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Note: Duchinni are not DOT certified for sale/use in the US.
There is plenty that can be said about this budget helmet from Duchinni. It looks a little dull if I’m honest, but it promises to offer superb value for money, so we thought it’s worth at least a quick once-over. And if we like it, we might give it the full treatment at a later date. So, here’s the lowdown on the ECE 22.05 approved Duchinni D405 helmet.
Safety and Design
It’s a full face helmet with an ABS (thermoplastic) shell that comes with more or less everything you’ll need on a helmet these days. It’s got a seatbelt-style chin strap – dead user-friendly and one of our favourites – and an integrated, anti-scratch, flip down, UV blocking sun visor. Tick, tick. However, although it’s ECE approved, it’s not distributed in the US so hasn’t been DOT certified – and it hasn’t been independently SHARP tested at the time of writing so we don’t really know how well it’ll do in an accident. Having said that, most Duchinni’s have scored around 4/5 in the past so we’re hopeful the D405 will be up there too.
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Fitting & Comfort
The Duchinni D405 is broken in quite easily on first use and turns out to be a really comfortable lid. It comes with the usual top and chin vents at the front and exhaust vents at the rear, with channelling through the EPS padding to bring airflow through to the scalp and out of the exhaust. The lining of the helmet has got a nice feel to it and is fully removable and washable – like most helmets these days – and it also includes a chin curtain and removable breath deflector.
Again, nothing to moan about there. All the big brands have similar features and the Duchinni’s doing well to keep up so far.
Usability
So far so good then – but how does it fair on usability? Well, generally fairly well, though there are a couple of minor niggles here. It doesn’t come with an anti-fog shield, which is a bit of a must these days, though there are plenty of anti-fog treatments available for you to try so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you do a spot of Ebaying to sort it out. It is worth noting though, that the first step of the shield is set quite high meaning that you can’t crack open the shield just a little. It’s up to you to decide whether this would be a problem; however, in my opinion it can be quite a pain as a small first opening is really useful, especially if it’s not got an anti-fog shield.
Onto noise levels – well we’re moderately happy to report it’s not particularly noisy, though it’s not particularly quiet either. In any case, you’ll probably want to wear ear plugs for most journeys anyhow, so noise shouldn’t be a problem.
Overall
So there you have it. If you’re looking for a low-priced lid with a mid-priced spec then it is definitely worth checking out. Duchinni have done a great job in producing a helmet that looks OK, is available at a really attractive price and has a good range of features. On first view at least, the Duchinni D405 is well worth a look.
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