Some of you may not be aware that Ebay have been advertising fake Arai helmets.
I have spoken to Terry Birtles the MD at Moto-Direct who are the UK importers of Arai who said
“We’ve reported to eBay and contacted the sellers but they are based in Asia and seemingly don’t give a monkey’s!”
It’s obviously way too cheap… Arai are handmade in Japan and take days to make so the real price reflects that.
The visor is wrap round – Arai have never done a wrap round visor always favouring side pods to meet their smoother rounder shape for sliding.
Box and trims are all just cheap and not consistent.
There is no ECE marking obvious.
I have said many times that a helmet should only be purchased from a dealer, but if you if you are considering or know someone who is considering buying a new Arai, then mabe point them in the direction of this post.
Terry Birtles, the MD at the Arai importers will be happy to provide further information if required.
What’s also frightening is that it is a sponsered listing, which means they have paid more money to gain higher visibility. And all the promoted listings shown in the listing (for me anyway) all appear to be fake as well.
I’ve tried to buy a ‘cheap’ Dainese jacket once, just for fun. The seller was claimed to be based in UK and promised full refund, so I thought was worth a try.
The jacket arrived very quickly, well packed but as soon as opened I could tell it was shockingly not even close to the original image advertised. They didn’t even attempted to try and copy the logo, they just stitched the word ‘Dainese’ on the sides with a random font! Shame I didn’t take a picture, was really worth a laugh. I sent a message to the seller and asked to return it for a full refund, specifically as it didn’t match the advertised image. Refund was made without much fuss.
On a side note, I had to buy the rear vent on my new Chaser X as it flew off when I crash landed in the bushes, as they are designed to by Arai. I got one ordered through Infinity and was lucky enough to get assisted by the official Arai rep for the area. The service was absolutely outstanding, not just he fitted it for me but he gave my helmet a full service, and also told me where to look for impact marks to check if the helmet was still good to go (it was).
PS. Its official you can chuck the helmet in a bucket of water to clean it, if the pads don’t come off.
