THE ARRAY of safety certification plastered on bike helmets has grown ever longer over the years. Kitemarks, E-marks, ACU Golds, SHARP ratings, DoT and Snell certifications – it’s a minefield out there.
And now there’s another to add to the list, the clumsily-titled FIM Racing Homologation Programme for helmets, which gets shortened to an equally unwieldy ‘FRHPhe’. Although its enforcement has been delayed until June the system means that after that time, riders in MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and WSB must wear lids that have gained the new approval.
The new rating has nothing to do with road use, but you can be sure that it won’t be long before helmet firms are marketing their wares as ‘MotoGP approved’ or something along those lines. And if, like many, you want to ride in the same helmet as your on-track hero, you’ll want to have the same level of protection, too.
At the moment, just four helmets have been given the full FRHPhe approval, and another eight have passed the homologation tests and await the final rubber-stamp. Given they’ve all achieved what must be the ultimate in helmet testing, we’re not going to rank them, so rather than a ‘top 10’, here’s the full run-down of lids that have passed the new FIM testing (as of February 2019).
LS2 Arrow C EVO
The FIM list doesn’t actually specify precisely which LS2 helmet has passed its impact tests but we’re guessing it’s a race version of the Arrow Carbon Evo. As with the other lids on this list, there’s no guarantee that the version you can buy is identical to the model that’s used on track – manufacturers are allowed to custom-make helmets for their riders – so all we know is that the helmet that passed the test was a size ‘M’.
A road-going Arrow Carbon Evo will set you back around £240-£300 depending on the colour scheme.
Status: test passed, homologation pending
Arai RX-7 Racing
Such is the thoroughness of the FIM testing that Aria’s legendary RX-7 has actually passed twice – once for the version without aero add-ons, and again when it’s fitted with the extra wind-cheating bits. In fact, each size also has to be tested separately, so officially the former passed in XS, S, M and L while the aero version has only been tried in XS and L form. The remaining size options are on the FIM’s ‘tests pending’ list, so are likely to sail through given their siblings’ success. Bear in mind that the RX-7 covers a wide range of prices and materials, and the ‘Racing’ version listed by the FIM is presumably similar to the top-of-the-range, special-order-only, £2,524 ‘RC’ model…
Status: test passed, homologation pending
HJC RPHA-01R
Unless you’re a MotoGP or WSB rider, you’re probably not going to be able to get an RPHA-01R – it’s a special version of the road-going RPHA-11, modified for MotoGP use. A quick search online suggests you can pay as little as £230 for one, or as much as £470, depending on the colour scheme. An Ianonne replica will set you back about £300, and with Cal Crutchlow turning to HJC this year you can be pretty sure a Cal replica is going to appear before too long. According to SHARP, though, the RPHA-11 is a three-star lid, suggesting the changes to the 01R could be substantial.
Status: test passed, homologation pending
MT KRE Snake Carbon
Coming in at around £200 in road-going form, the MT KRE Snake Carbon is among the cheapest ways to get your hands on a MotoGP-spec lid – although again we’ll repeat the proviso that manufacturers can modify the helmets actually worn by racers, so we can’t be certain whether the road one is identical to the one that passed the FIM’s crash tests.
Status: test passed, homologation pending
X-Lite X-803-P
You can easily pay north of £500 for X-Lite’s X-803 helmet, so hopefully you’re getting something that’s pretty close to the one that’s passed the FIM’s homologation crash tests. MotoGP riders wearing them include Danilo Petrucci and Hafizh Syahrim, while Alex Rins wears a Nolan-branded version of the same lid.
Status: test passed, homologation pending
