HJC RPHA 1: Now you can buy HJC’s FIM homologated MotoGP racing helmet.

HJC have been sponsoring riders in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP for…well…ever.

And just a quick squiz over their website shows a horde of riders wearing HJC lids in all major competitions around the world.

So they should know a thing or two about making helmets that protect well.

OK, that’s not always shown in the ratings that helmet testing gurus SHARP gives HJC helmets when they get their hands on them (at the time of writing they score an average of 3.3 stars out of a maximum 5 across all their tested helmets).

But you just know when they put their minds to it, HJC know how to make a fantastically protective helmet. And of course it helps focus the mind when they absolutely have to pass FIM testing before their riders are allowed to wear their HJC helmets on the grid in MotoGP!

Well, now HJC has got an entire range of RPHA 1 helmets FIM approved which means you can now buy their FIM certified RPHA 1 helmet for the road.

HJC actually has 3 different versions of the RPHA 1 helmet FIM certified: the RPHA 1, RPHA 01R, RPHA 1N and RPHA 1 GP. And it’s the RPHA 1 and RPHA 1N that’s been certified in all sizes from XXS-XXL.

So if you buy an HJC RPHA 1 (Europe) or RPHA 1N (US) you’ll be getting more or less the same lid as worn by your MotoGP idol. Which is kinda cool.

And that means you’ll be getting a helmet that’s been designed to offer exceptional aero on the track as well as great all round vision and performance if you’re on a sportsbike (or any bike for that matter) on the road.

Click to find all the FIM certified track helmets we’ve covered, or read on to find out all about the latest HJC RPHA 1 helmet.

• Sportsbike/track full face helmet
• Composite fibre construction
• 4 Shell sizes
• Pinlock/tear off visor
• Pinlock included
• 1.5Kg weight (size medium)
• EQRS cheek pads
• 5 year warranty
• Sizes XXS-XXL
• Expect to pay £700-£750

Best places to buy an HJC RPHA 1?

Please click below to visit the HJC RPHA 1 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).

Safety

 (more about helmet safety)

According to SHARP test data, HJCs aren’t always the best protecting helmets. Across all their tested helmets, they score just over 3 stars out of 5 for safety with all their most recent helmets hovering around that 3 or 4 star mark.

Having said that, the RPHA 1 isn’t a regular helmet for HJC. It uses their PIM+ shell – that stands for Premium Integrated Matrix and is a development of HJCs PIM tech that’s been around with HJC for a while.

The HJC RPHA 1 conforms to the latest ECE 22.06 safety standard (and DOT in the US). The PIM+ shell has a 6 laminate construction which includes layers of a carbon/glass fibre hybrid material and carbon fibre (sorry, HJC don’t publish any more information that that).

The helmet shell’s backed by a multi-density shock absorbing liner, all of which you’d kinda expect from a top flight track helmet at this price point.

Before a helmet can be used in international motorcycle racing these days, it has to be tested and homologated by the FIM – and at the time of writing they’ve certified four versions of the RPHA 1. That’s the RPHA 1 (as sold in the UK and Europe) the RPHA 1N (as sold in North America) along with an RPHA 1 GP and a RPHA 01R.

What the difference is between these variants, it’s difficult to say as they all look pretty much the same. Except to say that it’s only the RPHA1 and RPHA1N that have been homologated in all sizes from XXS-XXL so I guess these have been homologated with a view to retail sales.

So, given it’s passed the FIM’s stringent range of tests, we’d very much expect the shell to do its job if you ended up hitting the deck.

Of course you want to keep out of trouble in the first place. Features that’ll help that happen in the RPHA 1 are: the visor’s nice and wide to give good all-round vision. There’s a Pinlock in the box to stop fogging. Like all race-bred helmets, it’s secured using a double-d ring fastener. And there’s EQRS cheek pads in there to help get the helmet off more easily should you have a spill.

So, it’s got all the key features in there to stop the helmet contributing to a crash in the first place, and for giving you good head protection if you do end up off the bike.

Helmet Noise

(more about helmet noise)

If you’re looking for a quiet helmet, you should probably stay away from a track helmet.

