Smith Trace Helmet: A Ferrari for Your Head

Helmets in our house work in a hand-me-down pattern. When one person gets a new helmet, the old one slides down the line. So when it came time for a new helmet, it wasn't really about me. My helmet would go to my wife, her helmet would go to my son, and everybody would move up a rung. A good old-fashioned helmet cascade.

The helmet at the top of that cascade has a story of its own. Three years ago I flew to Paris to ride Paris gravel and, in a classic move, forgot my helmet at home. I ended up at La Chouette, a snazzy little shop with a great vibe, grabbing the only thing on the shelf that made any sense: a Kask Mojito³. Emergency purchase or not, I really loved that helmet. It was my first Kask, and it's been on my head for pretty much every ride since.

I'd had my eye on Smith for a while, though. It started when Erik came by the house wearing one. Erik rides the kind of mileage most of us can't wrap our heads around, and he was running a little experiment. He'd stuck a sticker on his Smith and was peeling one off every thousand miles or so to see how the sun bleached the shell underneath. Erik is a guy who puts stuff through its paces. It stuck with me.

So I finally reached out to Smith and asked if I could give the Trace a try. They were happy to oblige, and sent over two colourways of the Trace MIPS: a white one co-branded with QUOC, and the one I've been riding for this review, a chartreuse number with a high-vis top. The box showed up stuffed with a bunch of other gear too, but the Trace is the one I've been living in.

About Smith

Smith goes back to 1965, when Bob Smith, an orthodontist and skier in Sun Valley, Idaho, started building goggles at his kitchen table. The goal was simple: stop them from fogging up. That problem-solving streak still runs through the brand. These days Smith makes eyewear and helmets for skiing and cycling, and Koroyd, that honeycomb stuff you can see through the vents, has become something of a signature for their bike helmets.

Supercar Lines

I absolutely love the design of the Trace. It's modern, but there's something else going on with the lines. It reminds me of contemporary car design. And I don't mean your uncle's Nissan Sentra. I mean Ferrari or Lamborghini. The vents in the front and back read like air intakes on a supercar, and the Koroyd peeking through them looks a lot like a grille. It's a sharp-looking lid.

About that Koroyd. If you've never seen it, it's a bundle of thin plastic tubes welded together, like a tight pack of drinking straws. In a crash, the tubes crush and soak up the impact, and since they're hollow, air still flows through. The Trace pairs full Koroyd coverage with MIPS, the slippery liner that lets the helmet shift a little in an angled impact to cut down on rotational forces. Pretty standard on a high-end helmet these days, but good to have.

Then there's the colour. I'm not usually a bright-colours guy, on the bike or in my kit. And for some reason, this chartreuse has been polarizing on the BGDB team. Everybody's been giving me a hard time about it. Admittedly, it wasn't my first pick. I was holding out hope for a forest green that Smith did a season or two back. But I'm pretty happy with it. As we head into winter and the days get darker, a little visibility is not a bad thing.

A couple of details really stood out. The strap dividers, the little pieces that sit under your ears where the straps meet, have tiny locks on them. Open them up, slide them where you want, and lock them down. I've never seen that before, and it feels super lush. The straps themselves are nice too. The one thing I missed was a Fidlock magnetic buckle on the chin strap. I've gotten spoiled by those.

The Trace also has channels up front to park your sunglasses. Smith's AirEvac system is designed to pull warm air off your lenses to keep them from fogging. I haven't tested it, because I wear prescription Ombraz, which strap to my head and never come off. If you swap your shades on and off all ride, it's a real benefit. Personally, I think the glasses-parked-on-your-helmet look is silly. But that's just me.

Heavy on Paper, Light on the Head

My first impression out of the box was that the Trace weighs more than my Kask, and on paper it does. Smith lists it at 280 grams in a medium, compared to about 230 for the Mojito³. Holding them side by side, though, I had to work to feel the difference.

On my head, it's a slightly different story. The Trace feels like there's more material up front, and it runs a little warmer than I'm used to. The Kask has big open vents. The Trace has 18 vents with open channels down the middle, filled with that Koroyd honeycomb. I suspect that's where both the front-heavy feel and the extra warmth come from.

Barely Thinking About It

I've been riding the Trace for about two and a half months, pretty much all summer, on my usual local trails here on Vancouver Island. Gravel, singletrack, and a lot of what I've been calling “grountain biking”.

Here's the thing. I don't have a big dramatic story for you, and that's the best compliment I can give. I've had to think very little about this helmet over the past couple of months. A helmet is supposed to do its job and stay out of the way, and the Trace does exactly that.

I take my helmet on and off constantly on a ride, usually to take photos or poke at whatever caught my eye. Getting the Trace back on with my Ombraz and headphones has been a breeze. Nothing about it bugs me.

The fit is where the Trace really shines. It sits on my head beautifully and feels better than my Kask ever did. As much as I love the Mojito³, its rear ratchet was never totally great and it always ran a little small. Smith's VaporFit dial is smooth, and the whole fit system feels better than any helmet I've worn. It almost feels like the ratchet has more teeth, so I can really find that comfort spot. And I've noticed that spot changes as I ride. I heat up, I cool down, and I find myself adjusting the dial for temperature all the time. That sounds like a pain in the ass, but I actually love it. It's never too tight and never too loose. It just feels secure.

The pads have held up too. I'm not a sweat monster, but it's been a summer of riding, and the pads still dry quickly, don't feel gross, and don't smell. They carry an Ionic+ logo, which is Smith's antimicrobial lining for odour control, and it seems to be working. My Kask, by comparison, is kind of gross inside. It's older, sure, but you can tell it's been collecting sweat.

About that warmth. Even now, with the weather cooling off and the leaves turning, I can still feel the Trace running a little warm. If you live somewhere properly hot, that's worth thinking about. I know I'm being harsh on these little things, and to be clear, when I'm riding, I don't really notice them. They just show up when I sit down to write.

Where the Analogy Breaks

At around $285 USD and about $300 CAD, the Trace sits at the upper end of the helmet market. Ferrari pricing, you could say. But this is where the car analogy falls apart, in the best way. A Ferrari is gorgeous, but nobody buys one for how it handles a crash. A helmet is built for exactly that moment.

Last summer, a truck hit my friend Keith while we were out riding together. I'm convinced his helmet saved his life. After watching that happen, arguing over whether a quality helmet is worth the money feels almost ridiculous. It's your head. You can't put a price on that.

Smith also offers a crash replacement policy on its helmets, which is worth knowing if the worst does happen.

Conclusion

So, back to the helmet cascade. The Trace has taken its spot at the top, my wife now has a Kask she'll love as much as I did, and my son has moved up a helmet too. Everybody wins.

For me, the Trace has been the kind of helmet I stop thinking about the second it's on, which is exactly what I want. It fits better than anything I've worn, the dial lets me fine-tune it all ride long, and it looks like it rolled off a showroom floor. It runs a little warm and a little front-heavy, and I'd love a Fidlock buckle, but none of that has stopped me from grabbing it for every ride.

Is it a lot of money? Yes. But when it comes to protecting your head, my advice is simple: spend the money.