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8/13/2022
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Santa Barbara, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
3/23/2023 9:08pm
What’s up with Shoei in American motocross lately? In the 90s/00s they dominated. Now they have a few relevant guys; Malcolm, Josh Grant, and Buttery. They had Tom Parsons in freestyle, now he’s a Fly guy. Are they focusing more on road racing? Bummer because I dig their helmets.
I’m nobody but I’ll be shoei for life. The fit is perfect for me
Not much presence as far as top racers but at least they're still developing their helmets and using newer technology. Arai has made zero changes to their MX helmet since 2014. Maybe Japanese brands are slowly getting out of moto(?). Seems like most American riders are Bell, Fox or Astars.
Last Shoei I owned the liner shit the bed pretty quick.
Noticed they seem to sponsor more off-road guys, Stu Baylor and Ben Kelley (#1 and #2 in points currently) are both in Shoei.
Never was a fan of their colorways but the one Ben Kelley has been running looks really good, obviously its a redbull helmet but the one you can buy is pretty close.
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I’ve always thought shoei had the coolest looking helmets. I’m sure everyone remembers the podcast/interview with ping about helmet testing where he mentions a very well known helmet that does surprisingly bad in the tests? I can’t help but think it’s the shoei or arai.. which keeps me from getting either (leaning more towards it being the arai).
id really love him to speak on that so I could finally be ok with getting one of those helmets
Yeah it does seem that they are not as popular. I've been wearing Shoei helmets now for 13 years or so, dirt and street. The Shoei is very comfortable to wear for me. I think the face opening is a little small for some goggles and the ventilation could be better. However, here in Texas during the summer nothing will ventilate enough!🙂
I agree with the OP's statement, havent had a Shoei in years, but got a new Arai last fall, love it. So comfortable.
I used to wear Shoei, but once I tried Bell I never looked back. Same quality for half the money. The Japanese likely just cannot keep up with the competition.
Best looking off the shelf helmet ever. I wish they would release that scheme again.
Ya that podcast with Ping really made me wonder which brand he was talking about.
I had only Shoeis for about 15 years but recently there are simply better helmets on the market.
Still my favorite shape of helmet though.
I think that was JT. Whoever it was, it was a sleezy thing to say and not worth listening to. If someone is trying to sell you a product and they say “be careful of a mystery product out there… it’s not our product, but it’s a super premium brand that is actually dangerous! We have the test to prove, but can’t tell you who.” Don’t listen to them. That doesn’t amount to anything more than marketing innuendo and it’s a chicken shit move. Publish your test results if you want to prove you’re the best. Publish them if you are actually concerned about rider safety and not your market share. If you want to sell your product, tell me why I should buy it. Don’t try to create some insidious doubt about the market in general. You’re selling dirt bike safety equipment, not a political candidate.
Rant aside, Shoe has been great for me. I’ve had 5 over the last 10 years between street and dirt helmets. They look great, fit great and hold up well. I think they’re a bit heavier than others due to the composite they use and the compound curves, but they carry the weight near the mastoid and don’t have a bobble head feel.
One thought that might be interesting in this conversation. The popularity or apparent proliferation of both Shoei and Arai in the US is largely influenced by their prices being relatively high. And that is directly due to their respective US importers setting the prices that way and strictly controlling the pricing they are allowed to be sold at. Having lived in Japan, I can tell you it's nothing but a sea of Shoei and Arai over there because the US importers are out of the picture and the prices are much more reasonable.
Had a VFX in the mid-90's. LOVED that lid. Had a high end Arai but was for street. These days there are so many GREAT quality and looking helmets out there for a 1/4 of the price of a Shoei
I wore shoei for quite a few years & was on the rider support program. For a while I got 1 free helmet & 50% off then it dropped to 50% off about 2-3 years ago then last year they said they no longer do rider support & there will be a new rider support program for this year. End of last year I sent a resume & they told me they are launching a grass roots program through the dealers. I tried to get on that through my local Shoei dealer & they declined it & said my Shoei dealer does not purchase enough Shoei's to qualify then I tried to run it through another dealer who will qualify & they essentially said no.
Not thrilled with the new rider support program & was just recently sponsored by 6D so am trying one of those!
It was Ping
Love my Shoei's!!
I wore a VFX-W for years then went to a Moto 9 and now I'm running an Astars SM-8.
Shoei and Bell simply feel heavy compared to Astars. I love the look of the SM-8/SM-10 as well.
Pit Row
Been wearing Shoei since the late 90s because they fit my oval head better than any other helmet. 6D is tight in the forehead, TLD is ok but I have to go up a size to XL and look like bobble head, I just tried on the Moto 10 and was disappointed in how round it was because I was looking forward to trying one. My current EVO is about 2.5 years old and will pick up a second one soon!
I just got back from trying on helmets at chaparral. I have a giant head..
I’ll either end up with a large shoei or another xl TLD when it comes time for a new helmet. I wish TLD had a size between l and xl
Arai and Shoei are the two best helmets made, no need for them to make any changes
I don't know man, I keep going back to Arai. Every time I try on the latest, greatest, carbon-fiber/MIPS/unobtanium/black magic voodoo helmet, it's a real disappointment.
It's like growing up driving German cars and expecting everybody else's car to be the same. When you jump into a Honda, even a really nice one, it's a noticeable difference. Not in a good way, either. The same is like putting on any other helmet for me.
Arai is a great helmet as long as you don't hit your head. Very high quality, very hard, but very round.
They've both said it. I was always curious who the brands were.
No need for changes? Helmet safety and information on head injuries can always improve. Full disclosure, I've owned mutliple Shoei VFX-W's and an Arai VX pro 4. Both were great helmets, but Arai is still running an ancient Styrofoam and shell style platform. I would think by now they would have switched to a MIPS/MEDS/6D omni-directional style system. The VX Pro 4 was one of the most comfy helmets I've ever owned, but I think I'll stick to 6D until improvements are made.
Have you tried different pad sizes inside of the L and XL helmets to get a more custom fit?
I had the PFS system on my SHOEI done at their Tustin HQ and it was a game changer. I've always worn Large and after going through this measurement process they recommended I wear a Medium with some changes to the padding. That was about 2 years ago and the helmet still fits me like new.
Looks like they are now doing these PFS fittings at dealers.
Mxa did a good article on aria a few years back.
As it read then it was still owned by the family. Not sold out to a larger corporation,And they had a very strong ethos on how there helmets were designed and functioned in a crash.
How long does Shoei normally take to redesign the VFX?
Or how long was the VFX-W production run, and when did the VFX-Evo start production run?
My VFX-W is almost 7 years old, and ready to be replaced by a VFX Evo if it fits similarly. I get the feeling there will be a new VFX-2025ish though. I might try a $300 Snell rated Bell to hold me over.
To pass the snell test the helmets are typically heavier.
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