Track helmet designers tend to prioritise stuff like light weight, lots of ventilation and good aero rather than focusing on having enough padding to keep things quiet.

It’s true that these things aren’t always mutually exclusive of course. Make a helmet that’s slippery through the air and it’s going to reduce the amount of noise that it generates too.

And it seems that HJC have done just that with the HJC RPHA 1 with Champion Helmets scoring it as the 2nd quietest of the latest generation of track helmets (after the Scorpion Exo R1 Air).

Ventilation

(more about helmet ventilation)

The HJC RPHA 1 has what HJC calls advanced channeling ventilation system or ACS. It’s nothing too radical, simply HJC’s fancy name for a system that takes air into the helmet, circulates it around the head using channels in the polystyrene liner and exhausts it out the back of the helmet.

However, in the RPHA 1’s case, HJC has put a larger number of vents in the helmet than they typically do.

In the chin bar, there’s both a bottom slider to let air in towards the mouth (and venting to both sides of the chin), as well as a top slider that directs it onto the back of the visor.

On the forehead, there’s a couple of large vent sliders – left and right – which hide a couple of inlets each. There’s also a smaller central vent with slider.

These upper vents circulate air around the helmet and there’s a couple of large exhausts on the top of the helmet and underneath the rear spoiler to let warm and moist air out of the back.

This venting is coupled with HJC’s Silvercool comfort liner that’s designed to wick moisture away from the head. And given pro racers have a proper workout at some very hot circuits, we expect the ventilation system on the RPHA 1 should be up to the job of keeping airflow going through the helmet and keeping us cool on our sunday blasts around the moors.

Visor

(more about visors)

The visor on the HJC RPHA 1 is what’s called a 2D visor – the same type that you’ll find on all serious track helmets. It’s called that because it’s basically cut from a sheet of polycarb and then wrapped around the front of the helmet, rather than being moulded and shaped.

That way, you can fit a tear off visor to it; and usefully, it helps with seating a Pinlock on there too.

The HJC RPHA 1 comes with both in the box. So if you’re a track monkey, you can have a dabble with tear offs. And stick on the Pinlock, and you should be able to solve more or less all your fogging issues.

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A couple of useful links…

– All our FIM helmets reviews –
– Safest helmets you can buy –

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Note, all the photos of the RPHA 1 show it with a dark visor. I guess marketing bods at helmet companies reckon it makes their helmets look meaner and more purposeful. But it’s a bit misleading because every helmet ever sold comes with a clear visor – including the RPHA 1 (though the occasional lid is sold with an extra tinted visor in the box).

OK, onto the details of the visor.

It’s a quick release, toolless change visor, meaning you can remove it for cleaning or replacement really easily and without tools.

The visor covers a wide aperture to give you excellent peripheral vision and HJC reckons they’ve pushed the Pinlock pins back a bit to keep them nicely out of your vision too.

There’s also a visor lock on there so you can make sure the visor stays tightly closed for all 21 laps (or when you’re surfing the gravel nose-first!). Putting on a visor lock means that you’re gonna have to push up on the lock each time you want to open your locked visor though.

It also means that they’ve had to put the opening tab on the left hand side which can be a bit of a pain when you’re sitting at the lights with the clutch in and want to open your visor (you’ll have to reach around with your right hand).

Finally, even with the clear visor on your RPHA 1, HJC say it’ll cut out 99% of UV, which is obviously great for protecting your long-term vision (all polycarb visors cut out at least 95% but still… it’s good to know the RPHA 1’s nearer 100%).

Comfort and Sizing

(more about comfort and sizing)

The RPHA 1 is manufactured in 4 different shell sizes (read here why that’s a good thing) and comes in fitment sizes of XXS-XXL. Size XXS is a pretty rare fitment so that’s gonna make someone’s day!

And unusually for an FIM homologated helmet, all sizes have been certified. Usually a helmet brand will only get the sizes their sponsored riders need tested for homologation, so HJC’s gone a big step further with the RPHA 1.

Inside the helmet, you’ll find a high quality Silvercool interior.

