I’m after a new helmet soon, and after trying on a few Arais, i find that they seem to fit me quite nicely. I’m looking to spend around about the £300 mark, and i’d prefer to have a colourscheme than just a plain colour.
The only thing i’m worried about is that most of the Arais in the SHARP tests did pretty badly, although i’ve always heard before that they’re the best you can get.
I do know that Arai have disputed these figures pretty seriously though. Haha now i dont know who to believe!!
As I understand it the main issue with the low score of Arai is the area that sharp tested the helmets.
aparantly Arais scored really bad on the side blow (near the eyer piece).
Arai claims that that area is weaker to allow confort and better hearing, and also that it is unlikely to hit that area in a fall because of the location of your sholder (i.e that would hit the ground first)
remember buying a helmet that fits is better than buying a helmet with a higher Sharp rating
Many people also dispute that the sharp rating is flawed since unlike a SNELL test, they don’t do random impact tests within a specified test area, more like they test along a specified plane.
That said, hasn’t stopped people buying arais really since arais are mostly sold on reputation rather than what they scored in some random test which people would be lead to believe is some sort of legislative protocol! I’ve got a shoei XR1000 and Arai Corsair, both in reasonable nick and I always pic the arai everytime, why? Fit and comfort take priority since they have an indeterminable effect on safety; the more alert and comfortable you are, the more you’re able to concentrate!
Oi cheeky!!! I got mine for £250 at Infinity Hanger Lane, I got the red and blue nakano race rep corsair, still can’t work out how I only paid £250 for it though, seems to be £299 everywhere else!!! but I’m not complaining
Cheers people! My dad has always said that the most important thing to consider when you buy the helmet is the fit, and Arai seems to be marginally better than Shoei, and ten times better than AGV!
ANyone have any experience of the Arai Condor or the Chaser??
I’ve got an RX7 Corsair that i had custom fitted, but out of the box, all medium arais currently on sale - RX7 GP, Viper Gt, Chaser ALL fit me on a medium! RX7 is pretty noisy even with plugs and balaclava in, but it’s very comfortable. I might be inclined to get a Viper Gt as my next lid, but whichever way I look at it, the Arai fitted me better than the Shoei XR1000, KBC AR1, HJC AC10/FG14 lids which i had previously. Well worth the investement.
arai viper gt xs was the only one that fitted me perfectly - cheaper makes were too big or too small! £250 at the NEC too
im sticking with mine and will replace it with another when the time comes, enough racers and professional riders swear by them that they cant be that unsafe
Thanks for all of the replies, i ordered one of these today after walking around the local hein gericke with one on my head for about 15 mins.
I ordered it from Infinity motorcycles, but apparantly its an error on the website that you get a free visor bag and rucksack (not that i was too bothered anyway), but because of that they gave me a free tinted pinlock visor insert as a goodwill gesture! Result! :w00t:
I’ve just checked the link again, and they have raised the price! When i bought it this morning it was £269.99 in the clearance sale!! :w00t: Must have also been an error that they were selling it so cheap. Result again! Haha :D:D
I had a chat with a bloke who seemed to know a bit about the sharp testing.
He seemed to suggest that the cheaper helmets did better in the testin, because they had a few of the helmets and used a new one for each test. However, with the arais- due to their cost, they reused the same helmet in some different tests.
Whether there is an ounce of truth in that- not sure… but when I saw how badly the arais had fared, it did seem strange- especially with their major particpation in moto gp…
