Frankie Chili might be getting on a bit, but he’s still doing suprisingly well in the WSBK’s. I reckon it might be his helmet! OK, it’s probably not his helmet, but if the AXO lid is good enough for him then it’s good enough for me.

This is my second RR5. The first one developed some problems, and was kindly replaced by the Australian distributor, but more on that later. So, after being told I could get a new helmet, I chose the Frankie Chili replica. I’m not sure what year he wore this one, but it has the trademark Tiger of Chili’s on the top.

The RR5 is light, certainly much lighter than my old HJC. This has to do with the carbon/Kevlar/fibreglass composite construction. It also features D-ring fasteners (my preferred option) and is well vented.

The vents work well in summer, keeping your scone quite cool, but, due to the draughtiness is a bit of a bitch in the cooler months. Be sure and carry a neck warmer with you, and you’ll be right. Also as a result of the ventilation, I find that at highway speeds the helmet is quite noisy. A fair amount of noise seems to come in from the under-chin area, however the noise from around the visor seems to be minimal.

Changing the visor is a piece of cake, once you learn the secret to it. At first you can stuff around for quite some time with the tool included with the helmet and a screwdriver. All you have to do tho, is click the visor in under the clips at the back of the rotation mechanism, and you can change the visor without using the tool in a matter of seconds.

The visor is nice and clear and the field of view to the outside world is superb. The tinted visor I purchased with the helmet is slightly cheaper than the Arai or Shoei equivalent, and does a good job of being scratch resistant and anti-fog. The clear visor however, fogs up in a second with the visor down in the cooler months. The breath guard, as in most helmets, seems to do nothing other than stop your mouth from getting sunburnt on sunny days.

The lining is plush and removable, so you can wash the lining and make helmet itch a thing of the past. It’s not as plush as some of the new helmets from KBC for example, but does the job quite nicely.

Now, getting back to my problem with my first RR5. The chin strap passes through the D-rings as per normal, but on the end of the strap is a strip of velcro. The idea is that you loop the strap back on itself, and velcro it together to stop it from flapping around. Unless you have a small neck though, I’d recommend that you remove the velcro. It’s quite easy to do and this will stop the velcro from rubbing against the strap and causing it to fray and fall apart!

Another thing I recommend, is that you buy the RR5 in a size that feels slightly small. The padding will slowly soften up an you’ll be rewarded with a helmet that fits like a glove and doesn’t ride up at high speed.

The RR5 is available in a number of colour schemes, comes with a helmet bag and is highly recommended. If you are after a light and comfortable mid-priced helmet, take a look.