Met Manta MIPS review

Available in eight stylish colourways, the Met Manta MIPS comes with the backing of Tadej Pogačar’sUAE Team Emirates ProTour outfit, ensuring wind-tunnel and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis went into its making (Pogačar himself can regularly be spotted in Met’s Trenta 3K, nonetheless).

The Met Manta MIPS offers a tri-friendly magnetic buckle, handy for speedy transitions and ease of use with cold, post-swim fingers (or with full-finger gloves on winter training rides).

Sadly, it also boasts some excess straps, which feels counterproductive given the efforts that’s gone into the drag-saving gains at the top of the lid.

Aero performance

The Manta’s streamlined shape and aerodynamic prowess played out in 220 Triathlon’s independent wind-tunnel test at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub with The Bike Tailor.

Its performance over our baseline Decathlon helmet at a 7.5° yaw angle was a noteworthy 31.8secs faster over a 40km bike leg at 30km/h, and 9.2secs swifter when riding at 40km/h.

The former result places it third in the placings at 30km/h, with the latter result seeing it come sixth out of the 11 helmets tested at the higher speed.

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Safety

Safety is enhanced by MIPS (Multidirectional Impact System) which, although still not conclusive, should offer more protection than non-MIPS helmets during crashes.

There’s a slight weight and price increase but, given the top helmets for safety in Virginia Tech’s independent and most recent tests are generally MIPS, I’d personally say it’s worth the extra 20 or so quid. 

The Manta MIPS hasn’t yet been tested by the institute as of June 2024, but Met’s Vinci, Trenta and Rivale have all garnered five-star reviews from Virginia Tech.

Comfort

The internal ‘Dual gel’ padding is fairly lean, but it still offers plenty of comfort and sweat-mopping abilities, and it sits neatly below the internal MIPS layer.

The rear cradle offers a decent 3.5cm of vertical adjustability and the retention dial is easy to adjust on the move.

I could feel the Venturi ventilation effect in operation during springtime rides, but, with the sizing of those seven forward-facing vents being fairly limited, there are other lids I’d pick for climbing the midsummer European mountains.

There’s also a smart eyewear port and the weight of 251g for a medium for a pure aero road helmet is very impressive and the second lightest on test here, even with the added MIPS layer.

That price of £220 does put it towards the higher end of aero road helmets, however, but the Manta MIPS’ aerodynamics and usability are proven both in the wind tunnel and on the roads.

Find more options by heading over to our list of the best aero road helmets.

Met Manta MIPS helmet specs

Price:	£220/$299
Available from:	Tredz
Weight:	251g (medium)
MIPS?	Yes
Vents:	15

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