The HJC FG 17 is a popular ‘race-ready’ full face crash helmet aimed at the sports and sports touring market. It has a fibreglass shell and is ACU gold stickered (double check with retailer) so can be used on the track. It’s also selling at a decent price point so if you’re after a good all-round full face lid, it might just be what you’re looking for.
- SHARP 4 star safety rating (out of 5)
- 1.66Kg weight (average)
- Double-d ring fastener
- Sports orientated helmet
- Average noise levels
- Low buffeting
- XS-XXL sizes
- Typical pricing – £135-£200
Looking to buy an HJC FG-17?
HJC FG-17’s aren’t widely available now, but the last time we checked you could still buy one at Amazon UK. Please click below to drop straight onto an HJC FG-17 page Amazon. And if you buy a helmet from them, 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
The FG-17 has a fibreglass shell and is manufactured in three shell sizes – with the smaller shell size covering XS/S, the medium shell for M/L and the larger shell for XL/XXL. Using multiple shell sizes is arguably good for both safety and aesthetics (how good the helmet looks on your head) so all good there. It’s been tested for safety by the SHARP crash helmet safety scheme who awarded it four stars out of five meaning it should offer very good protection in an accident. As we always say, if you’re going to buy a crash helmet, you might as well buy one that’s proven to work well – so you should be confident in the HJC FG-17.
Of course, a helmet’s only going to work well if it stays on your head. In line with all other helmets that can be used on the track, the FG17 has a double-d ring fasteners. If you’ve not come across them before, they’re old-style but do the job perfectly well and are pretty easy to use. Which means in the UK at least, they’ll be sold with an ACU gold sticker which your helmet will need if you’re to take it on a track day (if this is important to you, check with your retailer first because it’s down to the distributor to apply the sticker and they sometimes forget!)
It’s also worth mentioning in the safety section that it also comes with a visor locking mechanism which could be useful on the track to stop your visor popping open in an accident. See visor section for more information on this.
Helmet Noise
HJC harp on about the FG-17 being wind tunnel designed and tested. And while we’re sure that’s probably the case, it’s probably fair to say their focus was on making the helmet slippery so buffeting’s reduced, rather than protecting the rider from noise. There’s a fairly wide range of opinions on how noisy the FG17 is, usually dependent on which helmets folks have used before and whether they ride a faired or unfaired bike – as well as plain ole differences in perception.
That said, broad opinion points to the FG-17 being about average for helmet noise (so if having a quiet helmet is really important to you, you might want to check out our Quiet Helmets Section). Noise levels are generally acceptable for most users and if you wear ear plugs things should be very quiet anyhow so it shouldn’t be an issue. But it’s not the quietest helmet by a long shot.
Size
If you’re looking to buy an HJC FG-17, then a few riders have mentioned you might find yourself a size up with the FG – so if you’re usually an XS, you might need an S. This seems to be a fairly common issue with HJCs – owners found a similar problem with the HJC IS-Max II flip-up helmet too. As we cautioned there, just make sure you buy from a retailer with a friendly no-qualms returns policy in case you need to swap it for a size up. Also, one or two folks mentioned that the standard cheek pads squashed their face in a bit too much. There are different sized cheek pads available so that’s not too much of a problem but just worth being aware of if you’ve got a wide face or chubby cheeks.
Comfort
Other than the above potential niggles, and once you get the right fitment, then comfort’s good in the FG-17. It has HJCs ‘Silvercool’ interior which is their up-market liner that’s fully removable/washable and antibacterial and moisture-wicking and supposed to reduce odour levels too. Owners don’t report any particular problems and say the FG-17 is a comfortable helmet to wear even on long journeys.
There’s also a glasses groove in the lining – there to allow the arms of your glasses or shades to sit comfortably next to your head and not get squashed into it. However, a few users reckoned that in the case of the FG-17, they don’t always work as intended at first with it being a bit too tight to allow them to easily slot in and seat. This seems to depend on the shape of the arms of the glasses though and things can free up after a little use.
Because of this, we’re not recommending the FG for glasses wearers though.
Ventilation
The FG-17 has a chin vent with an up/down toggle switch that’s easy to use. There’s also a couple of top vents which again toggle but which are a bit trickier to find and use. Once open though, owners reckon ventilation’s just fine and HJCs Advanced Channeling Ventilation System (where vents push the air through the shell and EPS shock absorbing liner and run it over the scalp) work well in all weathers. There’s also a couple of rear exhaust vents to let the stale air out.
Visor
There’s a good, clear anti-UV visor on the FG-17, that’s Pinlock-ready, has a nice positive ratchet mechanism and seals well against the elements. In the UK, a Pinlock Max Vision insert should come in the box too. The FG-17 also has HJCs excellent Rapid Fire quick release visor system; allowing you to remove the visor by simply pushing down a tab at either side then quickly pressing it back into place to seat it. Really handy for keeping your visor clean of bugs or swapping to a smoked visor in the sun – and owners say the Rapid Fire works well.
