EKOI and Pininfarina unveil the Aerodinamica helmet

by Paul Horta-Hopkins · 03/07/2023

EKOI unveils the first cycling helmet designed by Pininfarina.

In 1936, Battista Pinin Farina designed one of his first aerodynamic vehicles: the Lancia Aprilia Aerodinamica. Eighty-seven years later and the famous design house drafts its first cycling helmet in partnership with EKOI. The EKOI Aerodinamica helmet will be used in this year’s Tour de France by four teams; Cofidis, Israel-Premier Tech, Lotto Dstny and Team Arkea-Samsic. That makes EKOI helmets the most popular in the peloton.

The Aerodinamica will be available in two colourways, black and red/white/black

EKOI said that their engineers worked with Pininfarina’s designers to produce a helmet that made “made no concessions between elegance and performance”: no small task. The shape of the helmet was refined at Pininfarina’s legendary wind tunnel along with choice of racing colours and the incorporation of the latest safety innovations.

EKOI's Aerodinamica uses Koroyd inserts — EKOI’s Aerodinamica uses Koroyd inserts

Meanwhile on the safety side the EKOI say the Aerodinamica will be the only helmet using Koroyd technology in the UCI WorldTour. The helmet uses four inserts of Koroyd, which consists of a honeycomb structure of long, thin tubes heat-welded together. The tubes’ thin walls collapse evenly in the event of impact, absorbing the impact’s energy on the helmet. Koroyd’s honeycomb structure means that as well as being light-weight it allows air to circulate, keeping you cool.

Tested by the pros!

The EKOI Aerodinamica was tested during its development phase by pro riders Giacomo Nizzolo and Caleb Ewan. They took it to wins in the Tro Bro Léon and the Van Merksteijn Fences Classic respectively. In EKOi’s promotional video Ewan describes how important aerodynamics are when sprinting at 70Kmh: speeds most of us will only approach on a long down-hill! However it’s good to know that at our reduced speeds we’ll be able to make use of Pininfarina’s styling.

Caleb Ewan will be using the EKOI Aerodinamica at the ’23 Tour de France

No date has been given for the release of the new Aerodinamica helmet, we can assume it will be post-Tour. While Tour de France riders can use the Aerodinamica some – like stage 2 winner Victor Lafay – are still using EKOI’s AR14 and AR15 helmets. The latter takes an interesting approach to aero, with magnetic clip-on side panels, allowing the rider to choose between aero or cooling benefits. We’ll try and get our hands on one of these new helmets and let you know how they perform. We have previously tested EKOI’s Corsa helmet, read the review here.