Arai and Shoei? Why so much $$$$$

Just curious as I'm fairly new to riding and got average helmets when I purchased my bike used. Why are Arai and Shoei helmets so expensive? Are they really that much better? What makes them worth that much money? I'm just curious...not wanting to start any brand wars, just curious.

Thanks

They are very well engineered, constructed, painted, etc.

That being said, I wore a series of Shoei helmets for many years. Now I tend toward Scorpions for the street. They are 90% of what a Shoei is for 50% (or less) the cost.

When a person retires a helmet after a few years of use, it makes sense to make it priced so that the retirement isn't put off longer than necessary.

Name.

Few things I've noticed when comparing my 150 buck lid to an an Arai or Shoei....

Overall quality....
Lighter..
My helmet has one shell size across the board from xs to xxxl, so to make it fit all sizes, they add foam. Shoei uses several shell sizes. The fit will be better, for longer.
Materials for the trim edging and around the shield.
The internal visor in my helmet requires some strenght to open/close it and when it does close, it's like slamming the door on a 20 year old minivan will 700,k miles on it. The shield on a Neotec opens and closes extremely smooth and quite. like closing the door on a Lexus.

Noise levels
venting
paint

Arai and Shoei both make a helmet shell in 5 different sizes. Arai and Shoei also offer several styles that vary in shape, giving you no excuse to not find a perfect fitting helmet. Most everyone else will stuff a lot of padding into a medium and call their's a "small". Having so many different shells to make automatically cuts into the economy-of-scale manufacturing process - thus impacting price.

Take a $250 helmet and sit it next to a $500 helmet. Almost without exception - you should be able to feel the operability differences. The good stuff works right without needing forced. It also holds up better. Try to find reports of broken vents of hinge mechanisms about Arai or Shoei - complaints are very rare.

Lastly - a lot of online retailers sale Arai and Shoei at a substantial "unadvertised" rate. If you pay MSRP for an Arai or Shoei, you didn't look around much, lol.

Helmet manufacturers have come a long way, real fast. Bell and Scorpion (for example) have made great strides in trying to close the gap. While they are very close when it come to the "quality" aspect, neither come close in matching the offering of different shell shapes or sizes.

Japanese labor rates are higher than China's.

Pretty much this. Try all types/price ranges of helmets, you will notice that the more expensive ones are simply better overall. Better/easier operation, quieter, more pinlock options, more features, lighter, etc.

Fit is more related to safety than brand for the most part.

+1 on quality, fit and finish.

I have access to the inventory of a moto store and have tried most of everything, in the end I always come back to my arais mostly because they're a perfect fit for me....I do have to say that hjc's has vastly improved, their high end line rpha 10 is significantly close to arai and shoei and at an entry level they're fg17 is a great option, both of them available w pinlock shields, I definitely recommend them to entry level customers

I got a brand new shoei x-12 for a song and it is by far the nicest helmet I have ever owned. The visor mech is butter smooth, has like 6 vents, and the quality is just obvious. Kind of one of those "get what you pay for" instances.

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Exactly. You get what you pay for, not necessarily in terms of safety, but in terms of weight, comfort, and build quality.

I wore a variety of inexpensive street bike helmets, mostly HJC, for the first 8 years of riding. They were fine, nothing was wrong with them and they fit me well enough. Last year I splurged and bought a much more expensive Euro-market Schuberth. It was worth it: far lighter, far more comfortable, and the overall fit and finish is an order of magnitude better than the best of the helmets from HJC, Icon, Fly, AGV, Nolan, etc. that I have owned in the past (which were admittedly low- to mid-range helmets).

But as Yossarian points out, there's not a linear relationship between price and quality, it's more like an exponential curve. Stuff that's 10% better costs 100% more. You need to look at the value provided and balance that with your needs and how much more you are willing to spend to get what you want vs just what you need.

Like my buddy once said....."It's like putting your head in a nice vagina"

Usually the $$$$ lids will be a layered 'fibreglass' composite shell vs the moulded plastic on cheaper stuff. The composite can be lighter for a given strength but is more expensive to make.

Sometimes though the difference between a $250 helmet & a $550 helmet is all down to how much the importer/dealer thinks they can sell them for, like my Airoh S4 which was $300 cheaper ex Europe than locally :eek1

Cheers
Clint

Many of these comments USED to be true. Now, the only justification is the name.

