An Improvement Over Previous Lids
The Arai Corsair-X model was a very fine helmet. It was a top-of-the-line-lid, but now Arai has a new model. The Regent-X. Built using many of the same ideas as the Corsair-X and offering the same protection, the Regent-X takes things up a notch. The Regent-X is also much less expensive than the Corsair-X. It’s several hundred dollars less at $559.95.Â
The helmet features a new shell design that makes it easier to put on and take off. The helmet also has Arai’s latest Facial Contour System cheek pad design. The pads are designed to articulate when you’re putting the helmet on or taking it off and fit snuggly on your cheeks once the helmet is on. This provides protection and blocks out noise. The helmet also features pockets for speakers without putting any unneeded pressure on your head or ears.
Let’s take a quick step back and talk about that new shell design. Arai created a new resin for the Regent-X. This Peripherally Belted Complex Laminate Construction is much more cost-effective to produce, but it doesn’t add weight or impact safety negatively. This is where your lower price tag comes from.
Arai also reworked the EPS layer in the helmet. The helmet has a one-piece multi-density liner that is designed to be compact and low-profile while still providing ample protection to the rider.
According to Arai, the helmet also provides the following features:
- Expanded Hyper-Ridge in the chin and cheek area by 5mm for greater protection
- New neckroll design to reduce weight
- Removable perimeter liner and cheek pads
- Custom fitting with optional cheek pad sizes
- Soft brushed nylon fabric interior for incredible comfort
The helmet meets SNELL M2020 standards, and should also meet many other helmet safety standards. Arai says the helmet’s shape helps with glancing blows to the helmet, helping to ensure that the lid doesn’t take a direct hit easily. Overall, the Regent-X looks like one awesome lid. I can’t wait to test it out.
no internal sun visor – no buy
doesn’t matter how much I love Arai fit and finish.
its like VHS vs DVD
one is vastly superior to the other ,
and to carry on , in a very old school Japanese manner , is absurd.
get with the times , Arai
As a percentage of all helmets produced and sold, those with internal visors are a vast minority. They pose a weight, balance and safety compromise.
Arai has obviously crunched the numbers, realised some production R&D to reach a price point and thinks there’s a market.
That’s because instead of giving riders what they want, Arai is too hung up on Snell ratings which mean no internal sun visors, and no modular, or flip up helmets. And yet theoretically a skid lid could be Snell rated. Anyone think you would be safer in one than a DOT only modular. You can find flip up helmets with internal sun visors that are ECE rated, an European standard that is accepted by all racing organizations.
Wow, the good ol’ internet… I love it when the average Joe purports to know more than a highly respected company like Arai and is pursuing the wrong goals. Arai has forgotten more about helmet safety than most people posting on the internet will ever know in their lifetimes. You are also implying that Arai literally builds their helmets to meet Snell specs. That would be wrong. Their primary goal is your noggin and brain coming out of an accident intact. If some people want to prioritize a sun visor over that, speak with your money and buy something else but to suggest that Arai is misguided in their priorities is beyond absurd.
Now, I’m not suggesting that my Shoei GT-Air is therefore not safe enough because it’s not Snell rated. I like the construction and personally love this helmet because it’s the quietest helmet you can buy (that still moves enough air for me) and am grateful that Sena builds a bespoke comms unit for it that is internal only. And I’ve crashed in one it and it did it’s job. I haven’t found any of the Arai helmets I’ve tried to be quiet enough for me (except the old RX-Q). But you won’t see me suggesting Arai is misguided. If I could find an Arai that is as quiet as the GT-Air I’d be all over it.
You might also want to read a recent WBW article: https://www.webbikeworld.com/see-inside-a-helmet-torture-chamber-wbw-goes-to-snell/
The Arai external sun visor is far superior in my opinion.
It still has the issue with bright light coming in from below (I guess this is again a bigger issue when living in the middle of a scorching desert – it’s bright out here!) but for sure it will keep the inside of the helmet cooler so I agree it’s better.
I fail to see how an external sun visor is superior being it is outside and can cause aerodynamic issues.
As I said before, one critically important reason for me is to keep the heat out. I realize not everyone lives somewhere so hot but this is an ABSOLUTE must have for me. Tinted visor – reduce heat, just like you simply have to have tinted windows on a car in Arizona. No tinted windows and your left arm will fry and literally sunburn. It makes such a difference here it’s night and day. And the Arai Pro Shade has no aero issues – no detectable additional noise.
I use a dark tinted shield plus internal sun visor on sunny days. Works especially great when riding into the sun.