HJC liners are usually called Supercool – given they wick away moisture, therefore keeping your head cool. There’s precious little info out there about their Silvercool liners other than they’re moisture wicking and antibacterial.

But quite a few manufacturers (such as Bell and LS2) have helmet liners that contain strands of silver fabric in them because silver’s an excellent antibacterial, so I’m guessing that’s what Silvercool is.

There’s also speaker pockets inside (becoming more common in track helmets) and glasses grooves – so if you’re looking for a helmet that’s going to work for your glasses, you should be sorted with the RPHA 1.

The liner’s fully removeable and washable and it’s also fitted with EQRS cheekpads – that’s a bit of a must if you’re taking your helmet on a track day I’d say.

Looks & Graphics

At the time of writing, there aren’t too many graphic options around – so you might wanna click through to our recommended retailers using the links below to find any new graphics that have been launched in the meantime.

For plains, there’s a matt black and gloss white. For graphics, there’s the Senin (available in red/black, yellow/black and blue/white) and the rest are race reps: a Pol Espargaro, a Red Bull Austin and the RPHA 1 Arenas (he’s a Moto3 rider if you’re not familiar).

Best places to buy an HJC RPHA 1 helmet?

Please click below to visit the HJC RPHA 1 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 RPHA 1 Video

Here’s a reasonable 14m look around the Red Bull Austin RPHA 1 from Champion Helmets.

Other stuff – weight, chin curtain, warranty

Even though the HJC RPHA 1 is made from some fancy composite materials including carbon fibre, it’s still not massively light. It weighs around 1.5Kg in the medium shell so there’s plenty of other sportsbike helmets that are lighter weight.

If you buy an RPHA 1, it’ll come with the full compliment of breath guard and chin curtain in the box (along with the tear offs and Pinlock insert).

And it’s backed with HJC’s longest warranty; that’s a 5 year warranty from date of purchase or 7 years from manufacturing date (whichever comes first).

Overall/Summary

The HJC RPHA 1 looks to cover everything you’ll need from a serious track helmet.

The only real downside is that it’s not super light which some of its competition are (Scorpion Exo R1 Air or the AGV Pista GP RR for example).

Other than that, it’s a wind-tunnel designed out and out track helmet. It has a wide 2D racing visor with tear-off and Pinlock pegs (both tear offs and Pinlock are included in the box), and it has a super laminate complex composite construction that has helped it pass FIM testing making it fully racetrack-ready.

And it’s been developed in conjunction with HJC’s team of sponsored riders, which includes the likes of Pol Espargaro, Sam Lowes, Garett Gerloff (WSBK) and Tony Elias (Motoamerica). Which is really no bad thing!

And because it’s an HJC – who specialise in more affordable helmets – that means it’s available at a slightly lower price than most FIM helmets.

All of which means, if you’re looking for a helmet that really works on sportsbikes and on the track – and you quite fancy wearing the same helmet as pro MotoGP riders – then you might want to check out the HJC RPHA 1 (preferably using our retailer links 🙂 )

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 RPHA 1?

OK, you might want to check out our sportsbike helmet reviews, or track helmet reviews if you’re looking for a helmet that’ll work going fast and tucked in. Or maybe our sports touring helmet reviews if you’re after something a little less extreme.

Or of course, there’s always our Top 10 Sportsbike/Track helmets page.

But if you want a chosen selection:

The Shoei X-Sprit III is a proven top-flight helmet. As worn by Marc Marquez and scores of other riders, it’s an amazing track helmet and because it’s been around for a few years now, can be found for less than the RPHA 1.

Another top track lid is the Arai RX-7V, as worn by Johnny Rea in WSBK. It’s not the lightest but its FIM certified, Snell Certified and SHARP 5 star rated so you know it’s gonna give you excellent protection!

Finally, at the other end of the price spectrum, the Caberg Evo Drift is FIM (size XS) and SHARP 4 star rated. It’s miles cheaper than the above helmets and even has a drop down sun visor.

Best places to buy an HJC RPHA 1?

Please click below to visit the HJC RPHA 1 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).