The visor is adjustable, so if you do find the visor being a bit long, you can always tilt the visor up and out of the way.

The visor on the Montaro is a little longer than the visor on the Source. This isn’t really a good nor bad thing, so it is really up to personal preference as to whether you like the look or not ( see our post on visors here).The benefits of having a longer visor include having greater protection from the sun or low hanging branches, but it does catch a little more wind if you were worried about being aero! Fit Comparison Who’ Shouldn’t Buy: If you ride a couple of times a year, and prefer the rails to trails, you likely don’t need the Mips technology, or the amount of thought and design that has gone into this helmet. Huge bump, concussion, out of work for 3 days, etc, etc. The damage from a low speed fall was a wake up for sure. When you tighten the Roc Loc 5 Air system, you can clearly see and feel the retention system tighten evenly around the head. It doesn’t just tighten the rear of the helmet but closes in around the front, sides, and rear equally. It does so in very small increments, so you can really fine-tune the fit. The Montaro, being the top-tier helmet has been kitted out with a few features. It has an integrated breakaway camera mount. So, if you want to catch some cool footage of you shredding, but you’re worried about the safety implications of having a camera on your head, this is a great feature for you! Non-integrated camera mounts are not considered as safe as they generally do not have a breakaway feature if they come under pressure (see more on helmets with camera’s here).Giro helmets are developed utilizing our proprietary Wind Tunnel™ ventilation system. This elaborate design combines active vents in the helmet’s shell with exhaust channels inside the helmet that thrust fresh, cool air over and around the rider’s head while forcing heat and stale air out. It’s the most effective cooling system available, and a difference you can feel every time you ride. Several of the Montaro's features have already been mentioned in our protection and comfort sections above. These include the MIPS liner, adjustable straps, anti-microbial and hydrophilic padding, and the Roc Loc 5 Air fit system. The Montaro also has features intended to make the helmet-compatible with goggles which include an adjustable visor and goggle strap grippers integrated into the design of the helmet. For the more experienced cyclist, the Montaro will be more comfortable for longer rides as it is lighter and better ventilated. It is certainly the more premium helmet with the features like a camera mount and goggle grippers. This revolutionary fit system adds a new dimension to helmet performance by enhancing cooling, as well as fit comfort and stability. Using a patented design that suspends the helmet just slightly off the top of the skull, Roc Loc® Air allows cool airflow to pass directly over your head, further enhancing the performance of vents and internal channelling that exhaust heat out of the helmet. Fit and feel adjustments mimic the Roc Loc® 5, allowing you to easily custom tune fit tension and fore-aft tilt of the helmet in seconds using a single hand.

My old helmet was a nice light Giro that rode high on my head (similar to above photos.) Last winter I went over the bars hopping a log at 4mph and hit the side of my head on the log. The helmet helpfully slid away from the side impact and my temple experienced the full force of the strike. I found that the Montaro sits a bit higher on my head than the Source. As you can see in these photos, the Source sat deeper on my head while the Montaro sits quite high.While the Montaro is technically better (it is a higher spec model after all), I prefer the fit and feel of the Giro Source. I don’t tend to ride with goggles or a camera/light, so the additional features are a bit unnecessary for me. However, these are super handy features if you do ride with goggles or a camera! In all, you can tell this is a high-quality helmet. From the extensive protection technologies to the durable design, everything on the helmet is well finished. The Source has ability to stow goggles beneath the visor when they aren’t needed, but has neither the goggle grippers nor the integrated camera mount. While the color schemes of the Source are nice (I particularly like the Grey color pictured here), the Montaro does have a greater range of color choices. There are so many options for the Montaro that you are bound to find one that you like or one to match your bike. There are also women’s specific coloring for both (the female version of the Montaro is called the Montara), and if you want to read more on women’s specific helmets, see here. Safety Comparison Both helmets feature the slip-plane technology MIPS. MIPS stands for Multi directional Impact Protection System, which reduces the possibility of brain damage occurring to the rider following an angled impact.

While the Montaro is highly regarded for its protection, it doesn't provide the same level of coverage as the "full cut" Giro Tyrant or Fox Dropframe. We also found that the Montaro's less-expensive sibling, the Chronicle provides a bit more coverage at a lower price, though it doesn't include the same molded roll cage technology. The Montaro scored equally in this metric to other helmets with similar levels of head coverage and protective features like the Smith Session, Oakley DRT5, and Bell 4Forty MIPS. Comfort The Chronicle stands out in the open-face helmet market for having extended coverage around the rear of the head. Design and Construction Comparison

Firstly, it has a MIPS liner (Multi-directional Impact Protection System), which reduces the rotational energy transferred to the rider in an angled crash. Slip plane technology (such as MIPS) is considered essential in today’s market, and personally, I would never ride without it! In-Mold Construction fuses a tough polycarbonate outer shell with the helmet's impact-absorbing foam liner. The fusion process allows for better ventilation systems, making in-mold helmets lighter and cooler than traditional helmets. The visor on the Montaro is a little longer than your standard helmet visor. This comes in use when you are descending in open areas, and the sun is low. It is also quite useful if you are hitting trails in dense bush and need the visor to protect your eyes. The visor is slightly longer than the standard styles, but it doesn’t really stand out, and I find it quite useful when you have the sun glaring into your eyes while descending in the open sections. Features Review Camera & Light Integration After the accident I realized how important it is to get the right helmet. I tried on every helmet I could and got the one that fit best which for me was the poc trabec race. I really wanted a full face but it just can't work for my xc style riding. I took my family to the same stores for an excruciating full afternoon of helmet fitting. Kids and wife all ended up strongly preferring the TLD (which was too small for me so not a candidate.)

The Montaro has integrated goggle grippers to prevent the goggles from slipping down. The goggle grippers are tiny rubberized pads on the rear of the helmet, which you dont notice until you can feel them.

The Bottom Line: Giro Montaro MIPS Helmet

What is unbelievable about this helmet is that it is very reasonably priced. Found in the price range between Giro’s top two selling helmets, the Chronicle and the Montaro. This puts the Source in contention for the best value helmet on the market! The helmet is also equipped with MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System), a thin plastic liner that sits between a rider's head and the inner portion of the helmet. In the event of a crash, the liner is designed to allow the helmet to slide along it, a movement that's claimed to reduce the amount of rotational energy that reaches the brain. As far as the actual construction of the Montaro goes, a polycarbonate, in-mold shell is formed around an EPS liner with Giro's Roll-Cage reinforcement, an internal skeleton that's used to add extra strength to the finished product. We were surprised to find that it felt as well ventilated as the Bell 4Forty MIPS which has larger vents. That said, it still didn't hold a candle to our most well-ventilated models like the 100% Altec or Giro Manifest, our most airy models. We were also more impressed by the ventilation on the Troy Lee A2 MIPS and the Smith Session. Features The MIPS slip plane can be seen here as the plastic liner with the yellow dots between the EPS foam and the padding. Let’s start with the general layout here. Visually, the Montaro MIPS II is all but identical to the original Montaro. The hole pattern is the same. The visor design is the same. The strap placement is the same. Even the logo placement is the same. And the color ways are eerily similar too. Looking at the outside of the Montaro MIPS II, I couldn’t differentiate it from the original Montaro MIPS if it didn’t have “Montaro II” printed on the side in small font.