A good day or night to you all and today,
we’ll be looking at and road testing the
X-lite X-803 RS Ultra Carbon.
So, the X-803 RS Ultra Carbon, not only is
it a mouthful to say, but it’s X-Lite’s
new full-face racing helmet meant to replace
the previous X-Lite the X-803.
I don’t know how ultra the carbon in this
helmet is, but the shell is made of carbon
fiber, which should greatly improve impact
resistance and just give you a lighter helmet
overall.
When we weighed it, the helmet came in at
about 1390 grams in a size M. So, with a recommended
retail price of about 660 euros, or around
730 US Dollars, the X-Lite will be competing
with the HJC RPHA11, the Arai RX-7V, and the
Shoei X-Spirit 3.
So, let's take a look.
Just a quick note before we get started, if
you wanted to check out more reviews or guides,
be sure to head to our YouTube channel and
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Again, the shell is made of carbon, so it’ll
be lightweight.
This helmet should be aerodynamic on the track,
since it was designed in a wind tunnel.
It’s got a large spoiler in the rear, which’ll
also help with reducing wind noise and boosting
stability.
You can also see that the chin has been elongated
to give you more space and comfort.
This helmet comes in 3 shell sizes and is
ECE rated.
3 shell sizes in this case is fairly average,
since more shell sizes are better since it
means you better fitting helmet.
For ventilation, you’re getting similar
options to the previous X-Lite helmets.
So, you’ve got an adjustable vent here in
the chin that you can operate with a slider,
and the brow here, which is the same type
of mechanism.
You're also getting two more adjustable vents
further back on the the top of the head.
If we look in the back, then you can see the
air’ll come out these exhausts here in the
rear.
For noise isolation, this is a race helmet,
so that’s usually a bit lower on the list
of priorities, but the aerodynamics of the
helmet should help somewhat in reducing the
level of noise.
The liner’ll also help out a little bit
there since it'll give you an extra layer.
The visor for the X-803 is actually giving
you some great options here.
It’s wide and it’ll give you a wide field
of view, but it the helmet also comes with
a dark Smoke visor in the box, even though
it’s called a green visor on the label.
The visor is also pinlock prepared and the
inser is in the box, so you can already get
kitted out fully for sunny weather and you
can prevent any potential fogginess when it's
a little bit cooler.
However, and this is very unfortunate, the
dark smoke visor is not ECE rated because
it doesn’t transmit enough light, so it's
really suited for very bright weather.
Nonetheless, you’ve also got a nose guard
here to help prevent fogging up the visor
with your breath.
To remove the visor, you first need to open
it into the fully upright position.
Then all you need to do is click the silver
“X” button to release the visor from the
groove.
You then do the same on the other side, and
the visor will come free.
To put the visor back on again, all you need
to do is line the visor up with the grooves,
push the button down to open the mechanism
and reinsert the visor.
Once one side is done, you do the same on
the other with the same process of pushing
down the button and lining up the grooves
again.
The liner on this helmet also looks and feels
very nice.
It’s made of X-Lite’s “Carbon fitting
racing experience comfort inner padding”,
clearly X-Lite like to go for the more descriptive
in terms of naming conventions.
But this liner is very comfortable, it’s
soft, and it has carbon filaments which are
meant to help with temperature control and
preventing static.
I’m not sure how much of this really makes
a difference but avoiding helmet hair doesn’t
sound so bad.
In addition to this, the liner is also removable
and washable, and it is not designed to fit
glasses.
The liner is also meant to be adjustable,
to give better fit across a range of different
head shapes and the fitment on this helmet
will be intermediate oval like the last X-803.
Now, let’s take a look inside.
To remove the liner, first you need to remove
the cheek pads they’re held in with three
buttons and an insert.
You can see that they’re quite soft and
of a good thickness.
You can see the emergency pull tabs there
and the carbon stitching.
Then, you need to take out the second pad
with the same process.
You can see the double D-ring chin strap there.
