Arai Quantum II - Review

by Rick K. for webBikeWorld.com

Also known as the Arai Astro/J in Europe.

wBW Reviews Home  |  Comments from owners (below)

NOTE:  See update below regarding broken Arai visor

We've reviewed quite a few helmets over the last couple of years (21 not counting this Arai) and we've tried many more.  But we always seemed to skip Arai's offerings, so I figured it was about time to see what all the fuss is about.

After all, any company that has scored #1 in the J.D. Power and Associates Motorcycle Helmet Satisfaction studies for the last 6 years deserves a closer look. 

And, in the webBikeWorld tradition, any company that stands on such a high pedestal and whose products are some of the most expensive in its class will get extra-close scrutiny!

Now I know there are tons of Arai fans out there, but there are just as many who think the helmets are too expensive and possibly undeserved of their reputation.  Google "arai helmet review" and you'll see what I mean.  Some trouble in the Arai paradise?

And how about that competition?  There are some outstanding helmets out there - like the Shark RSR, our webBikeWorld "Helmet of the Year" in 2004, which we think has the plushest, most comfortable liner going.  Or the Shoei RF-1000, probably the best all-around, every day helmet for the price.  Or how's this for blasphemy: how about the Scorpion EX-700, a surprisingly good effort that's both DOT and Snell approved and can be yours for about 1/3 the price of the Arai Quantum II.

Arai is known for producing three different helmet shell shapes; the so-called "long oval", the "round oval" for "earth" shaped heads like mine,  and the relatively new "intermediate oval" of the Arai Astral (see the wBW Motorcycle Helmet FAQ page for more detailed information on choosing and fitting motorcycle helmets).  As far as I know, Arai is the only motorcycle helmet manufacturer offering helmets in more than one head shape, and they should be commended for that.  Surely that accounts for some of the extra cost of an Arai over other helmets, and I, for one, will gladly pay a premium for a premium fit.

And fit it does - I must say that the Quantum II in size XL fits me better than just about any other motorcycle helmet I've ever tried.  My "earth" shaped head has been a real problem when it comes to motorcycle helmet comfort.  My cheeks and temples are wider than the rest of my head, and most helmets cause a very uncomfortable pressure in that area, sometimes to the point of excruciating pain after as few as 20 minutes.

So score one for the Quantum.  The other factor that convinced me was the sales person at the local motorcycle shop.  Arai stopped selling their helmets via the Internet a few years back, and the products are (legally) only available through an authorized dealer.  I guess Arai's volume is low and they don't mind keeping it that way, because surely the extraordinary popularity of the Internet and Arai's absence over the last few years means that the Arai brand is not foremost in the mind of potential new riders.

Supposedly, the official Arai dealers must have staff trained to explain and correctly fit Arai helmets.  I stopped at three local shops to try on the Quantum, and two of the three shops had staff with no idea what they were talking about (and the helmets on their shelves were awful dusty). 

The third had an extremely helpful and knowledgeable sales person who seemed to know everything possible about Arai helmets.  She helped me with fit, opened up new boxes of helmets to show me colors, took lots of time to show me how to completely disassemble the helmet, the liner and the visor (which I promptly forgot, unfortunately) and more.  It worked, because she got me to fork over nearly 600 bucks on an ice-cold January day when sales were, to say the least, slow.

Anyway, back to the helmet... Trying out a new helmet in the winter is certainly a different kind of experience.  My opinion is probably slightly biased because it has been below 30 degrees Fahrenheit on every day that I've used this helmet so far.  The cold simply flows up under the chin bar and around my head, so it's kind of hard to determine how well the vents work.  About the only thing I can tell is that my head goes from cold to freezing! 

But there does seem to be plenty of air flowing through the chin vent, which empties directly on to the face (unlike some helmets, where air from the chin vent is directed up on to the back of the visor).  The combination of the top vents and the liner conspire together to provide good air flow over the top of the head also.

I have two complaints about the venting though: the top vents use a very, very tiny rocker switch button to open and close a little paddle that covers the vent holes.  I found these switches impossible to use or to feel when wearing heavy winter gloves. 

Check out this photo (left), which compares the fingertip of a winter glove to the tiny rocker switch.  Think you could tell which way is on and which way is off?

