Specialising in high-end mountain bike and ski protective gear, POC Sports is a swedish brand that has burst onto the downhill mountain bike scene with a range of body armour and full face helmets that are here to rival, and exceed, the best. With a fresh approach that balances a scientific background with real world rider feedback, the POC body armour range has a focus on rider safety like no other brand. So if you're looking for high-end bike wear that fits as good as it looks, POC protection is a new alternative to the usual motorbike-styled products on the market, packed with the kind of technology that will keep you out of hospital and on the bike.

The POC Cortex DH helmet is a full face bike helmet designed to withstand the rigours of downhill mountain biking whilst maintaining the highest levels of safety for your noggin. It is the top-end helmet from POC featuring all of the bells and whistles to make this the best available helmet for downhillers on the market today. The double-shell design (aka: VDSAP) is unique to POC helmets and aims firstly to increase the helmets ability to absorb impacts and secondly to improve ventilation.
Most other helmets on the market create vents in their shells to provide air flow for the rider, though in creating these vents they compromise the helmets overall strength - especially if an impact occurs near or on one of the vents. POC is a little different, and through the VDSAP design, ventilation is improved while maintaining total structural integrity - safety and functionality. Nice.
However, the really big deal surrounding POC's helmet range is the introduction of MIPS technology, designed to provide additional protection to the rider in falls where the head hits the ground at an angle, not just directly.

MIPS:

Conventional helmets are tested by dropping them vertically onto a rigid surface. MIPS has had 15 years of study and testing in Sweden by some of the world's leading researchers and neurosurgeons, based on a different principle - reality. Because in reality when you fall, your head most often hits the ground at an angle, creating a rotation in the brain, which in turn can cause major damage. With MIPS, the helmet absorbs much of that damaging rotational energy, offering you radically better protection. And if, against all the odds, you do fall vertically onto your head, a helmet with MIPS will protect you just as well as an ordinary helmet.

The secret behind MIPS' unique patent comes from the human brain, which is now into its 150,000th year. The brain is surrounded by a low-friction cushion of cerebrospinal fluid. MIPS imitates the brain's way of protecting itself by giving the helmet its own low-friction layer between the outer shell and the liner, to absorb much of the energy created by an oblique blow to the head. The combination of the brain's own protection and MIPS therefore ensures maximum protection. Very simple and very effective.

Super EPP Core

POC's Super EPP Core, a multi-impact layering foam designed to allow multiple impacts without compromising the integrity of the helmet. This is much different than traditional helmet foams that can only take a limited number of impacts before compromising their integrity. The temptation to choose a cheaper, lesser helmet is moot when understanding that the POC helmet range can withstand many more impacts than traditional helmets from other brands, whilst also providing greater safety.

From POC:

"All our products have been tested by top world gravity sport athletes and then further refined to perfection. Our athlete friends love to go flat out but without suffering cuts, bruises and headaches, or in the worst cases, risking back or brain damage as a result of crashes that sadly happens to even the best athletes. The end result is a line of lightweight, high performance gear that offers the ultimate protection against injury thanks to superior impact absorption and penetration resistance.

When developing a product at POC, we do it in the spirit of doing the best. We never compromise in choosing materials or construction, to make a product cheaper or to increase margins, if that means compromising safety, quality or performance".

"It's our mission to do everything we can to develop protective gear that can save lives and reduce the severity of injuries"

The POC Cortex DH Helmet features:

• Carbon Fibre outer shell and a thin PC inner shell
• Ventilation channels from inner to outer shell
• Patented MIPS technology
• Aramid penetration barrier
• Multi Impact liner
• Chin buckle
• Super EPP Core designed to last multiple impacts
• A double-overlapping shell; VDSAP, for superior ventilation
• Weight: 1070 grams
• Colours: Matt White
• Sizes: M/L (55-57cm) and L/XL (58-60cm)