Today Fox is announcing the new, updated version of their Rampage Pro Carbon – their flagship gravity helmet for mountain bike. The full face helmet is aimed at everything from Trail to Enduro as well as Park, Slopestyle, Freeride and most importantly Downhill racing. The latest iteration of the now iconic helmet welcomes the addition of MIPS as well as a handful of other improvements. We were fortunate enough to receive a sample with just enough time for a few laps, which allowed us to pass on our first impressions…
Starting out with the silhouette, the Rampage Pro Carbon doesn’t look wildly different from the current version – and for good reason as the carbon fiber shell is essentially the same…
The big story is that the RPC now uses MIPS, to reduce the likelihood of concussions and head injuries that can occur due to rotational forces.
The lines are still sleek and the vents are covered in gridded plastic guards to keep crud out.
Something new is the addition of moto foam in the vents. This allows air to pass through freely while keeping junk and moisture out.
The emergency use pull tabs are clear and distinct in the event that the jaw pads need to be removed. They are easy to grasp and require very minimal force to disengage, which is a critical as it helps to prevent further injury.
The vents above the brow port are of substantial size and there is a large gap in the visor for air flow.
In the event that a rider sustains a heavy crash, the visor – which is not adjustable – is equipped with breakaway hardware, to lower the likelihood of injury.
The carbon fiber D-rings are a baller touch for sure!
Pictured above are the anchor points for the jaw pad.
Our size Large came with the 40mm standard sized cheek pads, which although soft and comfortable, ran a bit on the snug side.
A closer look at the slightly large cheek pads. Time will tell if they pack out and conform to the test rider, but there will be varying widths available at some point. However, with the way supply chains have been going as of late, we don’t have an exact answer on when.
The bottom of the lid features a rugged plastic base, so it doesn’t get banged up with resting on various surfaces and when hanging on the handlebar.
Our contact at Fox advised us that the Rampage Pro Carbon fit “roughly a half size small”. Fortunately, as this helmet is offered in four sizes – props to Fox on that – it just meant that our tester leaned toward sizing up slightly. Typically with helmets offered in just 3 sizes he would opt for the middle size. In this case he opted for a Large and it fit perfectly. All in all the sizing is pretty dialed but if you are unsure, the safest bet is to err toward going slightly larger. Our first impression was that this helmet felt extremely safe and secure. The dense, plush padding adds to that sense of security, as does the overall size. The RPC doesn’t feel like an overly stripped down, minimalist offering. It feels like one of the safest helmets we’ve tried to date. With that in mind, only a few laps have been taken in it and (fortunately) our tester hasn’t had any crashes.
With comfort being absolutely top notch, the large remaining question is air flow and heat management. On the whole, we noticed that the Rampage Pro Carbon ran a little on the warm side when standing around and/or hiking the bike up the hill. However, once we were moving along on trail we could feel air flowing along nicely through the helmet from front to back and we stayed cool and comfortable. Our single day riding the helmet consisted of average temperatures in the high 70º’s Fahrenheit, for what it’s worth. All in all, it wasn’t stunningly cool but it certainly was not a cooker either – at least based on our initial impressions.
The helmet meshed nicely and fit with our Fox goggles well, although we’ve yet to try it with larger framed goggles. Though the visor is non-adjustable we did find that we could stash our goggles facing forward or backward without any issues or slipping. The one position that it is set to was just right, and given that the non-adjustable factor is somewhat related to having a breakaway safety feature we don’t see much sense in quibbling over it. All in all the visor is very well thought out. If there was one small gripe that we’ve noticed so far it’s that the cheek pads felt rather snug. The plush material may pack out after more rides, but we’re keen to try a slightly thinner set, which we’re told will be available at some point. So far the new Rampage Pro Carbon is a very well thought out helmet of premium quality construction through and through and it is therefore accordingly priced. At ~$500 USD it isn’t cheap, but as we all know, brains are worth the money and the Rampage Pro Carbon leaves very little to pick apart. We’ll report back with long term findings in due course.
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