POC are a small Swedish company who've decided to bring safety gear into the 21st century using new materials and good old Volvo-esque design. This is their first trail bike helmet and they've struck a nice balance between not frightening off repeat buyers of helmets like Giro’s Xen and Fox’s Flux, and still turning up the heat on technical detailing and styling.
Key to the Trabec is the use of Aramid-reinforced fibres within the expanded polystyrene helmet core. These allow POC to increase the helmet’s overall level of impact resistance and ability to remain connected through the impact.
POC have also analysed the locations where crash damage is most likely to occur on the polycarbonate helmet shell, which is part of an in-mould construction to increase durability, and its ability to transmit and dissipate impact forces over a wide area of the helmet’s surface.
By figuring out where impacts happen most often, POC are able to position the seams of the shell (the weakest points) away from those impact zones. Similarly, POC keep the outer shell well rounded and free from pointy fins, wings or vents, apart from the pop-off adjustable visor. All of these, they feel, compromise the helmet’s ability to give the rider maximum protection. It’s elementary stuff, but POC take a fresh view of age-old problems.
Straps and buckles are similar to those on Giro and Fox models. From a fit point of view the Trabec is quite round, though the built-in retention system (which works more or less like Giro’s Roc Loc) does a good job of snugging it down. It comes with spare liner pads to further customise the fit. Despite looking like the vents are fewer and further between on the Trabec, it's not appreciably warmer than equivalents like the Flux, Xen or Bell Variant.
If a hot head is a sticking point, you're probably not going to find any of these particularly cool on a blazing climb, but that's the nature of chunkier trail helmets. The Trabec will suit riders who are normally full-face users but are looking for an open-face helmet with as much protection as they can find.