KASK’S MOJITO3 MAKES A COMPELLING CASE AS THEIR ALL-ROUND HELMET

Words and Images - James Raison

Kask’s beloved mid-range Mojito has made its third generation and undergone a complete re-design. The 2021 helmet landscape is wildly different to the simpler days of 2013 with more choice, a competitive mid-range, a great focus on safety, the aero-fication of everything. How does the Mojito Cubed hold up? Let’s find out.

ABOUT

The third generation Mojito has considerable expectations. The original Mojito and Mojito X collectively sold over 1 million units worldwide, according to Kask. It’s easy to forget that the Mojito began its life as pro spec gear with Brad Wiggins riding to his 2013 Tour de France title wearing one. I liked a lot about the Mojito X, read my full review, but its aesthetic similarity to the original and relatively high price made it tough to recommend despite its virtues.

The Mojito3 is far more compelling an option than its predecessor because it keeps the same $249 price.

The helmet’s rear has borrowed the partial covering seen on the Protonehttps://www.lavelocita.cc/la-velocita-reviews/kask-mojito-x-reviewvake

The Mojito3 is a complete re-design and one that I welcome. I wouldn’t accuse it of being beautiful, though. Kask has a knack for designing iconic helmets but the Mojito3 is modest and unassuming. Available colours at release are on the drab side for Kask; white, black, matte black, grey, and fluro orange released into the Australian market. Let’s hope they fill out the colour options over time, as they have done with their Protone, Valegro, and Utopia line. I’d love to see it in more adventurous colours, particularly bright and higher visibility ones.

The Octo Fit retention system has trickled down to the Mojito line for the first time. The rotating dial system is a nice touch and makes adjustments easy. The adjustment dial and rear cradle slide along the rear helmet straps. It’s a slightly different design to the plastic sliders in the Utopia, Protone, and Valegro and is a feature that shows the mid-range positioning of the Mojito3.

The Octo Fit matched with soft straps make for outstanding comfort

COMFORT & FIT

The Mojito3 is the most comfortable Kask helmet I’ve worn and gives the POC Octal a run for its money as the most comfortable helmet I’ve ever worn. Kask occasionally favours minimalism of inner padding in their performance helmets, see the Utopia and Valegro as examples, but the Mojito3 has plentiful plush foam. It’s well placed too, running front-to-back and in a lateral strip across your forehead. The one drawback to that design is sweat retention. It can take longer to dry out once you’re hot and steamy.

The helmet’s low weight is another comfort boon, as is the now-ubiquitous Kask fake leather chin strap that makes a comfortable contact patch as it loops under your chin. The strap angles do feel different to the previous Kasks so the chin strap sits a little further forward.

The shape is slightly oval, in line with the shape of all other Kask helmets and the sizing is consistent too with my medium fitting head Medium 52-58 cm. Every Kask I use is a medium and some fit better than others, but I’d say with confidence that current Kask owners can pick up a Mojito3 in the same size and be confident it’ll fit.

RIDE

I immediately liked the Mojito3 and it became my default helmet for much of the Australian Summer test period. Much, but not all. More on that below. Kask has nailed the comfort and the sheer lightness of the Mojito3 means you’re barely aware of it. From commutes to long gravel days, the Mojito3 was a solid all-rounder and one I’m planning to take on bikepacking adventures because I know it’ll be nice to wear for extended periods.

There’s only one area the Mojito3 doesn’t surpass its predecessor: cooling and airflow. The vents converge at your forehead, where the generous padding makes for a sweat collecting area on hot days or under vigorous effort. The frontal area of vents is mediocre overall which limits air passage through the helmet. Top venting is ok, with vents allowing some of the heat to dissipate vertically but the rear shell is partially covered much like the Protone. It’s not the helmet I’d recommend for a hot climate.

Lack of frontal vents makes for only modest air flowing into, and through the Mojito3

SAFETY

Helmet safety in reviews is a subject I’ve always discussed carefully. All I have to relay to readers are manufacturer claims. Manufacturers have been forced to think about the claims they make following Trek’s controversial WaveCell release. As consumers, we need to recognise a lack of consistent third party safety testing makes it hard to know the true relative safety of helmets. The best we have currently is Virgnia Tech’s Bicycle Helmet Rating system.

Kask’s wording on safety is that the Mojito3 is tested by “Kask WG11” which requires some research to understand. Kask WG11 is a working group trying to build robust safety testing standards for helmets. There’s not much more I can say because there’s so little information out there, and so much of it exists on Kask’s website. The literal wording from Kask (added here at their request) is: “KASK’s new WG11 protocol is inspired by the European motorcycle helmets ECE2206 standard that includes a rotational impact test. Helmets tested using the KASK WG11 protocol are impacted against a flat surface, as is standard in the industry, but also against angled surfaces designed to reflect real-world crashes. Helmets are struck from a variety of different angles and on several occasions to ensure they are able to protect the rider through different types of crashes, and multiple test head sizes are included in the protocol.”

It’s worth mentioning that Kask has two members on the working group, with a full list publicly available in this PDF. I’m not casting any aspersions on the legitimacy of Kask WG11, or any derived safety claims, rather pointing out that opacity in cycling helmet safety makes it difficult to assess. It’s heartening to see Kask getting actively involved in improving helmet safety standards and setting benchmarks for better helmets. Kask has been a noteworthy holdout on helmet safety enhancers like MIPS, SPIN, ANGI, or Wavecell so they need to be proactive to lure safety-conscious buyers.

That said, Kask has put claimed safety numbers to the Mojito3 compared to the Mojito X with up to:

32% improvement on rear impact
25% improvement on front impact
12% improvement on top impact.

I would mention a perceived safety gain over the Mojito X, and all of the other Kask helmets. The Mojito3 sits much lower down the head, particularly over your temples. It’s more voluminous too, in a way that reminds me of the POC Octal. Those dimensions and its overall size make me feel like the helmet will protect me better should I tumble onto the road. I don’t have the same confidence about the Valegro, as much as I love that helmet, which has a much lower profile and sits higher on the head.

THE KASK RANGE COMPARISON

The Mojito3 is a classy central point to the Kask range and genuinely competes with the much more expensive models. A strong case can be made that the Mojito3 is the best Kask helmet once you’ve adjusted for price. I’ve owned basically the entire road helmet range so I’m in a fairly rare position to stack them all against each other.

Here’s how I rank the five Kask performance helmets in these categories:

Comfort, best to worst: Mojito3, Mojito X, Protone, Valegro, Utopia
Aus RRP, most to least: Utopia $399, Protone $388, Valegro $299, Mojito3/Mojito X $249
Ventilation, best to worst: Valegro, Mojito X, Mojito3, Protone, Utopia
Weight, lightest to heaviest: Valegro, Mojito X, Mojito3, Utopia, Protone
Aesthetics, hottest to nottest: Protone, Valegro, Mojito3, Utopia, MojitoX

WRAPPING UP

The Mojito3 has become my go-to helmet. It’s light, gloriously comfortable, breathes well enough in mild and cool temperatures, has a good style to it, and its shell shaping and profile makes me feel safer. It exceeds the Mojito X in every way, except cooling, and occupies the same $249 price. The Mojito3 re-establishes Kask in the mid-range helmet market.

Buy it for the correct climate, and cross your fingers for some more interesting colours, and I have no doubt this helmet will have many happy owners.

Disclosure statement: this helmet was sent for review by Kask. It’s not a paid review and we don’t get many money from Kask.