Fox's new trail lid has a lot to live up to, given that its older brother, the Flux, is a favourite among our testers. The Striker is lighter and sleeker-looking, but retains the key features that made its predecessor so popular.
The shape is similar to the Flux, but slightly more compact, with more vents (22 versus 20) and a built-in 'spoiler' in place of the older lid's plastic one. It's lighter, too – the medium size weighs 301g on our scales (heavier than Fox's claimed 286g), compared to 357g for the Flux – and that's noticeable when you put it on.
It's a good-looking lid, with organic, swoopy lines. Overall finish on our test sample isn't as good as top-of-the-line helmets from other manufacturers – the EPS inner has rough edges and overlaps the outer shell in places. But then, at £90, the Striker isn't as expensive, either.
For comparison, Giro's Xar is £115, the Xen is £100 and POC's Trabec is £140 – and all of those weigh considerably more (329g , 401g and 350g, respectively). The Striker is, however, £20 more expensive than the Flux, and that helmet remains in Fox's line, for the time being at least. It's likely to be the Striker's strongest competition.
Ventilation isn't the best we've experienced, but there's always a compromise between airflow and protection, and on a trail/all-mountain lid there should always be more of a focus on the latter. (The Striker meets CPSC, CE: EN 1078 and AS/NZS 2063 standards.) The front vents are smaller than on the Flux but internal channelling has been improved and the rear exhaust ports are larger.
The Striker doesn't have quite as much rear coverage as on the Flux, and it's a little shorter – which we found meant the straps had a tendency to dig into the backs of our ears. They've been moved further inboard, but they still sit about 1cm from the side of your head where they emerge from the shell of the helmet. The padding has been improved slightly, for a more luxuriant feel.
The new Detox II fit system works well enough, fitting snugly around the back of the head at its widest point. But it can't be moved down to cradle your occipital lobe, like on some other trail lids, and the adjuster feels plasticky and cheap, especially compared to rivals like Giro's Roc Loc. If this is somewhere Fox have saved weight over the Flux, we'd rather they hadn't.
