The little yellow sticker with the ‘Mips’ logo on the rear of a bicycle helmet is for many riders a hallmark of safety, but could three red letters – RLS – be about to challenge its dominance with a radical new technology?
Multi-directional Impact Protection System has been a part of our lives since a Swedish neurosurgeon and an engineer at the Swedish Royal Institute teamed up to research rotational trauma caused by angled impacts – present in most crashes – and came up with Mips, testing the first prototype in 2000. Now, according to Mips, over 150 helmet brands use its technology. Its performance is backed up by Virginia Tech’s independent testing. But, as of today, the Canyon Deflectr RLS, a helmet with a patented new technology has knocked the Mips-enabled POC Cularis off the top spot for all 281 helmets tested. The Canyon Deflectr is the first helmet available to consumers that features RLS, which stands for Release Layer System, with the Hexr Miden RLS taking second place in Virginia Tech's rating. The Deflectr is an off-road trail helmet and the Hexr and urban commuter model, but RLS for road helmets is coming, promises the company behind it.
So what is RLS? The press release describes it as a technology that “reduces concussion risk by enabling panels on the exterior of a helmet to roll and release upon impact, significantly dissipating rotational force that can cause life-changing brain injuries”. According to RLS, it’s the fact that the panels are on the outside of the helmet rather than the inside. “Some technologies, such as Mips, aim to mitigate these rotational forces by allowing the helmet to rotate independently from the skull. These technologies, which are generally located on the inside of the helmet, offer a limited range of motion during the critical milliseconds of an impact. RLS addresses rotational motion through the free-release of panels located on the outside of the helmet.”
How does it work? RLS panels are connected to a “lightweight polycarbonate bearing layer that is designed to activate when a significant impact force has been detected. Upon impact, the technology is designed to work in a matter of milliseconds. The bearings are free to roll in any direction to allow the RLS panel to release, thereby redirecting concussive forces away from the brain”. An adhesive layer, which is designed to react to specific impact force, releases its grip and allows the bearings to roll. Once released, the panel can roll in any direction, redirecting rotational energy away from the brain. And finally, according to RLS, the fact that the RLS panel is releasing (rather than simply rotating) can help better protect helmet wearers from concussive force. RLS says that in an independent study – which will be available on the launch date – it was found to reduce the risk of concussion by 4x on average compared with conventional helmets. No data was provided comparing it with a Mips helmet, or a helmet with another impact technology such as Trek WaveCel, Lazer KinetiCore or Kask WG11.
For many, bagging the top spot in Virginia Tech’s ratings is proof enough that it works to reduce rotational trauma, but what about those other qualities that a good bicycle helmet needs – lightweight, vented and/or aero? A helmet packed with bearings, even polycarbonate ones, sounds heavy, but according to RLS’s PR, the system adds 30-45 grams. Looking at the photographs and graphics supplied, helmets with RLS can be vented, though the tech would seem better suited to a design with fewer vents and therefore a less complicated series of releasing panels.
The price? There are no details yet, but clearly, as with Mips, an ingredient technology will inevitably increase it – though RLS’s PR says the pricing is designed to fall in line with Mips (with the price to the consumer decided by the helmet brand and distributor).
Will it succeed and is it a threat to Mips? One of the reasons why Mips has been so universally adopted is because adding a slip liner doesn’t require a ground-up redesign. With the latest Mips designs, such as Air Node, the low-friction layer is laminated into the padding, leaving the design of the EPS foam and the shell unaffected. Brands can offer a premium helmet with Mips as well as one that’s priced lower and doesn’t include Mips but looks exactly the same. Or in POC’s case, it has the flagship Cytal Carbon road helmet that doesn’t include Mips and the latest Cytal that does. Additionally, although we don’t have details of licensing costs, manufacturing costs or any costs other than that it will “fall in line with Mips”, RLS must involve a fairly detailed manufacturing process, arguably more labour and cost intensive than Mips’s. It’s difficult to imagine that RLS will lure brands away from Mips, but Canyon already has Mips road helmets in its range, namely the Disruptr and Stingr CFR, so perhaps the two third-party technologies will coexist. The new Deflectr trail helmet will be the German brand’s first mtb helmet, so we may see RLS more in an off-road scenario, despite the promise of its appearance in road and urban spheres too. The other question, of course, is whether the UCI will allow a helmet that can leave pieces of itself on the road to be used in pro racing. Apart from cycling, RLS’s PR says it will be used in construction, motorsports and snowsports helmets further down the line.
The founder of RLS is Jamie Cook, who was the co-founder of 3D-printed helmet brand Hexr. According to the press release, he noticed that the outer shell of his colleague’s helmet released in an accident and began exploring the most efficient ways of releasing panels, which led to the use of small lightweight bearings between the shells. RLS is designed and manufactured in East London and we’ve been offered a factory tour, so we’ll report back.
