Smith Venture helmet £93.50

The Venture is designed as an all-round trail lid and looks almost identical to Smith’s slightly more expensive Rover, just without any impact-absorbing Koroyd sections. It still has a MIPS layer though, and a shell that fully encloses the EPS liner, both of which are good features for the money. The helmet provides good coverage and looks great, with subtle colours and branding. It has 21 vents, connected by deep channels. Combined with its fairly light 336g weight (medium), this makes it pretty airy for a trail lid. The fit is good too, though we found the edges of the ‘VaporFit’ cradle dial dug into the back of our skulls slightly, which became uncomfortable after a few hours. Our only other gripe is the fixed-position peak. It’s not positioned so low as to really obstruct your vision, but we’d definitely run it higher if we could. It limits goggle compatibility too. Ed www.smithoptics.com