POC Coron Air SPIN Review

The Coron Air Spin is a rock-solid helmet that works well in a lot of applications. While we don't completely agree with some of the marketing copy on the POC website about this being a well-ventilated enduro lid, we still feel it is a great option for freeriding, shuttling, and bike park duties. Comfort and protection were its best attributes while ventilation and weight were far less impressive.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

This helmet boasts a high level of comfort. It is heavily padded and the padding feels extremely plush on the head and against your skin. The ear pockets are very well designed, and despite the heavy padding, your ears are more or less free within the helmet and you can hear surprisingly well while wearing it.

POC uses slightly unorthodox sizing designations. Instead of having small, medium, large, and extra-large sizing, they use XS-S, M-L, and XL-XXL. Our M-L test helmet fit our Large-headed tester well, and it came with extra pads to help fine-tune the fit for different head sizes and shapes. We didn't experience any pressure points or hot spots. Testers did agree, however, if one area were to become problematic, it could be the area above the brow where the helmet contacts the forehead. Again, we felt the fit was great, but there was the potential for a little bit of pressure there. As we sweat into this helmet, the padding packed out just slightly over time and repeated use.

Protection

We feel the POC Coron Air Spin delivers a high level of protection. This helmet has a substantial and confidence-inspiring feel. It carries EN 1078, CPSC 12.03, ASTM F1952 certifications. It is also DH certified which cannot be said about all of our enduro-focused helmets. As much as we took issue about ventilation and weight with the Coron, there is no doubt it feels more robust than the other enduro-focused helmets.

The Coron Air SPIN has a fiberglass shell that is lined with multi-impact EPP foam. Among enduro-oriented full-face models, the Coron has more shell coverage and quite a lot of foam and padding. This certainly adds a little weight compared to the lighter, more breathable competition, but it also adds to its robust, protective feel. The Coron comes with POC's SPIN (Shearing Pad INside) padding, a unique impact protection system. With SPIN, POC has essentially created a slip-plane within the helmet's padding, as opposed to putting one under the padding like the Mips system. SPIN is intended to reduce the rotational forces of an oblique impact and POC claims that SPIN also absorbs direct impact forces too. It is always difficult to analyze how well these slip planes work, but in our opinion, new helmet technology that supposedly improves safety is usually a good thing.

If protection takes precedence over ventilation and weight in your search for an enduro-focused helmet, then we feel the Coron Air Spin is a great option.

Weight

Our size M/L Coron Air Spin test helmet weighs 41-ounces. This is among the heaviest helmets in this review and is by far the heaviest in the enduro sub-category. This is not a featherweight enduro lid like some of the competition, instead, it feels more like a full-on DH helmet made for ripping laps off the chairlift all day. This weight is a bit of a double-edged sword. It makes us less inclined to pedal around with it all day, but it also gives it a very substantial feel that most of the other enduro helmets can't quite match.

The problem for the Coron Air Spin is that it is marketed as an enduro-oriented helmet. This means you are supposed to be hauling this helmet around all-day long during an enduro race. It's no big deal if the POC helmet is a couple of grams heavier than the enduro-focused competition. The problem is, this lid is approximately a pound heavier than our favorite lightweight and breathable helmets. That said, it does have a more substantial feel that we feel expands its usefulness beyond the enduro application, and we'd feel comfortable ripping bike park laps on the DH bike in it.

Ventilation

The Coron Air SPIN offers average levels of ventilation. This helmet has 13 vents that lead to a channeling system that allows air to flow through the helmet. All of these vents are covered in fairly tightly knit mesh/screen material. It certainly isn't hot and clammy, but it is a far cry from some of the helmets with more open ventilation and less padding.

If ventilation is key, we suggest looking elsewhere. Our other enduro-focused helmets all offer more airflow than the Coron Air SPIN. This is not the helmet that we'd want on our heads on a super hot day on pedal intensive descents. Again, airflow is okay, but it feels a bit more stifling and clammy than many of the other helmets we tested.

Visor

The Coron Air Spin has a breakaway visor that is a fantastic size. It is approximately 7-inches wide and remains pretty wide as it tapers back towards the body of the helmet. The visor is not adjustable. It is mounted with a fixed allen bolt and cannot be slid up or down. Most people like some form of adjustability in their visor. That said, we did find the size and positioning of the visor to be pretty close to perfect. Due to its lack of adjustability, however, you obviously can't flip it up to stash your goggles under it on a transfer.

The breakaway feature allows the visor to slide backward or pop off in the event of an impact. This is intended to help reduce the forces that may reach the rider's neck if the visor just jammed into the ground. All of the visor mounting hardware has notches to allow the visor to break away. The visor itself is made of fairly pliable material and it is quite easy to bend and twist it with your hand. While a flimsy visor may sound strange, it can actually be very useful. In the event of a crash, a visor that twists and bends is much more likely to survive the impact without cracking or breaking.

Durability

We observed no serious signs of durability issues or premature wear with this helmet. It appears to be very well constructed and the shell, foam, and padding are all in great shape at the end of our test period. One minor detail that stood out is the two pull-on tabs on the padding of the helmet. These are designed to be grips for your fingers when putting on/removing the helmet. These tabs seem like they could be prone to premature failure, although we didn't experience it. We recommend just using the chin strap to pull this helmet onto your head.

As we mentioned, the visor is designed to break away to help protect the rider's neck in the event of a crash on the visor. The potential downside is the visor may not survive if it doesn't break away cleanly

Extras

The Coron Air SPIN helmet comes with a helmet bag and some additional padding to allow you to fine-tune the fit.

Value

We think the Coron Air SPIN is a great value. This helmet offers the protection, styling, and comfort of far more expensive helmets. POC is viewed as a premium brand and we think they nailed it with this helmet. This lid really is everything you need and nothing you don't. We think it is quite versatile and can be used for a wide range of applications, which we feel adds to its value. POC also makes a Carbon version of this helmet that is significantly more expensive but weighs 100-grams/4 ounces less.

Conclusion