Lazer Z1 KinetiCore helmet review

The Lazer Z1 KinetiCore is the Belgian brand’s latest iteration of its lightweight road cycling helmet.

It has swapped out MIPS for a KinetiCore impact protection system, while looking to undercut key rivals for weight. At 236g for a size medium, it’s among the lightest road helmets available, period.

A few grams might be neither here nor there in terms of performance, but the Z1 KinetiCore is a match for its key rivals in every area that counts, while costing slightly less.

Only a couple of niggles, which you might not experience, hold it back from being a clear category leader.

The Lazer Z1 KinetiCore is priced at £229.99 / $249.99 / €249.99 / AU$399.95.

Lazer Z1 KinetiCore details and specifications

The Lazer Z1 KinetiCore helmet launched in early 2024, with an eyebrow-raising 220g claimed weight (236g actual), while including dedicated rotational impact protection.

For this latest helmet, Lazer has swapped in its own proprietary KinetiCore system, dropping the ever-popular MIPS.

In reality, MIPS and KinetiCore serve the same purpose – but where MIPS takes the form of a liner that can move independently of the head and helmet, KinetiCore is made up of several EPS foam ‘crumple zones’.

There’s no convincing evidence to suggest one is better than the other, but it’s a good thing to have competing systems as helmet brands look to improve wearer safety.

All things being equal, while Lazer will have had to foot the bill to develop KinetiCore, it’s likely to benefit the brand to include its own technology in the Z1, too.

This is because the tech and helmet can be developed in tandem, as opposed to ‘buying in’ a third-party system that might result in a design compromise. It’s also likely to be cheaper to produce for Lazer now it has industrialised the process – a benefit that can just about be felt by the consumer.

Compared to my current lightweight lid of choice, the Trek Velocis MIPS (£229.99 / $299.99 / €299.99 / AU$399.99) and the also very good Specialized S-Works Prevail 3 (£275 / $300 / €330 / AU$475), the Z1 KinetiCore is either equally priced or cheaper depending on where you live.

Both of those rivals feature MIPS AirNode padding, the lightest version of that tech, but neither are quite as feathery – the Velocis MIPS weighs in at 247g (11g more) and the Prevail 3 at 260g (24g more), both in a size medium.

It’s worth noting that all three helmets score five out of five in Virginia Tech’s lab testing. The Z1 places 28th out of 238 tested helmets at the time of writing – slightly lower than the Velocis MIPS (17th) and Prevail 3 (5th), but it’s fair to say it’s the score that matters most here.

A medium Kask Valegro, a perennially popular lightweight helmet, weighs only 201g, but scores three out of five stars in the independent lab test. It doesn’t feature dedicated rotational impact protection, although Kask says it conforms to its internal WG11 testing protocol, which covers rotational impacts.

The Z1 KinetiCore has especially light-feeling straps, which are joined at the Y joint rather than using a plastic divider, attaching to the helmet inside the EPS structure.

A standard clasp clicks shut under the chin, although I found the straps would sit very close to my neck, behind my jawline and just above my Adam’s apple.

This is further back than I’m accustomed to and gave me the odd sense of being constricted across my windpipe. I was only able to avoid this by loosening the straps to the point where they dangled down with no tension, which I suspect would impact on the efficacy of the helmet in the event of a crash.

The cranial adjustment system offers all the height and depth adjustment most will ever need. Height is adjusted by a sliding system inside the helmet, while fastening is taken care of by Lazer’s Advanced RollSys adjustor.

This is housed in the upper-rear section of the helmet and I’ve used a forebear of it on a previous Z1 lid.

That said, it wasn’t as intuitive to locate with my fingertips (either before setting off or on the move) as a standard dial mechanism. It took a couple of extra fiddles to get the tension I needed – sometimes because I rolled it in the wrong direction. It also doesn’t definitively click, so there’s little haptic and audio feedback.

After a while, I got used to it, and I can see there could be a safety benefit to removing a solid dial from the base of the skull and soft tissue beneath it, while it also makes more room for a ponytail. However, a dial system with a ‘righty-tighty’ turning motion, with definitive clicks, is easier to use.

A dial system is also easier to manipulate with winter gloves on, in my experience.

Lazer says you can retrofit its Aeroshell cover (£29.99), effectively turning the Z1 into an aero helmet, and its Universal Lazer LED rear light (£24.99) – but neither are included.

Lazer Z1 KinetiCore performance

On the move, the Z1 KinetiCore is a brilliant lightweight helmet.

It feels very airy, helped in part by the sparse padding and detailed EPS foam design, which is said to help channel airflow. There are 26 holes in total.

The relative lack of padding doesn’t negatively impact comfort and, once I’d found a compromise of chin-strap tightness to mitigate its positioning against my neck, I forgot I was wearing it.

I liked that the padding encircled my forehead – it helped stop sweat dripping down my face into my eyes unchecked, but it needed the occasional squeeze-out in the hottest weather. This is par for the course for me, given I sweat fairly heavily.

The brow is quite tall, enabling oversized cycling sunglasses to fit in without rattling against the frame, and a sense of increased airflow in that area. Neither the Trek nor Specialized competitor helmets offer as much space.

It certainly feels as light as the scales suggest, and although a couple of dozen grams isn’t going to make much (if any) difference to how fast you can ride, it feels good to not have those grams weighing your head down.

As a result, it proved very capable in the warmest conditions I’ve ridden in in the UK this summer (on the rare occasions the sun has come out), and on some of my longest test rides.

Lazer Z1 KinetiCore bottom line

The Lazer Z1 KinetiCore is an impressive lightweight helmet, and without sacrificing protection, leaves rivals in the shade on the scales.

It’s airy, adequately padded and comfortable to wear on the head.

There are weak points though, albeit they may not all apply to you – the straps fit curiously close to my neck with no mechanism to adjust how they sit, and the cranial adjustment system feels needlessly over-engineered for little gain.

For some, though, the Z1 KinetiCore could be the ideal lightweight helmet, and is worthy of comparison with the very best.