The Evo AM Patrol MIPS helmet is SixSixOne's budget-friendly sibling to its Evo AM lid. It features the MIPS liner for extra protection from rotational forces, and a Boa retention system for cradle adjustment – both well-respected technologies in their own right. It’s a good price, cool and it looks pretty good – but the fit isn’t quite there.
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The Evo AM Patrol comes with 15 oversized air vents, a dual-position visor, an EPS foam shell, a 270 degree Boa microadjustable retention system and a MIPS liner. The lid offers good coverage around the head with the extended rear shell, too.
Lining the interior is antimicrobial fabric padding to keep the lid from getting whiffy after a few warm rides, though it's not the most absorbent anyway.
Up front is a rather unrefined peak that even in the uppermost position invades a smidge of your vision. It’s a little clunky in the way it adjusts too, with a popper-style design featuring little bobbles that click securely into holes in the shell. It's not easy to adjust on the fly and doesn’t offer a much range, but it does at least stop the visor slipping when the going gets rough.
Those large air vents channel buckets of air around your head, making this Evo AM Patrol a really cool cap; however, when the sweat does get flowing, it doesn’t do the best job of mopping your brow. On a few occasions it's left me with sweat running down my face – not ideal for clear vision.
The Boa system does a great job of keeping the helmet secure without it having to be tightened down too much, but it does apply more pressure to the back and front of the head due than the sides. That said, this could be due to my rather oval-shaped dome...
The Evo AM Patrol perches quite high too, however, and there’s no height adjustment to combat this. During a ride, I’ve felt the need to press the thing down for it to sit on my head properly. The extra height of the MIPS cradle, which allows the shell to twist independently of your head, obviously doesn't help here.
The MIPS liner is designed to reduce rotational acceleration to your brain under the kind of oblique impacts we typically suffer (as opposed to the static-drop type forces most testing focuses on). The science is sound, stemming as it does from a brain surgeon's work, and in normal use it doesn’t affect airflow and is absolutely unnoticeable.
SixSixOne offers the very same shell without MIPS for £20 less. There’s also a bunch of colours of both versions to pick from.
If the fit works for you (big round skull with a flat top, so... Frankenstein?) the SixSixOne Evo AM Patrol is a good helmet that provides decent coverage and protection at a strong price. It fits securely, keeps your head cool (if not sweat-free) and looks pretty slick too – so long as can, in all senses, see past that visor.