Ekoi is a French brand, and if you were paying attention to the Tour de France this summer you'll have noticed their kit adorning the riders of Team Europcar and AG2R. They also sponsor Fabio Aru, winner of this year's Vuelta, and 2015 Flanders winner Alexander Kristoff. A decent roster then, but what's the kit like?
The answer, it turns out, is "whatever you want it to be like". Ekoi have followed the trail first blazed by Burger King in the 1970s, and when it comes to glasses, helmets or even cycling shoes you can now "have it your way", thanks to their online configurator.
We were invited to test a customised helmet and a pair of glasses from the new range, so I moseyed on over to Ekoi's website to have a look. The site lets you customise your kit to an impressive degree, and the process couldn't be simpler; you pick from a palette of colour options for each element of the helmet, and a graphic image of your design updates in real time.
Once you've settled on the final look, you simply check out as usual. Turnaround time is a claimed 8-10 days, and sure enough a package landed on my doorstep not long afterwards.
Ekoi Ekcel Magnetic Helmet
No item of cycle clothing generates more controversy than helmets, but we may as well set aside the safety debate here: they are compulsory on sportives, so chances are you're going to need one.
The Ekcel Magnetic is Ekoi's top of the line lid, but makes no revolutionary claims in terms of look, design or functionality. It's a sleek, light and well-ventilated helmet, but the real USP is the ability to choose your own colour scheme, national flag, optional aero shell, and, more excitingly, personalised text to be printed on the side.
The dilemma, of course, is what to write... and if you find Twitter's 140 character limit restrictive, well Ekoi restrict you to a paltry 12.
I let my imagination run riot for a few hours, and settled on O. SANDS - a clue, there, as to why I've yet to subject myself to a tattooist's inky clutches. But you may be more inspired.
The helmet duly arrived with my name stenciled neatly on the side, just as it had looked on the screen. Hurray, no more stressing about helmet mix ups at the club run café stop! OK, maybe that's not exactly a widespread problem. Customised kit is really all about indulging our pro fantasies, and that (mostly) harmless roadie vanity is, I suspect, key to the appeal of Ekoi's offering.
As I've hinted above, beyond the slightly gimmicky customisation the Ekcel Magnetic is an attractive and high-quality helmet. At 238g the weight is on a par with top-level competitors like the Lazer Z1 (236g) and Giro Synthe (237g), either of which will set you back the better part of £200. The Ekoi is half the price of these, but it comes with the same quality features you'd expect: a nifty magnetic buckle on the chin strap with a cover to protect from chaffing, and even the luxury of a carry case to protect your helmet from knocks in transit.
Adjustment is straightforward, even on the move, via the ratchet dial on the rear. I'd never quite got the hang of adjusting my previous helmet, leading to some entertaining larks on windy descents as the helmet would fly back off my head, leaving me choking for breath as the strap snagged around my throat. In hindsight I should probably have sorted that out, on safety grounds if nothing else - but the good news is I don't have to now: the Ekoi fits as snugly as Boris Johnson's bib shorts.
With that savoury image burning in your retinas, let's turn our attention to the glasses...
Real Carbon Race Glasses
In the 15 years since launch Ekoi have developed a whole bunch of different models of cycling glasses, each available in numerous colour and style combinations. The array of permutations is, to be honest, slightly overwhelming if you're indecisive. I'm indecisive.
In the end I decided to coordinate with my current favourite jersey (from Rapha's To The Sun bundle) and go for something orange, a hue that I'm slowly making my peace with after a Northern Irish upbringing where "custom" rendered certain spectral bandwidths off limits depending on your persuasion. (Still, marching season was always good for LOLs.)
Anyway, after a few minutes tweaking the configurator, the result was this:
...and very nice they are too.
I've hardly had a chance to wear them in proper sunny conditions, it's been that kind of summer. But they are light in the hand (19g) and easy on the eye - in a ginger monobrow sort of way - while the lenses shield my eyes against whatever weak glare the British sun or motorists can muster.
It's a thumbs up from me, and while there's no option to inscribe the specs with a personalised legend, you will almost certainly find a custom colour and style combo that allows you to indulge your milder fantasies.
Finally, Ekoi also offer a custom shoe. We haven't tested this yet, but we've fed some data into the configurator and the results are quite pleasing.
If you're the type of cyclist who likes everything to match just so - or are Christmas shopping for such a foe - then check out the Ekoi site, and make it personal.
Ekoi Ekcel Magnetic Helmet, €129.00 and Real Carbon Race Glasses, €79.00 from www.ekoi.fr
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