HJC i100 modular flip-over helmet review.

The i100 is HJC’s first attempt at a flip-over modular helmet.

Just like a number of Shark helmets – and even a couple of LS2’s (see alternatives section towards the bottom of the page) HJC has decided to produce a modular helmet where the chin bar flips right over to the back of the helmet to get the chin guard right out of the airflow and give the rider a proper feeling of open face helmet riding.

At the same time, it’s the first flip-over helmet anywhere to be ECE 22.06 certified – that’s the more rigorous replacement to the old 22.05 helmet test. Which means it should, theoretically,  give decent protection too.

The i100 is a polycarbonate shelled helmet and it’s available at a pretty low price point too. But is it any good and is it worth buying one of these over some stiff competition?

• Polycarbonate flip-over helmet
• Designed for all-round use
• ECE 22.06 certified
• Pinlock antifog included
• Drop down sun visor
• Dual homologated
• Micrometric fastener
• Weight around 1.9Kg/4.2lbs (heavy)
• Bluetooth headset integration (unit extra)
• Sizes XS-XXL
• Expect to pay around £250

Best places to buy an HJC I100?

Please click below to visit the HJC I100 helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

Overall/Summary

It might be HJC’s first bash at a flip-over helmet, but you wouldn’t know it when you look at the HJC i100. Not only is it a looker but owners highly rate it too.

OK there’s the odd niggle – it’s on the heavy side and it’s not that quiet (but what modulars are?!). But overall owners of i100s love em.

The biggest plus point seems to be that flip over chin bar that gives a proper open face ride and keeps the helmet balanced and looking the part. Quality’s good, sizing’s about right, comfort’s good and the sun visor (with adjuster wheel) drops nice and low.

And it comes ready to accept HJC’s Smart Intercom kit: it might not be the latest mesh kit if that’s what you’re after but because it’s based on Sena’s 20S it does the job, though it’s not cheap. And of course you can always use your own bluetooth set in there.

It’s available at an attractive price point too. So it’s well worth looking at if you’re after a lower priced flip-over modular. But don’t forget to check out our suggested alternatives at the bottom of the page too.

Safety

 (more about helmet safety)

On safety, there’s a couple of major points worth making.

First up is that ECE 22.06 certification. It’s a new testing standard in Europe and includes extra and randomised test points along with a higher drop test speed. And it also includes testing with and without factory extras fitted – including bluetooth headsets.

So, because the i100 has passed ECE 22.06, it should probably give you a bit more confidence it’ll do the job if you ever happen to put it to the test on the road.

Similarly, that chin bar. Because it’s a flip-over chin bar where it flips right over to the back of the helmet, it stands to reason that being tucked out of the way like that, it’ll have less chance to impare the performance of the helmet in an accident – such as digging in and rotating the helmet which can be a very bad thing indeed.

It’s worth saying there’s no actual test data I know of that shows flip-over chin bars do reduce secondary injuries compared to flip-up helmets; but having that chin bar tucked reasonably flush to the helmet shell and round the back feels like it should help.

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Take a look at our Best Motorbike Helmet Top 10s to find your next helmet…

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Either way, the helmet has been dual homologated, which means it’s been tested and approved for use in both configurations – with the chin bar locked in position round the back as well as in place at the front.

Beyond that, there’s little actual test data to go on for the HJC i100. Recently SHARP tested HJC modulars have scored an average of around 3.5 stars out of 5 with chin bars staying locked in place in 92% of tests – so we’d expect the i100 to score something similar.

Other than that, the i100 looks a fairly standard modular helmet in terms of protection and it’s lacking a few features that you might like to see – such as MIPS, EQRS, or a wide visor aperture.

It does come with a Pinlock antifog visor and a Pinlock 70 (mid range) insert in the box though, which is always good to see and a bit of a must to include if you’re a regular rider in the UK. And there’s a sun visor in there to cut glare.

To keep the i100 securely fastened to your head there’s a micrometric fastener – they’re easy to use and secure as long as you keep it properly adjusted.

Overall then, with its ECE 22.06 certification it seems the HJC i100 should give a good level of protection, though until it’s been independently tested by SHARP we won’t know for sure quite how good it is.

If you want to view a range of helmets that have been tested and proven to offer great protection, please take a look at our Safest Motorcycle Crash Helmets pages.

Helmet Noise

(more about helmet noise)

We’ve found a wide range of opinions on the noise levels inside the i100s – ranging from it being very noisy at anything over 30mph to not noisy at all.

