We had a few visitors recently using the new Urge helmets, specifically the Down-o-Matic and having seen these new lids, I was already intrigued as to how well the vented and thether they were as "cool" as they were meant to be. The downhill guys were certainly pretty impressed and said that the venting worked weally well.

So based on this I went off and ordered the Endur-o-Matic which is the XC / Enduro version of the DH model and have been using it now for the last month or so.

As many people have said, the fit feels pretty strange at first, with lots of room at the top, but this seems to be part of the venting system and when you are moving you can feel the air vortices build and start to keep things cool. For what appears to be a pretty badly vented helmet, I must say that I have been impressed by how cool it is in use when compared to a normal XC lid. The only time I felt let down by it was on extended climbs, where there isn't enough air movement to make the cooling vents work.

One other niggle is that on fast descents or in strong head winds the helmet wants to lift up from your head. You can dial this out to some degree by keeping the chin strap nice and snug, but the feel that the helmet is no longer seated can be a bit disconcerting when descending at speed.

I also noticed that I'm having to adjust the chin strap quite a lot as it works loose, this has put me off shortening the excess on the straps. I'm considering adjusting it one final time and then popping a couple of stitches through the straps to keep them at the perfect spot. But things like this just shouldn't happen on a 100 quid helmet.

So to sum up, the helmet is a nice fit, gives great coverage and protection and the venting works really well when you are moving at a reasonable speed.

I'd probably give it about 3.5 stars out of 5.