Used by Specialized’s Enduro team at the Enduro World Series this year, the Gambit is the Big S’ new lightweight, downhill-certified full face helmet.
With everything you’d want from a modern, lightweight full face helmet, the Specialized Gambit is in the ballpark price-wise too for your enduro carbon efforts.
Key features:
- Carbon fibre and polycarbonate shell
- EPS liner
- SBC integrated fit system
- 4-position adjustable cheek pads
- MIPS SL equipped
- Fixed visor
- DH certified
- £295.00 RRP
- Specialized.com
Specialized’s new Gambit full face seems to tick all the boxes when it comes to top-of-the-line carbon full face helmets. Light weight and downhill-certified means you’re not going to be lolling uncontrollably while you winch yourself to the top of the hill with this this on your melon.
The Gambit sports pretty much all the things you’d look for in a full face. It looks good, is well-ventilated, has a composite carbon fibre/polycarbonate shell, an EPS foam liner, adjustable cheek pads, Specialized’s SBC fit system, is downhill-certified and has MIPS’ SL system fitted.
There was no official weights for the Gambit in the launch, but the kitchen scales show the size Large coming in at 625g. Given that most half-face helmets are just under or around the 400g mark, this is pretty impressive. It does feel light in the hand and on the head.
Like the Tactic 4 I received recently, the fit on the Gambit comes up large. I am slap bang in the middle of what the Large Gambit should be, but I have to wind it right in to get it snug. I’d likely be at the open end of a medium, just like on the Tactic as the sizing is at least consistent. This isn’t entirely surprising as the upper shell and fit system of the Gamit mirrors that of the Tactic 4.
On the trail, you soon forget you’ve the Gambit on your head, it really doesn’t feel like you have a full face on with the chin low and the fixed visor out of the way. Goggles seem to fit well across the board, the wide aperture meaning you’ll get all but the biggest moto goggles on with the Gambit.
With it being late October, the ventilation certainly didn’t struggle, but I’ll winch it up a big mountain soon enough to test the sweatiness of my dome on a full day with it. Padding is limited so I can’t imagine sweat build up being a problem.
Being quite as light as it is, assuming you get the fit right, you’d almost take this over a half-face for anything more than a lap of the woods. I’m looking forward to putting more miles in with the Gambit to see if I can find its limit.