The gloves are also too thick to work the unique Arai visor vents, which are two horizontal pull-down strips at the top of the visor.  I'm not sure these really do anything anyway, other than obscure some of my vision at the top of the visor opening, so I could do without these if I had my choice.  The Arai visor isn't very resistant to fogging, but the visor vents don't seem to help.

The chin vent is difficult, but not impossible, to open with said winter gloves.  Overall, you'd think Arai (and other helmet manufacturers) would realize that function must take preference over form, and make their buttons, switches and other gizmos with big, hefty grab handles that work with big, hefty motorcycle gloves.

Which brings me to another sore point - I'm becoming convinced that this tendency of motorcycle helmet manufacturers to add all sorts of external winglets, vents, scoops and other contraptions is becoming way overdone.  I've yet to find one of these devices that actually performs as claimed.  All that these protuberances seem to do is add the ambient noise level. 

Think about it - it's the old "blowing over a Coke bottle" effect.  If you put a vent hole or scoop on top of a helmet, what do you think is going to happen when air blows over it at 70 mph? 

The Arai Quantum II is quiet when the angle of attack is acute; i.e., when riding a sportbike.  But sit up straight and the air blows over the front scoops with a fairly strong whistle.   I can put a finger on top of the scoop and the sound immediately stops, so the scoops are definitely the source of the noise.

By the way, all of us at webBikeWorld always wear earplugs and a helmet liner when riding; it's the right thing to do, a good habit to develop and will save your hearing.  See the wBW Earplugs and Hearing Protection page for more information and for a list of earplug reviews and information.

While I'm complaining, let me jump on the whiner line regarding Arai's visor removal system.  Arai makes a big deal about their "LRS upgrade" to their "Super AdSis" visor removal system.  I have no idea what this all means, but the visor removal process is simply not as effective or efficient as other helmets, like the Shoei RF-1000 or certainly the Schuberth S1, for example. 

The Arai system is clumsy, it involves the extra plastic side pod covers with all their assorted parts, and the instructions in the Arai owner's manual are absolutely inscrutable. 

I could have sworn I broke the visor the first time I removed it, because it sounds and feels like a dozen parts have cracked.  And I don't even want to try to remove the side pods - the Arai manual says something about prying out the internal red piece with a house key to remove the pods.  A house key!  On a 600 buck helmet?  I don't think so...

I'm also not too keen on Arai's system to raise and lower the visor.  There's a small button on the left-hand side that locks the visor down when closed.  It's hard to pry the visor open, especially with thick motorcycle gloves. 

There's a finger indent built into the helmet shell, but it could have been made bigger to fit a thicker finger in there.  It takes too much effort and concentration to dig around to pop open the lock and push up the visor.

The visor also does not have indents to hold it in place as it's raised.  It opens continuously, but the friction isn't very tight, and the visor on my sample will blow open at higher speeds and/or if I turn my head. 

The helmet liner is removable, which is no more or less than expected at this price range.  It's comfortable enough, but not, in my opinion, as comfortable as the Shark RSR's.  I don't get too worked up over helmet liners, maybe because I always wear a helmet liner, so I don't directly feel the effects of the liner. 

But the Quantum's liner feels about average to me, despite Arai's marketing hype that claims it's a "redesigned comfort liner" which Arai says "pays increased attention to comfort by repositioning and adding interior padding, providing a level of comfort that could previously only be found in a full, non-removable liner". 

One thing I'm not too fond of is the fit of the liner to the helmet.  The liner in my sample is loose and a bit sloppy, and a couple of the pieces are misaligned and I can see bits of foam sticking out here and there. 

The vinyl bumper that fits around the bottom of the helmet is also misaligned, and the cut line (it's a one-piece strip of vinyl that's attached to the bottom of the helmet shell) is right in the front of the helmet, rather than in the back, where it would be virtually unnoticeable. 

The cut line is right where I put my fingers when I'm putting on the helmet, so I'm also concerned that the vinyl will start to separate in that area.

The paint and finish is first rate, but I'm not thrilled with the way the side pods stick out from the sides of the helmet.  The paint doesn't match well around them and one side is already chipped after only a few weeks of riding.  I definitely like the "Re-Entry" flamed look though, and think it looks better with the black background than with the available blue.

The neck strap is comfy and has a padded liner.  The Quantum uses D-rings and it has a snap to hold the extra piece helmet strap.

