Arai Condor nearing its end...
 

I got this Condor about 3 years ago, and since then it's been used daily... Only about 20000 miles on it but because so many trips are short it's worn a little faster than you'd think. Fit's still good but the lining's falling to bits, and the cheap Arais aren't as servicable as the top notch ones.

I'll really miss it... It's been all-day comfy, it survived 2 decent sized knocks in crashes with just a few scratches and still tested out fine at Arai, it's not too noisy... The weight's OK too, and it's great in bad weather. Good finish on the outside as well, it's scratched but then I did whack it off Knockhill at 70mph, then again at 60 and 50 :) Lots of people don't like the visor mechanism, because it feels like you're killing it when you use it- but I've changed visors hundreds of times on this one and it's always worked fine, just feels bad.

I still seriously dislike Arai's vents, I think they're ridiculously fiddly and overcomplicated- using them with winter gloves isn't so easy, and the visor vents are just plain daft- cut into your field of vision, make the visors expensive, and don't do anything that the brow vent in my old HJC did (much simpler). The wee lock on the visor's a joke too IMO. In fact, all of my actual gripes are centred around the visor.

But, that's really my only beef. I'm very likely to buy Arai again, most likely a higher model (Signet GT, maybe, HG are clearing stock)- it wasn't that cheap but it's lasted more than twice as long as my HJC, didn't cost twice as much, and it's still perfectly wearable- I'm going to patch it up for a spare. The HJC was dead when I replaced it...

Obviously it helps that I have the classic Arai Head :)

You can see the chips in the side in this pic- that's all that it has to show for that 70mph getoff, and it did take some hits. It's also been bounced a few times through incompetence :) But like I mentioned, I had it checked by Arai and they passed it despite taking abuse that would make most people scrap their lids- I would have probably replaced it if I'd not had the option to check it out.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...r/6be7473c.jpg

Re: Arai Condor nearing its end...
 

Of the tank? :wink: My Arai was the best and it survived a couple offs too - I want another! - Got an HJC, BMW & carbon composite AGV but nothing is like my Arai.

That's my spare tank, thoughtfully precrashed by a nice gentleman on Ebay :) It was mighty handy having you around in the pits that day to tell people that my bike isn't usually a smashed up, grafitti'd, smoking heap of ****.

ARAI's are king IMHO

it takes 18 hours to make an RX7 (corsair) each one is hand built & every part of the lid has been marked by every person who has fitted a part, there is approx 15/16 litres of air flow per minute & it is made up using something called SNC ( structural net composite) this acts just like the wire mesh you get in buildings embedded into the concrete. By using SNC you can make the crash helmets incredibly strong.

Different arai's have different construction methods the RX 7 which is the top lid has snc others like the viper gt use CLC (complex laminate construction)

all the crash helmets are made of polycarbonate + various other materials.

the official uk importer for arai are phoenix distribution. if you buy an non uk spec crash helmet then you have real trouble getting any spare parts for it as europe, asia & americas use different shape arai crash helmets & different colour schemes.

phoenix will inspect you arai using a high power magnefiging glass (not an xray as most people think) if you drop it or have a crash. they do this free of charge also they will replace the chin strap once free as well.

YOU MUST ONLY USE WATER OR SHIFT PRODUCTS TO CLEAN YOUR ARAI & ARAI VISOR this is very important, using anything else including any other visor cleaners like auto glym etc will rapidly decay your arai's plastic's & vents & visor in the end causing things to break & snap off.

Also US Arais are built differently with a stiffer shell to pass the SNELL tests, which exaggerate stiffness over absorption.

Didn't know that about the magnifying glass... I thought the point was to find out if the inner shell was deformed?

yes they will also check the inside, for any indents

Ah, from the head side then. I'd got the impression that it was impacts from the outside causing hidden deformation between the shells that they looked for. Interesting stuff.

Incidentally, Hein Gericke are selling off old stock Signet GTs for £230 currently, in black only. I'd have snapped one up but the visors aren't L-type so I'd need to get another black one and a pair of inserts, pushes the price way back up :(

yes the visors are different what do you mean by inserts??

Signets are a good lid - I bought two (one for me, one for MrsMatt) when Crescent had them half price at their open day in 2005, which was nice :wink:

Fog Cities or similiar...

ohh right well careful there due to the curve of the signet visor you cannot fit the pinlock as for the fogcity i am not sure

I think Fog Cities should work, they're not so sensitive to curves as a Pinlock.

Still on the fence though. One for the shows maybe, this one's got a couple more months in it.

well just so you know i have a union jack signet in the welling hg, as far as i know it's the only one in all hg shops

I'm tempted towards one of these millions of Astro Rs that are discounted, well, everywhere just now. A Sete rep maybe, to make it extra cheap :) You can get them for less than the RRP of a Condor at the moment.

astro r sete :? is it an import

Ah, no, it is in fact me talking utter crap :oops: It's a Corsair isn't it, the Sete rep. I think I was thinking of the Stalker one- the really ugly one that you tend to find in the sales :)

yeah new sete is a corsair.

:lol: the ugly one in all the sales :lol: yeah know what you mean :lol:

Re: Arai Condor nearing its end...
 

Arise zombie thread and do my bidding :D

Thought I'd tag on the end of Northy's thread rather than starting a new one as yesterday I bought.... a Condor (same colour too!)

