Gear What helmet(s) do you wear?

[miweber929]

Interested in Helmet recommendations, and anyone else's experience with Arai Helmets?
I bought an Arai Quantic and I have been sorely disappointed with it if I am honest, purchased the Arai as I was under the impression they were good quality, and I must say it is very comfortable, but the Quality of construction is a bit naff in my opinion. Both brow vents broke away from the visor within 6 months, I replaced them, only for them to break again (twice), the chin vent cracked, and then the spoiler began to peel away. After some investigation I was made aware of the 5-year warranty, so returned it for a repair. The first repair took over 6 weeks and when I got it back the brow vent broke when I opened the Visor, and the spoiler had already started peeling away again, so I returned it again and have just got it back. The Spoiler is again beginning to separate already, have I just got a bad one, or are these just overpriced and not very good?
Looking to get a new Helmet now as I have given up on this one ever being right, would be interested to hear any recommendations for a quality Helmet, but no Arai’s Please!

Wow, very surprised to hear a premium lid, that was sent back to them to fix even, is falling apart so soon. Arai is well known to be basically the best of the best so this is very surprising to read.

I’ve always had great luck with Shoei if I’m buying a higher end helmet, otherwise I’ve had good luck with all models of Bell, HJC (especially the RPHA series) and middle to higher end AGV. The biggest thing you need to do is be sure what you buy fits your head: in general Arai is more of a narrow helmet and fits longer, more narrow heads, Shoei tends to be more round head and the others fall sort of in between or intermediate oval shaped. If Arai is what fits you, be sure to shop for a similar shaped helmet.

 

[Brian C.]

Wow, very surprised to hear a premium lid, that was sent back to them to fix even, is falling apart so soon. Arai is well known to be basically the best of the best so this is very surprising to read.

I’ve always had great luck with Shoei if I’m buying a higher end helmet, otherwise I’ve had good luck with all models of Bell, HJC (especially the RPHA series) and middle to higher end AGV. The biggest thing you need to do is be sure what you buy fits your head: in general Arai is more of a narrow helmet and fits longer, more narrow heads, Shoei tends to be more round head and the others fall sort of in between or intermediate oval shaped. If Arai is what fits you, be sure to shop for a similar shaped helmet.

This was kind of the reason for my question really, Arai seem to get glowing reviews everywhere, so I was surprised and disappointed by how Flimsy it was, kind of put me off the Premium brands tbh. I have a cheap HJC I70 I bought for my CBT and Mods, and to me at least it is much sturdier and while not being as comfortable, seems to be better made!
I am putting together a shortlist of Helmets to go and try in store for the fit and comfort aspects, I want something that I can use for long trips, and will last me.

 

[Cláudio Nogueira]

Arai Helmet

Welcome to Arai Helmet. All Arai helmets are manufactured by hand and formed around protection, first and foremost. The smooth, round shape is a key Arai signature and primarily designed to ‘glance-off’ and spread impact forces.

www.araihelmet.eu

I'm with Miweber, how can an Arai be so bad, when it should be BoB?!

 

[Motojack]

Maybe it's an aral? 😁

 

[Cláudio Nogueira]

Maybe it's an aral? 😁

This warning is on UK Arai page! Be carufull mate 🤣

 

[miweber929]

This was kind of the reason for my question really, Arai seem to get glowing reviews everywhere, so I was surprised and disappointed by how Flimsy it was, kind of put me off the Premium brands tbh. I have a cheap HJC I70 I bought for my CBT and Mods, and to me at least it is much sturdier and while not being as comfortable, seems to be better made!
I am putting together a shortlist of Helmets to go and try in store for the fit and comfort aspects, I want something that I can use for long trips, and will last me.

There’s something weird going on because I’ve NEVER heard of an Arai falling apart like that. Had you not sent it in I’d be skeptical that it’s a fake but if you sent it into Arai they must have have looked at it enough to determine it wasn’t. What do they say about it?

Again, it being a premium brand falling apart so easy it’s just so surprising.

I’ve owned a dozen Shoei’s over the years and they’ve been nothing but solid, well built helmets. My head fits Shoei so I haven’t owned an Arai in 25 or 30 years so I don’t know a lot about them other than what I’ve read.

There are a TON of decent, mid-tier brands out there so yeah, look around and find a fit that works. I currently have a Shoei RF-1200 and an HJC RPHA-11 that are my main street helmets with a Bell MX-9 that’s my Dual Sport helmet and a something like an AFX or other “lower” brand open face I wear banging around town on the little bikes. My wife just got a new Scorpion 420(?) that’s a sweet helmet for a good price and may be worth looking into.

Lots out there, happy shopping!!!

 

[Brian C.]

I am pretty sure it is genuine, especially as I bought it from SportsBikeShop. After the first return I actually raised a ticket with Arai Uk. I was annoyed at the length of time the repair took.

