In The Know Cycling

With the latest Specialized S-Works Evade 3, the company has turned it up to 11 (Spinal Tap reference). They’ve taken an already great helmet and made it a notch better.

For this test, I turned to my two fastest fellow testers. Nate leads our club’s Tuesday morning “bullet train” group ride that averages 24-25mph/38-40kph and owns an Evade II model. Miles races P/1/2 and Masters events in the northeast and podiums a lot of them. They independently reviewed the helmet.

Simple fit adjustments and high safety rating

Specialized takes a minimalist yet effective and slightly improved approach to the Evade 3 fit.

It uses a proprietary Specialized dial to micro-adjust the plastic circumference strap yet still leave room to accommodate a summer weight cap that Nate wears or a thicker winter weight hat.

Miles and Nate noted that the strap sits relatively high around their heads, across their brow, and above their ears. While Miles would prefer it to run lower, Nate appreciates how the height allows him to wear large-lens sunglasses without any interference from the helmet.

The Evade 3 height adjustment offers five options, each about 5mm apart, and is easy to slide from one to the next. For those of you with asymmetric heads, there are left and right adjustments, one for each hemisphere.

There is no width adjustment to guide the circumference strap shape. I’ll say more about the potential effects of that near the end of this review.

It looks like Specialized has tried to design the fixed-length down straps and wide under-the-ear connecting bar to sit in an acceptable position for most riders. You can move the clips forward or backward, but that takes a lot of work. They work fine without adjustment for Nate and Miles.

The clip under your chin is the standard plastic buckle on most helmets. However, only one strap on each side comes from the under-ear clip to the one under your chin. That’s a welcome departure from the two straps you get with most helmets. Those can misalign or leave some space between them.

The Evade 3 down straps also start well inside its shell rather than at or in the edge, as you get with  Specialized’s Prevail II and 3 helmets. With the Evade 3, the arms of your sunglasses easily go over the down straps. That looks better, follows the Velominati rule about how to wear your shades, and is probably more aero.

Inside the shell, the Evade 3 uses a MIPS safety system. It’s so well integrated into the helmet that you might not realize that the minimal padding sits on a plastic substrate that will slide separately from the shell if your head hits the deck. Based on the Virginia Tech safety testing, it works well, as it gets a 5-star rating and ranks slightly better than the Giro Eclipse Spherical and Trek Velocis.

Cool comfort in an aero helmet

Aero helmets are known for not keeping your head as cool as standard road helmets, with their vents designed to optimize airflow at the expense of aero performance.

But many of the latest generation aero road helmets we’ve tested do a great job of keeping the air flowing across your head. And the Specialized S-Works Evade 3 is one of the best of this generation at keeping our heads cool..

While Nate admittedly doesn’t overheat in the hot summer and often wears a cycling cap under his helmet, he wore the Evade 3 without a bother on warm 90F+/30C+ days in the summer sun.

Miles found it cooled him especially well, thanks to the large center front intake and rear exhaust vents.

That, along with simple fit adjustability and ample-sized forehead pad make this one of the more comfortable lids either has worn.

When it’s time to take off your sunglasses either for a café stop or when the clouds come through, the Evade 3 has slots in the shell just above your temples that look like they are designed specifically for docking your sunglasses. Miles’s most oversized sunglasses, the Oakley Sutro, store securely in them, as does a slightly smaller pair of Koo Supernova.

Best for more oval than round head shapes

The only knock on this helmet is its lack of universal appeal. That’s a bit ironic since most Specialized kit, including their shoes and bibs, are designed to fit as many cyclists as possible.

But the S-Works Evade 3, like the max-ventilated S-Works Prevail 3, works best for heads like Nate’s with an intermediate oval shape. When you crank down the circumference dial, he feels the pressure evenly across the front, back, and sides of his head.

Conversely, when Miles cranks the same dial down tight for the front and back of his more oval-shaped head, he feels some side-to-side movement. Miles likes the fit overall, and while not “perfect,” he rates it better than most helmets he’s worn.

If you have a rounder head, you might find the helmet pitches up and down a bit when it’s secured tight on the sides. With air flowing at you principally from the direction you are riding rather than the side, I’d think that would be more problematic with this helmet than one shaped for a rounder head.

While not as boldly aero-looking as the Trek Ballista and several other aero road helmets, the Evade 3’s shape hasn’t evolved to look more like standard road helmets. Its aero form likely follows its aero function.

The Evade look may not be for everyone. Perhaps it attracts those who can pull off what its distinctive aero styling seems to be boldy saying: “I’m going fast” or ” Don’t I look like I’m going fast?”

Come to think of it, that may be a pretty big group of roadies.

Priced for US$300, £200, €255, you can order the Specialized S-Works Evade 3 helmet using these links to recommended stores Performance Bicycle and Sigma Sports.

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You can compare this helmet to competitively performing models in my review of the Best Aero Helmet for Road Cyclists.