It turns out we’re not as fast as the pros, but Shoddy was able to determine which aero helmet best suits him — and it’s a massive difference in watts saved.
Published January 14, 2026 10:29AM
Wind tunnels are state of the art equipment normally reserved for the likes of research universities and F1 teams.
Given its history of producing cutting edge helmets, it’s not all that surprising then that Italian brand MET is among the select cycling brands to have a wind tunnel in house. After all, when the likes of Tadej Pogačar rely upon your helmets to win the top races in the world, those lids better be as fast as possible — hence the need for the top development and testing methods.
A MET helmet in the brand’s in-house wind tunnel.
MET has every tool it needs to rapidly take a helmet from concept to reality. MET’s engineers can mock up a helmet, test the aerodynamics virtually, then 3D print a model and test it right in their wind tunnel. Not to mention MET has all the safety testing contraptions used by the world’s various helmet testing standards agencies to bash up prototypes in the name of protecting your head.
Met has all the tools to crash test a helmet in-house.
But before getting to the point of making a mold and testing for the ultimate purpose of that helmet, safety, MET engineers put in the time in the wind tunnel. Engineers look for airflow around the outer edge of the helmet while also measuring temperature on the head across over 30 data points to measure ventilation. That’s one cool head in the wind tunnel.
That’s a lot of data points to determine just how ventilated each helmet is.
It’s all well and good to put a helmet on a dummy, albeit a very high tech one, but the real verification comes from putting it on a real-life human tester.
A 3D printed MET prototype.
Velo went to get a closer look at how MET develops helmets and helps fast riders find the best model to complement their individual bike position. Every rider has a different aero position, and certain helmets better match certain riders to make them as fast as possible. We couldn’t quite call in Pogačar for this test, but we do have something, dare we say, better?
How fast can we make Shoddy?
Shoddy Dave took up the charge to find out just how fast he can make his “dad bod,” all with the help of two MET time trial helmets, one long tail, the Drone Wide Body II, and one short tail, the Codatronca. Which is better suited to our fearless MAMIL? The results may surprise you — they certainly surprised us!
These helmets won’t quite turn you into a world champion overnight, but you can rest easy knowing that they have been thoroughly designed and tested to make you the fastest version of yourself possible.