I wore only Arai (except for 2 go-arounds with Shoei) for over 20 years. That was because they were the only helmets that were 100% comfortable to me on a long road (i.e. even for 3 - 4 hours).

3 years ago, I discovered a fairly new (at the time, I believe) line of Bell helmets. I bought a Vortex for $180 (still the street price). Not much later, I wanted a second helmet to keep in a different location and got a Bell RS-1. I still have a couple of Arai helmets, but I haven't worn them since.

To me, the quality of the Bell Vortex and RS-1 are just as good as any Arai I've had. They actually fit me better out of the box. Arai helmets always required thicker cheek pads to fit me properly.

And the Bell shield mechanism is just like Shoei's - which I think is significantly superior to Arai's.

Finally, Bell is the only manufacturer offering Transitions faceshields that I know of. I've had one on each of my Bell helmets now, since I got them and they are fantastic. No more having to carry a spare clear shield with me, just in case I end up not getting home until after dark.

The Bell helmets are so good now, and have been for at least 3 years, that my opinion is that the high-dollar brands are no longer giving you what you pay for. You can get that fit, comfort, quality, and engineering for a lot less money. Now, the high-dollar brands are just giving you their name in exchange for your extra money.

Yeah, we can get a lot of the European brands much cheaper in Europe than in the US, although not so much with Shoei and Arai. If I'm looking, fc-moto and biker-land are the first two places to check before the US retailers.

Bell is putting out some great stuff today, but their good stuff isn't cheap either.

well in that case we all have crap helmets compared to this:eek1
http://blog.leatherup.com/2010/07/06/the-most-expensive-motorcycle-helmet-in-the-world/

Man, I'm glad you linked that. Now I know that if I see one of those I'm dealing with a trust fund hipster!

Oddly, I bought my first Shoei as a cheaper alternative to the Bell Star that I wore for nearly a decade. (that was the original Star....which cost me a full week's take home!) The Shoei seemed to have every bit as fine a fit & finish as the Bell, & both were Snell certified. I stuck with Shoei for the next 35 years or so. (Not the same one!) I'm afraid that the prices have finally scraped me off the Shoei train. My current HJC fits well, nice paint, comfy interior, & good optical quality on the visor. <1/2 of the price of an equivalent Shoei. I'll stick with them for another 25 years. I expect HJC will increase prices & at some point around 2050 I'll be looking to switch to a different lid. Maybe from Africa, by then.

I mentioned earlier of the fit finish of higher end helmets and I'm a cheap helmet owner. Visor opening and closing, buckles, straps etc are not the same.
not saying a shoei should be 300 more than it's competition, but the way it works and when I close the lid on a shoei is not the same feel as a cheaper helmet.
They are better imo, no question... but how much better is dependant on the buyer...

And I gladly pay more to get something that isn't made in China. Just out of principle.

I've used an HJC FS-15 for the past 3-4 seasons and after all the abuse it took, it was time to replace it. I went with a Shoei GT-Air since the noise rating is so low.

This is my first "premium" helmet. First off, it IS very quiet, but since I wear ear protection I wouldn't say that the noise levels justify the price. But it is noticeably quieter even with earplugs in. I've done long days in the HJC with no problems though.

It also bothers me knowing that I can't just leave the helmet on the bike like I have with my HJC (even with the SMH10 attached). With a premium brand, you have to seriously consider theft. Note, I'm talking about short jaunts into a gas station, not leaving it on a bike for long periods of time.

Second, the Shoei does look better constructed. The vents are a part of the overall design and don't have the "bolted on" feel of the HJC. That will also make the helmet more durable for day-to-day use for the bumps and scrapes that ruined my HJC.

But, the materials don't feel remarkably different. Both helmets feel pretty "plasticky" to me including things like the sun visor switch. Now, maybe the Shoei will perform better in a crash, but I sat thinking about this. When you figure what the thresholds must be for impact resistance compared to cheaper helmet and a premium helmet, what are the odds that you'll ever be in an accident where the slight difference will matter? If I'm in an accident that severe, I just can't see the difference between an A+ and B+ helmet mattering.

For me, it's the law of diminishing returns. I just don't think the extra $300 is worth it. I'm happy with the purchase since I got the low-noise levels I wanted for my Sena SMH10, but I don't think I'll jump up to this price range again.