Then, taking out the liner you’ve got buttons
in the back and an insert in the front.
And you can see it looks and feels just as
comfy as the cheek pads, and you’re getting
tons of mesh to help with ventilation.
Here, you can see the belt running along the
top of the liner which you can use to adjust
it.
You can adjust the liner belt by opening the
switch on the bottom of the belt and then
simply pulling the belt tighter or looser
as required before snapping it back through
the hole again.
Now, we can see the EPS grooves and we’ve
got plenty, so you should get some decent
air in through there.
And that’s all for the liner.
Enough said about this helmet, now let’s
see how it actually performs on the road!
First, just a quick reminder for how we’ve
set up our road tests.
On the left here, is the helmet’s interior
temperature measured in degrees C through
a thermometer placed in the top of the helmet.
In the middle, we have a decibel meter taking
measurements from a microphone placed near
our rider’s ear.
On the right is a telephone, which’ll show
us the approximate wind speed, and, lastly,
in the middle we’ve got our rider’s speed
in km/h and the outside temperature.
During the road test, the outside temperature
was about 15 degrees C while the helmet’s
interior temperature was 18 degrees C, so
that’s a difference of 3 degrees, which
is good for a racing helmet not in its optimal
position, which is a racing tuck.
The average airspeed was about 110-120 km/h,
while our rider was driving at 130 km/h along
long stretches of highway.
For noise we recorded about 106 decibels which
is fairly loud, but this is a race helmet
so that’s not as big of an issue.
We did test this helmet on a highway, not
a racetrack, which is what this helmet is
really designed for.
So if you do take it out to the track, then
you’ll really get a feel for how its aerodynamics
really work.
Our rider was pleasantly surprised with this
helmet.
We did have high expectations but the X-lite
blew past them in almost all but 1 category.
Due to weather conditions, we had trouble
with fully testing out the helmet’s aerodynamics
due to a crosswind, but our rider still said
they were good.
However, he was very happy with the comfort
and said it was very good.
He also said the addition of the breath deflector
was good and that the helmet had a nice high-quality
finish to it.
Now, let’s get to those stars.
Since the X-803 RS has a carbon shell, or
even an ultra-carbon shell, and comes in 3
shell sizes, gives this helmet an outstanding
5 stars for material.
For weight, this helmet also does pretty well
since even with all the extras, this helmet
was fairly light, giving it 5 stars for weight.
For the visor, this helmet also did well since
it’s pinlock prepared and in the box and
gives a good field of view, so that’s another
4 stars.
For ventilation, though our rider found the
brow vents very refreshing, this helmet did
not do as well as hoped being a full 3 degrees
hotter, which gives the X-lite only 2 stars.
For aerodynamics, the helmet seemed fairly
stable, giving it 3 stars.
Lastly, our rider found the helmet very comfortable
giving it another 4 stars.
This just about brings us to an average of
about 4 stars, which is very good and gives
us 29 euros per star, which is also a decent
result for a premium racing helmet.
If you’d like to purchase the X-lite X-803
RS Ultra Carbon, then make sure to head over
to ChampionHelmets.com where we have a lowest
price guarantee and great bundle deals.
So overall, not that many complaints for the
X-803.
Other than the really long names, the non
ECE rated visor, and the slightly disappointing
ventilation, this helmet does pretty well
as a racing helmet, especially coming in at
4 stars and 29 euros per star.
So, this puts the helmet at about the same
average star rating as the Arai RX-7V, though
the Arai performs better in the categories
the X-lite was worse in,and this 29 comes
in a bit higher than the X-Spirit 3 which
also performed a bit better than the X-Lite.
Nonetheless, the X-Lite is cheaper up front.
So, for premium helmets, the X-lite is giving
you a pretty good deal still.
If you liked the video, make sure to subscribe
and if you have any comments or questions
to leave them in the comments below.
I’m Sebastian from Champion Helmets and
thanks for watching.
