If the moniker 'Van Rysel RCR' is ringing bells for you, there's a good reason for that. The French brand's WorldTour bicycle of the same name came close to breaking the internet – or at least the part of it where the bike fans camp out – when it was released last summer.
Ridden by the Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale team and billed as the 'affordable' WorldTour bike, it was Cycling Weekly's most clicked-on bike of the year, without a doubt.
In case you hadn't worked it out (I hadn't), the RCR stands for 'Racer', and it stands to reason that the Lille-based company – in-house biking brand of French sports hypermarket Decathlon – would create a whole line of products around it.
The brand was launched by Decathlon in 2019, and it feels like it has taken a significant step upwards on the global stage this year with the launch of a number of bikes and products, including the helmet we have here, the Van Rysel RCR MIPS.
This model sits second rung among the five road helmets listed on the Decathlon site, with the top one – read most expensive – being its sibling, the RCR-F Aero, which features a similar shape but smaller vents. Conversely, the five large frontal vents on the RCR MIPS on test are among the first obvious features you see.
Construction
The RCR MIPS is every inch a modern road cycling helmet, although there's nothing outlandish about it. It features a rounded profile and five fairly cavernous vents up front. The crown of the helmet is unvented – making the velcro-on helmet mount for my light redundant – and a number of rearward 'exhaust ports', as the marketing bumpf might (but doesn't) call them.
The innards look comfortably familiar, with a nicely padded cradle and small twist-dial to cinch it up at the back. The strappage is soft, with a standard chin clip. Crucially these innards also feature MIPS – Multi-directional Impact System.
Using a low friction layer mounted inside the lid, this allows it to move up to 15mm to reduce rotation forces on the head in a crash.
It does add to the price – the non-MIPS version of this helmet can be had for £59.99.
Our test item came in 'indigo blue / smoked black' colourway. It's the same colour as my car, but I like it rather less on the helmet as I have very few bits of kit that match it. Luckily, it's also available in ultra white, which looks rather cool to my eye.
Claimed weight is 200-250g depending on size.
The ride
This helmet was immediately comfortable. In fact I could say confidently that I've never worn a more comfortable one. This is partly because it seems to be the perfect fit for my head. There's usually a little subjectivity in helmet comfort, even when on paper they're the right size. Van Rysel, it appears, has created the perfect item for a Shrubsall bonce.
But I won't put it all down to luck. The inside is full of unobtrusive yet apparently extremely effective cushioning points – small parallelograms of comfort that cosset the head.
As the helmet gets used and they eventually wear and compact, it will no doubt begin to feel less luxurious, but that is the same of any lid.
In addition, the straps feel softer to the touch than those of many helmets I've used. I also found them easy to adjust while keeping the tension equally distributed among the four attachment points at the helmet – not always as straightforward as it ought to be.
Given that it was tested over winter, assessing the ventilation was more complex than it might have been. I was mostly wearing a skull cap for a start, and the hot summer temperatures in which they will likely come in the most handy were distinctly lacking.
One thing I will say – these big vents are going to make hard-to-miss targets for the airborne fauna of Surrey when things do heat up.
Adjustment via the dial at the back is straightforward, though the small dial would feel easier to access if it sat further away from the main body of the helmet. I wouldn't view this as a deal breaker though – it didn't really occur to me when out and about.
Value
At £79.99 / $90, the Van Rysel RCR MIPS is a mid-priced helmet which works out at the kind of attractive value we've come to expect from the company that gave us a £9,000 / $11,000 WorldTour team bike and has wowed previously with its ultra-budget B'Twin Triban models.
One of the issues with helmets is that you can buy one for the price of a round of drinks that will do 80% of what the most expensive models will. However, for a helmet that is this comfortable and features MIPS to boot, I have no issue paying the extra premium.
Given light weight is a key feature of the most expensive helmets, the RCR holds up extremely well. The Met Trenta 3K, for example, retails at £300 ($368) and uses carbon to reduce weight. It weighs a very similar claimed 210g in size small.
How we score products
5 - Superb, best in its class and we couldn’t fault it
4 - Solid product, could be improved
3 - Fine, but there are better alternatives
2 - Functions, but disappointing
1 - Extremely poor, barely worked
