Originally posted by Henners Always had Arais in the past - Quantums and Astros - finally treated myself to a Corsair in the January sales last year - noisy, suffers from wind buffeting hated it! Bought a Shoei XR-1000 recently which is superbly made, very quiet and has the excellent pinlock anti misting shield included in the price.
I swapped at work from an arai to the xr1000........much lighter, less wind noise....and suited the shape of me ed better..........
Bikes: R1200RT F800GS. Hopefully another Ducati soon
Posts: 2,526
Join Date: Apr 2005
The only question is fit, if they all fit then you can select your prefered colour/graphics and haggle the price from a wider ranger of lids, if only one fits it doesnt matter if it cost £50 or £500.
Personally I have an XR1000, it fits great but every meet I go to my mate gets his Arai cleaned and serviced for nothing. Shame Shoei dont do the same, having said all of that I will probably have a Schuberth next time for the improved visibility, quietness and built in dark visor, as long as it fits.
Bikes: have owned 748/853/916/749/853R/748/848 not sure whats next...
Posts: 2,242
Join Date: Sep 2004
Mood: excited about the changes made to averysmotorcycles.co.uk that are coming up
arai arai arai all the way for me,got a haslam rep now and its pure quality
tried a shoei kagayama rep and sold it 6 weeks later when it broke in far too easily and didnt fit anymore,a £350 lid that didnt fit after 6 weeks yet 8months later my arai is still a perfect fit
Just an observation but opinions are often divided b etween Arai and Shoei, if one fits and is comfy, the other doesn't.
Top of the range helmets aren't cheap, but neither are new heads. Go for the best/most comfy/best fit IMHO.
I bought my first Arai in the early 80's before Spencer made them famous and with working as a despatch rider was over the moon with the comfort wearing it all day long, every day.
I've only really tested a helmet properly once when doing and enduro, when i head butted a tree, was unconscious for about 10 minutes i'm told. The tree never recovered but fortunately my happy smiling bonce remained intact.
Heres a pic of my old quantum after I was dragged down a dual carriage way on my 916 and landed on my head from 8ft in the air (followed by a free helicopter ride to ozzy and a short stint in intensive care!) Consultant was a biker and said that the arai might have well saved my life..!