They should go to the Transitions visor like my Klim has. Love it.
Any idea how it will be called in Europe? One not happy because no sun visor, another because of different names in EU & USA markets. Can’t make everyone happy.
My headshape is for Shoei helmets but I keep my hopes up that the next helmet from Arai will work for me.
Historically, I have relied on webbikeworld to provide critical information on gear, especially helmets. I currently wear an Arai Signet X but have no idea whether the Regent X has some magic to make it fit all types of head shapes. I’m not ready to replace my current helmet, but I always try to have the next one “in the queue” in case something happens to force a replacement. Any idea when we will get a traditional review of the Regent X?
Hey Brian, that’s unclear at the moment. As it becomes available I’m sure we’ll be able to nail down a Regent-X to test.
Thanks! Brian
Brian, unfortunately at this point the Signet X is the best choice for long oval headshapes.
Some Arai helmets can have the comfort liner swapped from one shell to another to get a different headshape as in the case of the Quantum X and DT-X. I put the round oval liner from the Quantum into my DTX and voila! It’s now a round oval helmet.
Stay tuned though. Arai might announce differently in the future.
Like Darren, I often think my opinion is the only one that’s right. 🙂 However, I’m grateful that helmet makers are still making helmets without internal sun visors. Mostly, I can’t stand the idea that part of my forward view is dark with a big bright area below it. Imagine tinting 3/4 of your windshield and having a big bright area down below. No way for me. Second, some of us live in hot places and absolutely need a dark visor to greatly reduce the heat coming in the helmet. Not everybody lives in a hot climate and so don’t think about this big issue.. Lastly, I have never ever ridden anywhere on a motorcycle without having a backpack or a tail bag with me so carrying an extra visor is no big deal. Keep up the great work Arai!
yes , we all have opinions
thanks for pointing that out ,
congratulations on yours ….
surely there’s room in arai’s line-up for 1 internal sun visor helmet ?
and stick your snarky bs where the sun don’t shine, David 🙂
admin, delete at leisure
A dark shield AND internal sun visor work even better. The problem with Arai’s drop down visor on the outside is that it’s further from your face which allows more sunlight to come in from underneath. And it looks stupid in my opinion.
Let’s try to remain civilized here, fellas. We may have differing views which is fine since we can respectfully disagree, right?
I was a long time Shark helmet guy, but I ran into the problem that Shark couldn’t decide on what their helmet shape should be. I ended up ebaying the last one, which led to the previously mentioned Arai. I miss the internal shades on the Shark helmets, but they didn’t always work well. I use a dark screen on the Arai in combination with the Transitions coating on my glasses. The newest versions of Transitions react even behind a windshield or helmet screen.
I think the new Regent-X is the real replacement for the old RX-Q helmet Arai discontinued because this Regent-X brings back the intermediate oval and if you notice this helmet uses the old style air vents with the small rocker switch.
I don’t know why Arai chose the old style vent covers with the rocker switches as I find the new slide style switches superior.
As for sun shades I love the Arai sun shade solution and it does not effect the aerodynamic properties of their helmets at all be it in the up or down position in the over 96,000 miles I have been riding using it. I had the Arai flip up sun shade On my old RX-Q and I have it on my Corsair X.
My wife scoffed at the flip up sun shade until she tried it on her Corsair X and she immediately changed her mind and today loves it wondering why she never tried it on her old RX-Q.
I am one who demands a Snell rating or the helmet does not go on my head. Snell is the only independent standard out there all the rest are government controlled one way or another.
DOT is an honor system, and like was pointed out in this very site a few years ago when what I call a hack Dexter Ford tried push a cheap DOT rated helmet as be the end all of helmet safety but this site actually tested the helmet and found it uncomfortable and concluded that what good is the helmet if it is uncomfortable and you don’t wear it.
Ad in the fact that Dexter Ford has had a long running field with Snell tells me Dexter Ford had an agenda and sadly he got to a lot of people who now refuse to wear a Snell rated helmet.
If the Snell standard was so bad professional racers would not wear them.
Further If the Snell standards are as bad as Dexter Ford claims riders should have been dropping like flies in crashes when wearing Snell rated helmets and we know that does Not happen.
When it comes to helmet safety I will listen to companies like Arai and Snell long before I will listen to a magazine writer with an agenda who does a one off test and then concludes he is smarter than everyone else in the helmet industry.
