WELL, 2020 HAS ONE THING TO LOOK FORWARD TO: THE NEW KASK MOJITO3!

Behold! The new Kask Mojito3 and just to be pedantic straight away; it’s the Mojito Cubed. Not the Mojito Three. Get it right or we’ll come to your house and remove all your gear cables. Kask has just lifted the lid on the new lid so let’s check out what’s going on.

At a glance for the tl;dr crowd:

Weight: 230g in Medium - although it remains to be seen what Aus/NZ spec will be.
Cost: 134 Euro for regular colours, 144 for matte black.
It’s now got Octo Fit retention.
Kask claims safety improvements over the Mojito X.
Available in most places August 3.
No solid release date for Australia yet but planned for October or November. Kask say it’s a logistics holdup with shipping from the Italian factory to Australia taking longer than the rest of the world.

RIDICULOUS PEDIGREE

The Mojito line stretches back to the dark ages of 2011. It has a freakin’ Tour de France on its palmares from 2012 where it sat atop Brad Wiggins on his way to yellow. Kask claims that over 1 million Mojito helmets have been sold across the original and Mojito X options which is a staggering success. The new Mojito3 has a borderline impossible act to follow.

The original Mojito was a helmet I so wanted but was a little out of my budget at the time. I still see plenty of the O-G Mojito helmets out in the world, and generally Kask has a substantial market presence in Australia. Adoption of the Mojito3 will be something I’ll watch very closely.

DESIGN

Kask is pushing the Mojito lineage quite hard in the press material, but you can be easily forgiven for thinking this is an entirely new helmet range. They point to the “Iconic tail design” and the shaping around the side and front as a throwback to the older models but I wouldn't have seen that connection without it being specified. That’s not a criticism, this is a major step forwards aesthetically for the Mojito line and I’m happy to see more contemporary looks.

There’s 6 official colours announced so far; white, black, matte black, grey, fluro yellow, and fluro orange but Kask has a habit of refreshing helmet lines with new colour options so I’m expecting a few more in future. It’s worth noting they’re all solid colours with minimalist branding which suits the style of 2020.

The comfortable Octo Fit makes its way to the Mojito for the first time. The retention system has been reserved for the higher end of the Kask range with the Utopia, Valegro, and Protone all getting the expanding dial-based adjustment. I do enjoy the Octo Fit system but it has a tendency to bork the arms of your sunglasses.

The Mojito3 going to come in 3 sizes:

Small: 50-56 cm
Medium 52-58 cm
Large 59-62 cm

The generous Mojito padding philosophy has carried over too, something that I’m happy to see. The Valegro and Utopia saw standard padding shapes replaced with thin strips running front-to-back without any lateral pads across your forehead. The Valegro got away with being comfortable enough with that design but the Utopia traded a lot of comfort for the admittedly wonderful airflow that runs through the shell. The Blue Tech padding looks plush and plentiful to keep the Mojito’s comfort from previous versions. There’s no specific mention of aerodynamic numbers but Kask claim it moves “a greater quantity of air” despite it looking like there’s less ventilation.

SAFETY

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.

The Mojito3 passed its WG11 certification which sounds nice, but what does it mean? Working Group 11 is a collective of European industry and academic experts making a methodology to test the safety of helmets by simulating real impacts. It’s hard to find out much, or anything else, about WG11 so I’ll leave it at this; it’s good the helmet is passing safety tests but I’m not sure how good without being able to scratch below the surface.

Kask’s own website states: “The WG 11 requirements will also be informed by evidence from several scientific publications and standards such as ECE 20.06; Development of rotational Brain Injury Criterion (BRIC)- Human Injury Research Division – UNECE; Development of Brain Injury Criteria (BRIC) Stapp Car Crash Journal; and others.”

It’s noteworthy that Kask helmets still don’t have some sort of internal safety lining. MIPS is working its way across several brands and well into lower pricepoints, POC is pushing hard on their SPIN safety system, and Trek/Bontrager’s WaveCel made headlines for safety improvements and anti-climactic marketing in 2019. We’ll have to wait and see how the independent testing finds the Mojito3.

VS THE MOJITO X

Kask updated the original Mojito quite recently in 2018. I got to review the Mojito X and was impressed with the comfort, airflow, and lightness. I was less impressed with the aesthetics, which looked dated, and it was a little too expensive for a mid-range helmet. Nonetheless, I continue to wear it to this day, and even chose it for bikepacking the Mawson trail in 2019 because it’s such a solid all-rounder.

The Mojito3 then looks like the overhaul the line deserves.

THE REST OF THE KASK RANGE

The Mojito3 sits above the entry-level Rapido but below the crossover Protone, lightweight and ultra-breathable Valegro, and aero Utopia. Perhaps the biggest problem for the Mojito is the Protone. It’s truly ageless, still looks awesome, and can be found for cheap.

We look forward to getting a review lid to bring you all the crucial info on the Mojito3. In the meantime, feel free to check out our guide to the current range: