HJC Furion 2.0 Road Helmet: First Look
By Stan Portus – 29 January 2020
The HJC Furion 2.0 aero helmet is an incredibly lightweight and aerodynamic design that has already claimed victory in the sprints of World Tour stage races. The helmet encapsulates HJC’s commitment to providing uncompromising performance and distinguished looks.
The HJC Furion 2.0 is the South Korean company’s updated aerodynamic helmet. Allowing savings of 7% energy during rides over competitors, the helmet offers a significant advantage and has already been worn to victory by Lotto-Soudal sprinter extraordinaire Caleb Ewan in the 2020 World Tour season.
For a helmet to be aerodynamic it often has to make two significant compromises: weight and airflow. The compact Furion 2.0 has several features that mean these compromises are minimised almost to the point of not making any compromises at all. In fact, the Furion 2.0 weighs 190g which is 10g lighter than HJC’s other pro-level helmet, the Ibex.
HJC has been producing motorcycling helmets for close to 50 years, and the South Korean brand has recently brought the expertise it has developed over this time to the cycling industry. HJC is an expert in wind tunnel testing and has its own bespoke wind tunnel at its Seoul HQ. It is rare for a helmet manufacturer to have its own wind tunnel facilities but with it HJC’s team of engineers and cyclists are able to easily test their designs.
Through wind tunnel testing HJC has designed the Furion 2.0 to be actively cooling. Vents on the frontal section allow air to pass into the helmet and circulate around the head. While the air flow passes over the exterior of the helmet it increases in speed. The increase in speed results in a drop of pressure and as a result this creates a pressure difference between the air outside the helmet and inside. This pressure difference leads to air being extracted from the rear vents creating internal heat dissipation.
Coolpath technology inside the helmet replaces normal padding with a plastic support that sits on the top of the head further improving air circulation and also doing away with fabric padding that can become unclean through repeated use.
The support offered by the Coolpath technology makes the Furion 2.0 incredibly comfortable to wear, but comfort is further improved by HJC’s Selfit self-adjustment fitting system. When the helmet is put on it automatically adjusts to the size of the head, creating a secure fit and doing away with fussy and fiddly ratchet dials. The occipital cradle that sits round the rear of the head is also easily adjusted on the move.
Inside the body of the helmet is an internal reinforcement structure that is a skeletal frame which holds the helmet in one piece and makes it stronger and resistant in case of collision.
An exterior polycarbonate shell further improves the strength of the helmet while also creating a perfect finish and making the Furion 2.0 one of the best-looking helmets there is, and safely distinguished from the copycat appearances of many top-of-the-line helmets. Aerodynamics and pro performance never looked so good.