Your favorite hack, Dexter Ford, here. If you will actually read my 2005 story, you will learn that we simply gathered a group of manufacturer-provided, representative helmets, tested them in a fair and impartial way, and then honestly published the results. Snell, Arai and Shoei didn’t like the results, but they never successfully challenged our methods or our conclusions. We tested them all fairly, and called them as we saw them, as was our (my) duty as a realm New York Times journalist. “If the Snell standard was so bad professional racers would not wear them.” you wrote. Really? The vast majority of MotoGP riders wear ECE-rated (non-Snell helmets). That’s for going up to 215 mph, bar to bar with the best riders in the world. Snell helmets that don’t meet the ECE standards are actually illegal to wear on the road in Europe. And Snell dramatically changed its standard from 2005 to 2010, adopting graduated-weight head forms and lower impact levels for different-sized helmets for the first time, largely because the problems pointed out in my article. In 2005, Snell actually said: “We have no evidence that smaller heads weight less than bigger heads”. They then actually did some measuring and weighing, and, guess what—suddenly agreed, size by size, weight by weight, with the ECE (European standards) head-size and headform weight relationships. In effect, they surrendered (did what we suggested) and declared victory. Moan all you want, but my article changed the Snell standard for the better. And likely saved thousands of men, and especially smaller-headed women and children with smaller, lighter heads, from death or life-destroying head injuries. Harry Hurt, the most- respected motorcycle-injury and head-injury scientist in the world, praised our article as living up to the highest standards of scientific enquiry. Your move.
I just checked to see if any Arai helmets meet all the major standards: DOT, ECE and Snell 2015. Their carbon-fiber, total-premium RX- 7V RC helmet , which retails for $2,794.58 in Europe, does not meet the 2015 Snell standard. It does meet the ECE 22-05 standard. It’s safe to say that every racer in MotoGP wearing an Arai helmet is wearing this—a non-Snell helmet. It’s worth noting that when Snell created its 2010 standard, its stated purpose was to make all the major international helmet standards achieveable in a single helmet. Now, over ten year later, no manufacturer has offered a helmet that meets Snell, DOT and ECE. Snell stated, back in 2009, that its fabulous new Snell 2010 standard was created “in cooperation with helmet manufacturers”. None of which, in the 11 years since, has managed to produce a helmet that passes all the standards the new Snell standard was created to pass. In short, they promised a “all-standard: helmet standard—and failed to make it happen.
Hi Dexter!
I sent you an email and I hope you get it.
Regards.
Hi Dexter!
I appreciate your quest for truth and agree with your findings/criticism of headform testing criteria. Well done making the effort to independently test helmets and get answers!
With regards to a “one helmet to rule them all” standard, I also haven’t found one that hits DOT, ECE, FIM, JIS, BSI and Snell (yet), but I can confirm that the Arai RX-7V (Europe’s version of the Corsair-X) qualifies as ECE 22-05 and Snell M2015 according to the people at Arai that I spoke with in December when I toured the factory in Omiya.
It’s looking like slowly the different standards are working together to find common ground, but they aren’t there yet as you point out. M2020D and M2020R seem to suggest that from what I can tell and I hear ECE 22-06 is coming soon, though I don’t have any details on it yet.
At any rate I appreciate both points of view on what is a controversial and at times confusing topic for mere mortals such as myself and the average helmet buyer. Our goal is the same noble one: saving lives. I think that should lead to constructive dialogue between all parties involved, should it not? I hope eventually we can get a common standard to subscribe to.
thanks for contributing Bill and Dexter. It’s great to have you here.
The further a sun visor is away from your face, the more light that comes in from underneath, fact. ECE rated helmets do allow for internal sun visors and are allowed by all racing organizations, and using your anology, they are also not dropping like flies. The Snell standard has been revised since the article by Dexter Ford, and his opinion wasn’t his opinion alone. And he lost his job over that article, so much for free speech if it upsets advertisers Since he certainly didn’t seen to benefit from the article, what exactly was his agenda.
Arai will never, ever make a helmet with an internal sun visor,
which significantly compromises overall structural integrity. Arai will only produce the absolute safest helmets possible. The Regent-X is the latest example of continuous research and development in order to provide nothing less than maximum protection.
The crown of a helmet, the area that would supposedly be compromised by an internal sun visor, is the area with the lowest percentage of impact. And as I understand it the Shoei Neotec has compensated for this, but as a flip up helmet it would still lack Snell certification. I’ll take the convenience of a modular helmet and a slight tradeoff in safety over the hassle of removing a full face helmet to eat, drink, talk any day.