The only possible fly in the ointment seems to be the visor’s central locking mechanism. When you drop the visor down, it clicks and locks into position. It’s not hard to open the visor back up again; it just needs a one-fingered push up on the locking tab to release it then, in the same movement, the visor opens up. It’s designed for racers to keep the visor closed under all circumstances and it’s safer in an accident. However, aside from the occasional owner who’s had problems with the locking mechanism falling off or cracking the visor, some riders find it a bit of a pain. Again, this is down to personal preference of course – it’s very easy to use but whether it would be annoying for you is your call.
Best place to buy an HJC FG-17?
HJC FG-17’s aren’t widely available now, but the last time we checked you could still buy one at Amazon UK. Please click below to drop straight onto an HJC FG-17 page Amazon. And if you buy a helmet from them, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).
Looks & Graphics
At the time of writing, there’s 9 different colour schemes available with the usual gloss/matt black and white versions plus the Force, Strike and Zodd colour designs in various colour combinations. There’s also a Jorge Lorenzo X-Fuera version shown at the top of the page and in the video below. We’ve put most of the available designs on this page.
Video
Here’s a 4:30 video taking a look around the FG-17. There’s quite a few available to view on YouTube because it’s a pretty popular helmet (but I chose this one because they’ve gone to all that effort and only got 250 views – aaaah).
Other stuff – weight & aero
Fibreglass helmets can be fairly weighty. Despite many owners reporting their FG-17 is lightweight, it’s actually too heavy to go into our Lightweight Helmets Section because our cut off is 1.5Kg and the FG in large shell size weighs in at 1.67Kg. However, that makes it about medium weight for a full face helmet. Also worth noting is that a few owners have said that there’s very little buffeting so that aero-design seems to be working well.
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.
Overall
The HJC FG-17 is a solid performer. It’s comfortable, has a nice visor mechanism (as long as you’re OK with the visor lock) and should give good levels of protection in an accident. It ticks all the right boxes in terms of aero and liner and should offer acceptable levels of noise suppression. It’s not outstanding in any particular region but it is competitively priced so represents good value for money.
Looking to buy an HJC FG-17?
HJC FG-17’s aren’t widely available now, but the last time we checked you could still buy one at Amazon UK. Please click below to drop straight onto an HJC FG-17 page Amazon. And if you buy a helmet from them, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).
Alternatives
There are lots of alternative full face crash helmets. You can check out our Top 5 full-face crash helmets list to see our best rated helmets. But we also recommend you take a look at the HJC IS-17, a SHARP 5 star rated full face helmet that scores very highly for comfort, noise, features and value. There’s also the excellent Shoei NXR, another SHARP four star rated helmet that scores highly across the board and has that outstanding Shoei build quality.
More HJC crash helmet reviews/info?
Visit our HJC page to quickly browse all our HJC helmet reviews including all the latest safety-rated full face and modular/flip up helmets.
I believe you are not awared of this – there are currently 2 versions of FG-17, both under the same model. From what I’ve seen here, one is Snell approved, the other is ECE approved. The Snell approved ones are usually from US, which comes in 3 shell sizes. It is also much heavier than the ECE approved version of the same size. On the other hand, the ECE approved version usually comes with 2 shell size. This can be seen in the HJC Europe websites. It is also much lighter.
I did hold onto both at the same shop at one time. The weight difference is noticeable. The lighter ECE one really feels lightweight.
The FG-17 ticked most of the boxes for me, protection, price, approvals etc. Having now used it for about 3000 km I can say you need to be very careful with the fit. In the showroom it felt snug and comfortable, in use I found my ears were pinched. I’m no Dumbo but the circumferential part of the crown pad assembly needed cut outs to clear my ear tops (it now has that) and part of the cheek pads had to be stitched away to clear my lobes. I did not buy the wrong size as the next up flopped around and the next down crushed my head.
Reviews panned the visor ratchet and lock but mine is flawless and I like the “airey” nature of the helmet. The vents increase the air flow without eye watering breeze and the one click open visor position stops misting even in the rain without the pinlock or getting a free face wash. Having solved the fit issues I have to address what would have been a deal breaker had I known – noise. At 100 km/h looking straight ahead there is a whistle, look slightly left or right and it is gone. I wear good earplugs but it overcomes them. For an experiment I took the plugs out and WOW, a wall of sound and an intermittent howl. I emailed HJC to see if they had any tips since they have tunnel tested this helmet but they don’t feel it necessary to reply. Perhaps liability wise they can’t. I am just beginning the tedious task of tape a vent, ride, tape another vent, ride and so on to discover which is causing the problem. Then comes how to fix it. I’ll mail you when I get it.