The Quantum II in size XL is about mid-range in terms of weight, at 1624 grams (3 lbs., 9-1/4 oz.).  See the wBW Motorcycle Helmet FAQ page for a weight comparison for every helmet we've reviewed.

The Quantum II is available in sizes from XXXS to XXL.  List price for the Re-Entry model shown here is $580.95. 

Conclusion
The Arai Quantum II is a nice helmet, a good helmet, and it's this close to being a great helmet.  But to be honest, I'm not convinced (so far at least) that it lives up to the hype surrounding the Arai brand.  Six hundred Georges is a lot of dosh, and it should buy a perfect helmet.  My Quantum has a few flaws which are disappointing.

I'm sure we'll get howls of protest from you diehard Arai fans, but remember that we're comparing it to some of the very best in the business, including helmets like the Shark RSR, the Schuberth S1, various new Shoei models, the OGK FF-4 and others, so we're a bit jaded.

I'm hoping the Arai holds up; some of the online reviews I've read indicate that Arai quality might not always be up to snuff.  I will say that the Quantum fits me better than just about any other helmet I've tried, so it will definitely become my all-around, every day helmet.  I'll report back at a later date as the weather turns warmer.

UPDATE: I've never been keen on the Arai visor removal system -- it has way too many parts, it's too complicated (see first photo below) and the external "ears" that cover the sides of the clear visor are unnecessary on other helmet visor removal systems like the Shoei. 

The shop sales person had a lot of difficulty when showing me how to remove and install the visor, and I've always felt that this process was a hit-or-miss affair.  It sounds like something's definitely breaking when the visor is removed and I'm never quite sure whether it's been replaced correctly or not.

Well, my fears have been realized; one day as I was riding, I lifted the clear visor and heard a "pop".  The pin holding the cover on the left-hand side broke.  I got off the bike and attempted to figure out what went wrong and how to replace the cover.  I tried lifting the right-hand cover off to see if I could tell how it was installed and, wouldn't you know it, that one broke also.  There are a couple of plastic pins that are way too easy to break off -- see the second photo below.

Now I have a helmet that's completely unusable, because the covers are the only thing that hold the visor on the helmet.  So, you think you can visit Arai's website and find some contact info?  Nope... There's no information about this problem, no help and a "Coming Soon" parts ordering system.  I wonder if they'll have the correctly painted side covers? 

Needless to say, I'm not pleased at all.  Not only are the side covers an unnecessary complication, the dealers or somebody has to stock all these parts, driving up costs.

How Arai wins the J.D. Power quality surveys year after year is beyond me.  I strongly suspect that it's one of those statistical flukes, where the majority of the people that respond to the surveys are Arai owners who possibly want to say something good about the helmet to justify its high price.  See the response from "S.S." in the Comments section below...

The visor covers are the only thing holding the visor on to this complicated assembly.

Yellow arrows indicate broken tabs on both visor covers.

►Owner Comments

Comments?  Send them to Comments are ordered from most recent to oldest.

From "SBC":  "About the Arai pods, I also had one pop out when I was trying to change my visor.

I'm lucky to say that I brought it to an authorized Arai dealer and they replaced it for me for free, even though I did not buy the helmet from them.  I too do not like their visor mechanism.  So I have decided never to change my visors in fear that it will break again."

---

From "S.S.":  "I have had exactly the same experience with my Arai Quantum 2.  One side pod popped off in the middle of a multi-day motorcycle camping trip.  I spent the rest of the trip riding around with my visor duct taped in place.  Hoping it to be a fluke I replaced the side pod.

The second time happened at home, just as I was getting on my bike for my morning commute.  In disgust I went out and bought a Shoei X-Eleven.  This was my third Arai in 10 years.  The first two each saved my face in wrecks and are retired in a place of honor in my garage.  The third goes in the trash.

Some quick notes on the comparison.  The Shoei visor mechanism is obviously superior.  One rarely mentioned feature is the ability to lock it down.  At track speeds I have had the Arai visor blow open when doing a life saver.  I have found the Shoei much louder than the Arai, vents open or closed.  This is riding a VFR with the stock screen.  I am quite tall, so the wind blast hits me upper sternum to chin."

From "D.C.":  (Editor's Note:  See D.C.'s comments comparing the Quantum and the Shoei X-11 on the wBW X-11 review page).