Yes, I know I'm the one that's always banging on about how cheap lids aren't the death traps that the Arai/Shoei marketing departments would have you believe - and I'll still stand by that, from a pure safety point of view, if it's got an ECE pass I'm happy. But taking into account all the other factors, the Arai came out on top. This replaces a Shark S600 which I'd been meaning to replace due to it's age for a while, falling head first onto a kerb stone just kinda made the decision for me and it had to start it's new life as a flower pot.

So, first impressions are remarkably similar to northwind's. Vents work fine and do their job no better or worse than my Shark but they're damn near impossible to operate with gloves and they look so very delicate. My Shark had all of two vents, a chunky big chin vent and a chunky big brow vent. That's it. Two. They had an open, a half-way, and a closed position and could be easily operated at speed. They worked fine, gave more than enough airflow and were durable to the end. Same airflow seems to be achieved in the Arai via five little tiny vents operated by levers no bigger than a pin head.

Next gripe - the visor. I really do detest the left side "race lock" opening thingy, far too fiddly with gloves, twists the visor in a disconcerting way. I'm sure I'll get used to this, but I never had to get used to the visor opening in any other lid and the "problem" it solves (presumably visor flying open when you look over your shoulder whilst on the move) is not a problem I've experienced on any lid other than my very first one (which was about 15 years ago, a very cheap and nasty BS Type B thing).
I guess it's a personal thing, but I really prefer ratcheted visors over the Arai ratchetless system. In every other lid I've had (including really cheap and nasty ones) opening the visor a fraction to allow some demist airflow etc is simply a case of lifting it to the first ratchet. Arai's solution just seems pointlessly fiddly and near on impossible to operate with gloves at speed - I just can't see the advantage it provides that justifies the extra hassle compared to a "traditional" system.
I don't really change visors very often - a light tint seems fine for me dawn through dusk, wheras with dark tints I always found myself changing visors when a cloud came out. But again, the Arai system is easy enough, it just doesn't feel right - you always feel like you're having to exert too much force and some small component is about to ping off - I'm sure it won't, it just doesn't feel as natural as other lids which just slot into place without trouble.

So that's the bad points done with. Good points :D

The fit - oh my is this comfy. Safely tight but evenly snug all round, and crucially for me, they've accomodated speccy four eyes as well - glasses arms slide in and out with ease, and when on you don't get crushed lug-holes syndrome. Really, really comfy.

Shell size - this is where Arai/Shoei etc really do shine. "Little people" (like me) get much more of a benefit here than others but boy is it a massive benefit. My small size Condor actually has a small size shell. For the first time in my biking life I don't look like (well look less like) Mr Mushroom Man. And it's a huge boon to comfort too, looking around doesn't induce massive inertial forces and you don't bang your own shoulders when looking over them.

Weight - probably also helped by the shell size, but it's so much lighter. I never really noticed a problem with the weight of previous lids but now I've "seen the light" as it were you can really tell a difference in overall comfort and freedom. It's like the difference between wearing Doc Martins and flip flops - whilst wearing DMs you don't notice the weight but take them off and everything feels all light and easy.

Noise - I couldn't class it as a quiet lid, but it's certainly the quietest one I've owned. Still need plugs, but I think that's the case with every lid really, but the overall noise level is notably lower than my previous lid. Crucially, what noise is left over isn't dominated by any particular frequency - I've had lids where the overall dB level is acceptable but the frequency is irritating, high pitched whistles and the like.

Pinlock - could never bring myself to DIY fit a pinlock to the Shark lid, so factory installed pinlock on the Condor is a big bonus. And wow. Pinlock. I was a pinlock virgin and after only one ride I'm now a dirty pinlock *****. As soon as they bring out pinlock for specs I'll be completely sorted, but in the meantime it's an absolute miracle. I've never seen an anti fog application that both lives up to it's claims and does so without fuss, without mess, without maintenance.

Arai after sales support - this was the thing that swung it for me really. Pretty much all the good points mentioned above could be found in other manufacturer's lids, and the bad points mentioned often aren't found. But the after sales is really does make it worth putting up with the odd niggle. We kitted the missus out in a tiny little XXS Astro Light last year and the HG shop staff made sure she got a perfectly safe fit - but they arranged for the Arai rep to come to the store a week later who arrived with a big box of pads and bits and spent a good hour making sure first that the HG staff had got the safety right (they had - big up HG helmet fitting), and subsequently getting the comfort just right, all completely free. And as northwind illustrated, the simple ability to get your lid safety checked and serviced is something that's both likely to save you money in the long run and something I don't think any other manufacturer does (or does so well).

Re: Arai Condor nearing its end...
 

Its really disconcerting isnt it, but after a few times you get used to that, "Surely its going to break" feeling.

A good tip is did you get that tiny little pot of silicone lube ? If so rub a bit of that around the holes in the visor where it clicks into the lid, it really does make changing it easier.

Re: Arai Condor nearing its end...
 

Ooh, I did, I'll do that now because it'll only take a week for that little pot to migrate down through the layers of my toolbox to the jurassic layer, from where it'll never be seen again until dug up by archaeologists in hundreds of years time.

Re: Arai Condor nearing its end...
 

i've just bought a condor after i ruined my last helmet when it made friends with the road at high speed...the visor got ripped off and left me with a sore nose and lots of little cuts etc etc

the condor visor looks more sturdy than my previous Lazer, and looks far less prone to being ripped open.

The fit is really good too for me, mucho impressed!