Kyle Ellison

Nothing like a trip to Mountain Bike Mecca (Sedona, Az.) to test ride early product samples! Pictured here: Bell rider, Matthew Slaven, in the new Stoker.

Stoker Sketch

Stoker Sketch

Stoker Sketch

Air Flow Sketch Because the Stoker was designed with a simplified exterior, and lacks the multitude of vents you see on most modern biking helmets, a little extra thought was required into how the helmet's ventilation was going to preform. Through the collaborative process between design and engineering, the tooling angles on the Stoker were all optimized to maximize air flow thru the inside of the helmet.

Stoker Clay: Just a few days in, and the form is getting roughed in, plus early stage vent placement

Stoker Clay: The proportions are getting dialed in, but I wanted to play a bit with the vent shapes. The "Elbow Vent" has some serious impact testing benefits, and lends a unique look and feel to the helmet.

Stoker Clay: the final direction, getting refined just a bit more

Stoker Clay: Since the Stoker is a Mountain Bike helmet, it probably won't ever be worn without a visor, so I modeled the clay visor right on top of the Final Clay.

Stoker Master: The Clay was cloned, and I then hand finished the urethane master.

Stoker Master: fine detail hand work goes into every vent. Since the designer is responsible for making this thing ready for tooling, I take this opportunity to make sure it looks exactly how I want!

Stoker Master: Completed and ready for tooling.

The lower "feet" of the helmet are covered with an extra hard shell called a "Quarter Wrap" to add durability to the helmet's lower extremities. Now you can dump you helmet in the trunk , or into the back of the truck, without having to worry about messing up the soft exposed EPS of the lower edge. Oh, and check out that sweet color hit! This small piece of vac formed hard shell allows the graphics guys to be nice and subtle on the top-side, with some loud character colors on the under-side.

Using a rigid brow pad allows the Stoker to have large air channeling (called "Over Brow Ventilation") in the brow, without having the pressure-points/hot-spots a typical helmet has here when heavily channeled.

Nice red color hit glowing under the lower edge

It's official... it's now on sale, and you can go get one today!

The Bell Stoker is getting great reviews from the Mountain Biking websites! Makes a designer proud! Check out the full review here: http://reviews.mtbr.com/review-bell-stoker-helmet