It just goes to show how totally subjective helmet noise levels can be. If you ride slowly behind a screen and you’re deaf as a post, you’ll probably find most helmets pretty quiet – conversely, ride like a hooligan on a naked in an open face helmet, then you’re gonna reckon any full face is whisper quiet.

So, it’s difficult to judge quite how you’ll respond to noise levels in an i100 if you buy one. Suffice to say that modulars are usually noisier than full face helmets and that HJC has included a chin curtain around the bottom of the chin bar on the i100 to stop some of the noise getting into the helmet from down below.

But that’s not going to help massively if the helmet hasn’t been designed to be quiet in the first place.

Overall then, expect it to be middling in terms of helmet noise and that you’re going to have to wear some good quality ear plugs to keep things tolerable and to protect your hearing. Do that, and you should be peachy.

Ventilation

(more about helmet ventilation)

Ventilation’s said to be one of the i100’s stronger points.

There’s a large three-position chin bar vent that takes plenty of air towards the mouth and up on to the back of the visor – and its easy to find and operate, even in thick gloves.

Same goes for that crown vent which takes air through the helmet shell and into ventilation channels moulded into the protective polystyrene EPS liner.

That top vent is generally rated as being less effective than the chin bar vent though – but that’s usually the case as it has a lot more work to do to get air circulating round the helmet and pushing through to vent out of the exhausts at the back.

Overall ventilation on the HJC i100 seems to be slightly above average.

Visor

(more about visors)

The visor system on the i100 is pretty good too. Owners reckon it’s optically clear and with opening tabs on either side, it’s easy to open and close with both hands.

The only fly in the ointment here is that firmly shutting the visor really needs you to push down from the middle/top of the visor – doing it using an opening tab tends to just bend the visor and not close it.

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A couple of useful links…

– Helmets with a Micrometric Fastener –
– A Guide to Pinlock Antifog Inserts –

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The visor works on friction – no ratchet here – but it’ll stay fully open or cracked open no problem. And it’s a quick change visor for when you want to swap it out or clean it.

That also helps when you want to fit the – supplied – Pinlock 70 Max Vision antifog insert (Max Vision means it covers the entire visor).

The 70 is Pinlock’s middle effectiveness Pinlock but should work in most circumstances. Just remember to store your helmet in a dry place otherwise when you come to ride on a rainy day, your Pinlock might already be saturated so won’t work too well.

One other thing to mention about the visor is that there’s a mechanism to keep it lowered when you open or close the chin bar.

Apparently that’s usually great for when you’re riding and want to quickly open the chin bar while keeping the visor down, but it’s a bit annoying for when you come to take your helmet off as the visor’s always in the way.

Swings and roundabouts I guess.

Unlike some modulars, it does mean that you can ride along with the chin bar flipped back and the main visor down if you like – and not just having to use the sun visor as a main visor.

Sun Visor

(more about sun visors)

The sun visor’s operated by a slider on the bottom left side of the helmet, which is a pretty standard setup. What’s not so standard is that there’s a small thumb wheel on the inside of the helmet that lets you slightly adjust how far down the sun visor drops.

We often come across riders who complain that their sun visors don’t drop down low enough, leaving a stripe of bright light at the bottom of their vision. So having the ability to adjust the drop is a great idea. You can apparently adjust the drop by about 7mm using the adjuster and a couple of owners commented that they’ve never had a sun visor drop down so low so it seems to work well.

Another good touch is that there’s an antifog coating on the sun visor which is ideal because they often steam up too.

Chin Guard

(more about chin guards)

One of the key features of the HJC i100 is of course that flip-over chin bar.

It’s the first time HJC has developed a flip over chin bar and according to owners it works well.

It’s got a single button operation so is super easy to use: press in the red button underneath the chin bar and push the bar up and over towards the back of the helmet (when you’re not riding!).

Doing that, the visor moves out of the way and then, in one fluid movement, relowers itself as you push the chin bar towards the back of the helmet.

There’s also a chin bar lock that you should slide into position to ensure the chin bar can’t move during riding or during an impact.

Because the i100 is ECE 22.06 certified, that chin bar is subjected to impact tests, so that should give you some confience that it’ll do its job if you were to have an accident. It hasn’t been SHARP tested yet so we don’t know how well it’ll do compared to other modulars, though past HJC modulars have scored an average of 92% over recent years – that’s the percentage of impacts where the chin bar has stayed locked and closed during SHARP testing.

That’s a reasonable (though obviously not perfect) score, but coupled with an ECE 22.06 pass result should mean the chin bar will give you good protection if you were to face plant the tarmac.

