defends the soft EPS underbelly of the helmet from day-to-day damage. The build quality is high and it feels like a real option to the likes of Giro, Bell and Specialized, right down to the layout of the retention device, the ‘anatomic fitting system’ dial.
The inner shape of the helmet will fit rounder heads best. The 21 vents sucked autumn air effectively and what sweat we generated was handled well by the removable Coolmax liner pads. The only niggle we had was with the Cratoni logo – stick-on letters which were hanging off the helmet right out of the box.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine.