First Look: Brand New Flux Helmet From Fox Head

Fox Head – the official name for the Fox Clothing, chose to launch its new Flux Helmet at this year’s Bike Connection event in Italy. The Flux was Fox’s first helmet and was revolutionary back in its day (a stunning 12 years ago…). With a low rear coverage and that distinctive rear spoiler, it was a stunning helmet back in the days of barely modified road helmets and, well, road helmets.

The new Flux is definitely different and it takes advantage of many helmet developments over the last dozen years. The shape is deep-covering as you’d expect, but it also gains the chiseled, angular look that is very ‘in’ right now. A plastic rear subframe helps support the helmet to ensure that the 14 vents are enormous and really whoosh the air through.

There is a standard Fox Flux (for £80) and a MIPS version, the Flux MIPS for £115. Inside the MIPS helmet that we have here, there’s the familiar MIPS liner and an X-Static anti-microbial pad. And there’s a second pad set included free in the box for when your old one has got to be too stinky.

A ‘300 Degree’ retention system wraps around the head from temple to temple to adjust tension via a simple two-way rotating dial. This system is adjustable for height and for reach too, allowing for a really fine-tuned fit.

On the helmet straps, rather puzzlingly, the under-ear buckles are not adjustable for height (though you can move them forwards and backwards) so that, combined with the fixed anchors in the helmet itself, you can’t move where the buckles sit relative to your ears. On my pretty average head, the buckles sit level with my jawbone – not painful or intrusive, but annoying. If you had a shallower head, they might start wrapping under your jawbone and this feature seems really odd.

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We have better luck with the chin strap, where a magnetic closure securely snaps it into place, released by an easy slide apart of the two components, even with big gloves on.

Up front, there’s a pretty thin and flexible peak. It attaches each side with plastic bolts (that you can get a screwdriver or coin on to be sure of it tightening…) and the peak wil notch into a half dozen positions, from ‘mean and low’ up to ‘air brake’

There are, as you’d expect/hope, a range of colours, from mild to wild and the helmet is heading out to dealers as we speak.