Comfort and Sizing

(more about comfort and sizing)

The comfort lining on the HJC i100 is HJC’s Supercool liner – that’s a moisture wicking and antibacterial fabric that’s soft to the touch and hard wearing.

We’ve never heard of any owners disliking HJC’s linings except to say they’re more or less always a tight fit to start with but do loosen off after a few rides – and it sounds like the i100’s about the same.

If you do have an ongoing issue with the padding being too tight or too loose, there are extra cheekpads available in different sizes and by all accounts the internals are very easy to pull out, whether you’re looking to swap the pads or wash and refit them.

And if you wear glasses, the i100 does have glasses grooves built into the liner so you should be good there.

Looks & Graphics

The HJC i100 is a modern looking modular helmet and with its flip-over chin bar, it’s balanced on the road whether in full or open face mode.

In the UK and Europe there’s just a few different colours and designs available for the i100 at the time of writing (though check out the links below which will take you right to the i100 helmets pages to find any new graphics and helmet deals).

For plain helmets, there’s a gloss (metal) black and matt black along with a semi flatt (matt) titanium and gloss (pearl) white, mid grey and chrome-like hyper silver.

Graphic options are thin on the ground at the time of writing with only Beston and Beis graphics widely available.

Best places to buy an HJC I100 helmet?

Please click below to visit the HJC I100 helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

HJC i100

Video

Here’s a good 9m look around the i100 with Sportsbikeshop…

Other stuff – bluetooth, weight, warranty

HJC i100 Integrated Bluetooth using the HJC Smart Intercom

One of the most notable features of the i100 is that it’s ready prepared to accept HJC’s Smart Intercom – either a 10B or 20B system.

There isn’t an option to buy an i100 with the intercom pre-installed like some other helmets like the Scorpion Exo-930 Smart, but it comes with all the cutouts and pockets needed to seamlessly install the Smart Intercom yourself.

An HJC 20B Smart Intercom will cost you around £300. It’s an intercom that’s based on Sena’s 20S which is a decent bluetooth v4.1 unit though not a bluetooth v5 unit so won’t support mesh.

And if you’re looking to install your own bluetooth kit onto an i100 then you should be able to no problem. There’s a couple of good sized speaker pockets in there – large enough to fit some 40mm speakers – while the only thing to be aware of is that the sun visor slider might get in the way of fitting a clamp mount so you may have to revert to a sticky mount for the controller.

HJC i100 Weight

One of the only real bugbears with the i100 is weight. A medium or Large i100 will weigh around 1.9Kg (4.2lbs) which is pretty heavy, even for a modular. It’s been suggested we might start to see more heavier helmets with the introduction of ECE 22.06 (we’ll have to wait and see) but still, by any standards 1.9Kg is pretty heavy – possibly heavy enough to start tiring your neck muscles out after a long day’s riding.

We did find lots of riders who said the weight’s no problem but if you’re weak of neck, you might want to look elsewhere.

Warranty

In Europe, all HJC helmets, including the i100, come with a 3 year warranty (only HJCs RPHA range of helmets come with a 5 year warranty).

Crash Helmet Buying Guides & Top 10s

For (hopefully!) other useful information to help you when buying your next helmet, check our various Motorcycle Helmet Buying Guides - or have a look at our Top 10 best helmet lists where we've got the top 10 best rated helmets overall along with Top 10 Best Budget/Top 10 Safest/Top 10 Best Full Face/Top 10 Best Modular/Flip-up/ Top 10 Best Sportsbike/Track helmets.

Good Alternatives to the HJC i100?

You might want to check out our Top 10 Best Flip-up Helmets page to find our latest recommended modular helmets. Or take a look at our helmets with integrated bluetooth headsets page if you’re after an integrated helmet. But here’s some other modulars you should take a look at.

First off, the Scorpion Exo 930 is another modular helmet with integrated bluetooth but this one lets you remove the chin bar entirely. It’s a cheaper helmet than the i100 as well.

Nolan’s N90-3 is a well rated modular. It’s prepared to accept Nolan’s N-Com bluetooth, has a sun visor, and the ECE version was rated SHARP 4 stars for safety.

Here’s a couple of other modulars, this time from flip-over originators, Shark helmets.

First, the Evo ES is one of their latest flip-overs. It’s lighter than the HJC, comes with a sun visor and micrometric fastener and it’s available for about the same money.

Secondly, the Evojet is a slightly unusual alternative where you can flip up a section of the chin bar and all the main visor at the same time.

Best places to buy an HJC I100?

Please click below to visit the HJC I100 helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

Star Ratings