When I returned it the second time to be repaired, SBS said they would do the repair in-house, so as to control the timescale of the repair, and just before they posted it back they contacted me to say there would be a small gap (Pin-hole sized) at the upper part of the spoiler, which I would have accepted, but upon inspection the gap was about four inches, so I updated my ticket with Arai and asked them to advise. They said the Spoiler fitted was incorrect as it should be flush with the Helmet, I then forwarded this advice to SBS.

SBS then came back and offered me a full refund, so I cannot complain about the service from them, other than the delays and failure to repair the actual Helmet, I feel they have gone above and beyond what I would have expected to offer the refund, I can't fault them to be fair.

I am off Saturday to try some out, tempted by the Shark Skwall I3, but I want to have a good look around and take my time, the only downside is the nearest SBS shop is over an hour away from me, and I don't want to waste the local shops time, when I won't be buying it from them.

 

[Cláudio Nogueira]

I am pretty sure it is genuine, especially as I bought it from SportsBikeShop. After the first return I actually raised a ticket with Arai Uk. I was annoyed at the length of time the repair took.

When I returned it the second time to be repaired, SBS said they would do the repair in-house, so as to control the timescale of the repair, and just before they posted it back they contacted me to say there would be a small gap (Pin-hole sized) at the upper part of the spoiler, which I would have accepted, but upon inspection the gap was about four inches, so I updated my ticket with Arai and asked them to advise. They said the Spoiler fitted was incorrect as it should be flush with the Helmet, I then forwarded this advice to SBS.

SBS then came back and offered me a full refund, so I cannot complain about the service from them, other than the delays and failure to repair the actual Helmet, I feel they have gone above and beyond what I would have expected to offer the refund, I can't fault them to be fair.

I am off Saturday to try some out, tempted by the Shark Skwall I3, but I want to have a good look around and take my time, the only downside is the nearest SBS shop is over an hour away from me, and I don't want to waste the local shops time, when I won't be buying it from them.

Shark is a great choice, it's made in Portugal 🇵🇹

 

[enshiu]

Shoei X spirit III gloss black with vermillion visor.

 

[MacRoadster]

I have a Shoei GT Air 2 and a Caberg Duke 2.
The Caberg is a great helmet for the price, but not at the same level of comfort and quality as the Shoei. Also, it's a bit heavier, like all modulars.
These days I have the Caberg with pinlock and only use it when raining or in very cold days.

It's great to have two helmets one with pinlock and another without. That way, I just pick the one according to the weather. 😁

 

[Mr.D]

HJC V10 with Fire Red visor and pinlock, really nice helmet. Comfy and quite silent, ventilation on really hot summer days are not adequate without half-open visor.

 

[Bran]

Bell Star MIPS, I bought a self tinting visor a while back which i only use in summer, opting for the pinlock in winter

 

[JZA]

AGV K6S. Love it. Super light, no unnecessary frills and super safe (36% safer than ECE2206).

 

[Motojack]

Are those more race orientated helmets I wonder?

 

[Pete Croney]

I customised my Shark GT with some wrap material. 4x A4 sheets cost approx £7.

 

[Peter Wolf]

HJC Rapha 12
Great helmet

 

[Bran]

I recently bought a Nexx X.R3R APEX CARBON BLACK
Quality item, even the protective bag is impressive. The lids very quiet, and got the best air flow to the top of m head of any helmet I've ever owned, I have to have the top vents on the smaller of the 2 settings or my head gets cold, which should be good when the hot weather is here. The premium price is backed by the premium quality, so am ok with this. it came with both a clear and tinted pin-lock visor as standard.
I tried numerous helmets with drop down tinted visor's built in, but found them distracting, there appeared to be a gap near my nose that i picked up on in my peripheral vision on all that I tried on, so thought I'd stick with shades inside my helmet, this helmet having a tinted and clear visor worked out well.

Sportsbike shop couldn't deliver for 2 months, buying direct from Nexx was the exact same price and delivered in 2 days.

Oh removal and re-installation of the visor isn't the easiest, as a downside, my old Bell was far simpler to swap

 

[Motojack]

I tried numerous helmets with drop down tinted visor's built in, but found them distracting, there appeared to be a gap near my nose that i picked up on in my peripheral vision on all that I tried on, so thought I'd stick with shades inside my helmet, this helmet having a tinted and clear visor worked out well.

I have never heard of this brand, it looks nice👌 i also hate the internal drop down visor it creates a wierd distortion as is very distracting to me so i resort to swapping visors which i much prefer. It can be awkward but just takes a bit of planning especially for long trips, but chances are if im on a long trip im bringing some form of luggage which i use to store the visor.


I have a replica of Dean Harrisons lid


Its a shoei x-spr or something, nicest lid ive owned and its quality and i like the decal. Only downside for me is i dont like its visor mechanism and its a right faff to put a visor back on, it requires pulling a latch back wile simultaneously inserting the visor tabs at a precise angle at the same time as applying specific pressure. Took me ages to figure out how to do it consistently. Not as good as my AGV in that regard.

In terms of quitness its ok id put it at the middle of the road for that, i tend to wear earplugs all the time myself. Some lads have really wierd expectations that a lid needs to drown out all the noise as if the lid is gonna be putting your head in noise canceling chamber or something.