Review | Hedon Heroine Racer

Hedon Heroine Racer tested

Hedon’s open-faced helmets are popular with the truly hardcore, and fine for about-town posing. But if you’re riding your retro beyond city limits you want a full-face like the Heroine Racer. As is the way of things, achieving a stylish look and finish with such a clean and apparently simple design is the real trick, the Hedon notably free of the vents, scoops and aero seen on many modern lids. This lets you focus on the details like the smooth CNC’d visor pivots, the neatly stitched leather lining, the eyelet style ventilation and – of course – the beautiful paint schemes. There’s a huge amount of choice here, our ‘Interstellar’ fade popping beautifully in the sunlight and testament to the skill of Hedon’s finishers. The suede lining is, meanwhile, soft and comfortable against the skin while the part fibreglass, part carbon fibre construction (all carbon options are available) makes it nice and light. Fit is always a tricky one, your tester usually on the upper end of a Large with most brands and comfortable in most helmets listed as 59cm. This was what we started with but, while comfortable once in position, the aperture was a little tight when taking the lid on and off, and the chin guard very close to the mouth. After much deliberation we sized up and tried an XL for – literally – a smidge more breathing room.

With that decision made the Heroine Racer has proven supremely comfortable thanks to that soft suede lining, the unusually large visor aperture meaning it feels almost like you’re wearing an open-face and offering a superb field of view. Noise seems about average, though you can hear a rush of air through what’s described as a ‘three-channel’ ventilation system when you turn your head for shoulder checks. While proud of its hand-finished production methods there’s nothing home-made in terms of the perceived protection, which meets the ECE 22.06 standards and means we have every faith it would do its job should the worst happen. 

Verdict