HJC i71 - Simo Red

For the money, this is definitely one of the best helmets you can buy. My previous 2 helmets were the HJC IS-17 and the HCJ C70, so much of my experience will be in the context of those helmets.

Price:
£158 price-matched during black Friday sales. Even at full price, this helmet is worth it, especially if you're upgrading from an ECE 22.05.

Safety: ECE 22.06 basically makes SHARP redundant, as all 30 of 22.06 helmets that have been SHARP rated so far have been 5*. While this helmet hasn't been SHARP rated, it seems extremely likely that it would get 5*, given the performance of every other 22.06 helmet thus far, and HJCs track record for good SHARP safety ratings.

Visors:
Really good field of view out of the visor, good vertically, and excellent horizontally. Both axes seem to be improved over the C70 and IS-17. Pinlock insert is included! Always nice to have. The visor only has 1 intermediate position, about 3 finger widths, which is a bit too open for me. Having said that, it's not something that has bothered me. The helmet allows plenty of air in without needing the visor open anyway. The visor opening/locking mechanism is new to me, it's okay, not really better or worse than what they've had before, once you get used to it.

The sun visor actuation mechanism is great, very slick, and the visor comes down very low for great coverage. It also feels substantially more robust than the spring-based mechanism of the IS-17. HOWEVER the sun visor is NOT dark enough for me. I do have little delicate baby eyes that are sensitive to light, but the IS-17 and C70 sun visors were perfect, while with the i71 sun visor, I am squinting when in direct sunlight. I will probably attempt to apply some kind of tinted film onto the sun visor to resolve this. I haven't been able to find any darker sun visors available, sadly

Airflow: great, too much if anything! I found that my eyes were getting absolutely blasted above 20 mph from the front internal vents, which is not abated by closing the chin vent externally. I solved this by blocking off the two internal vents either side of the middle vent, just inside of the visor, in front of your nose, using some black blue tac. Works perfectly, still have plenty of airflow, and looks fine, unnoticeable. The external vents are very nice to use, really easy to find with gloves on, and lovely tactile feedback when they are switched and snap into position.

Noise: This was the main complaint that I had read about the i71. I ride with the chin curtain removed, and I use ear plugs for any long or high speed journey. Under these conditions, it's the same as the C70 and IS-17. However, I do notice much greater wind noise when not using earplugs, above 30 mph or so. If you use earplugs (and you really should), there's nothing outrageous or even noticeably abnormal about the noise level.

Fit: the fit is definitely different from the IS-17 and C70, and in general the helmet seems to be a bit broader left to right (externally and internally). This helmet, for my particular head shape, is a better fit than previous ones. My usual size is still correct with this helmet.

Misc: the helmet comes with fitments for some fancy comms systems. It's really not very intrusive, you're unlikely to be bothered by then. I've got no plans to make use of them, but it's there if you want it.
The chin curtain seems much thicker than previous chin curtains I've had, it may have an impact on wind noise and airflow... I wouldn't know, I immediately removed it.
Build quality seems nice, there's some nice leather (or maybe it's fake leather, I have no idea) on the underside of the helmet.
There is very minor rattling on the plastic covers that protect the comms mount and the sun visor setup switches, but unnoticeable unless you're messing around with the helmet like a child.
Comparable weight to the C70 and IS-17, I haven't experienced any fatigue in my regular hour-long sessions, so if it is any heavier than the previous helmets, it's negligible.
The colours really pop in the design, the red looks great! And pretty sparkles in the greys and blacks too!

Overall, this is a good helmet, with a couple of minor letdowns. Even knowing what I know now, this is still the helmet I would buy, and I would have bought it even if it wasn't on sale (that's right SportsBikeShop, you've been swindled!). The two major shortcomings for me are the excessive wind blasting, which I have fully solved, and the sun visor, which I intend to solve with some cheap tinted film and possibly some more black blue tac...

4.5/5

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The lid fits and does what a skid lid is supposed to do but I found being caught in very heavy rain and water was getting into the lid from the visor. That's really not good for safety by this point I'm to late to send back the lid so I'm stuck with it. Delivery was sharp and on time, happy with that.