LEGEND T H E
M A K I N G
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Mr Arai: why he won’t compromise on safety The secret museum – inside Arai Europe The most famous Arai helmets How a helmet is born PLUS: Jonathan Rea pull-out poster
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Did you know? ‘’I have raced professionally with Arai for years. I know how important superior helmet protection can be, especially under extreme racing conditions. That’s why not only world championship riders like me, but also half of the Formula 1 grid uses Arai. And these racers use exactly the same helmet you can wear.’’ Cal Crutchlow, MotoGP rider
Find more about the R75 SHAPE concept at: araihelmet.eu or
Joey Dunlop Mick Doohan Kevin Schwantz Freddie Spencer Randy Mamola
For the 13th consecutive year Arai ranks
Historical heads
2011 number one in the J.D. Power results. ProShade external visor shade system 2014 Arai released.
Dominique Aegerter Esteve Rabat Takaaki Nakagami Azlan Shah Axel Pons
is he first manufacturer to use a 2009 Arai Max Vision visor. More than 50% of the F1 grid, and 30% of 2010 the MotoGP riders use Arai. Arai’s first commercially-available carbon 2010 fibre helmet, the RX7 RC is launched.
Moto2
Five-year warranty introduced.
Nicky Hayden Daniel Pedrosa Cal Crutchlow Karel Abraham Maverick Viñales © Copyright: Henk Keulemans
of the people I met, and to see the processes that predate our own first expeience of a new helmet, makes it a fascinating journey. Spending two days with Mr Michio Arai, President of Arai, and his son Akihito Arai, was no less fascinating. This is no cynical, faceless, profit-driven manufacturing business; the unswerving dedication to protecting riders’ lives is omnipresent in everyone from Mr Arai to the newest member of staff learning their craft. A business analyst could strip-out fifty
1993 RX-7 model launched. First model with 1996 the Diffuser ventilation system. Carbon fibre helmets mandatory in 2005 F1, Arai debuts theirs at Magny Cours. VX-3 launched, the first helmet featuring 2006 the Emergency Release System.
Motogp
1986 Michio Arai becomes President. 26 out of the 28 Formula One drivers 1986 wear Arai. Arai introduces AdSis, the world’s first 1988 tool-less visor system.
rai is one of the world’s most famous helmet brands, and to step inside the Omiya factory in Japan is a genuine assault on your senses. Truly iconic helmets and famous signatures adorn every spare inch of wall, and the smell of fiberglass, paint, and new EPS liners is a muchmagnified version of that moment when you first un-box your new Arai. Having worn Arai helmets for 21 years, and knowing that every one of them originated here, passed through the hands
Hirotake Arai passes away (June 14).
1950 forming resin-impregnated shells. Arai makes first Fibre Reinforced 1952 Plastic helmets in Japan. First Arai motorcycle helmets 1952 released, and used by off-road racers. Arai starts helmet production as ‘HA’ 1956 (Hirotake’s initials). First Arai with FRP shell and EPS liner 1958 – the modern helmet is born Split mould manufacturing process 1959 invented. Michio Arai returns from studying in 1962 the USA to run the export division. HA produces the first Snell certified 1963 Japanese helmet. R-6M certified to Snell 1968 standard. 1967 First full-face model introduced. New company identity, first use of 1971 ‘Arai’ name on helmets. Arai commences motorcycle-racing 1977 support in Japan. Japanese emperor conferrs 1978 decoration upon Hirotake Arai. Freddie Spencer is Arai’s first World 1983 Champ. Arai Racing Service launched. Arai starts sponsorship of Formula 1984 One drivers (with Keke Rosberg). Introduction of the eyebrow 1985 ventilation in the visor.
Hirotake Arai develops process for heat
1905 Helmet, Limited is born in Tokyo. Hirotake Arai establishes Omiya 1937 factory to make headgear. starts to make workers’ safety 1949 Arai helmets.
Hirotake Arai, the founder of Arai
Key arai milestones
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Welcome MCN ARAI SPECIAL
percent of the firm’s costs in a single day, but the Arai family is proud of the processes that ensure their quality control, and that they use people – not machines – to make their helmets. It’s a bastion of human interest triumphing over commercialism, enriched by the family’s genuine love of riding motorcycles.
Richard Newland, MCN Senior Editor
Just some of the stars who trust their heads to an Arai helmet
Trusted by top racers
World Superbike
Leon Haslam Jonathan Rea Davide Giugliano Michael van der Mark Christophe Ponsson
MCN ARAI SPECIAL
HOW TO BUILD AN ARAI The exhaustive process of protection: we step inside Arai’s Japanese factories to follow the journey that Arai repeats over 300,000 times a year – always with the same precision WORDS & IMAGES RICHARD NEWLAND
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Genesis of a helmet
1 Design & prototyping
New Arais are created by hand first, then 3D-scanned by laser and loaded into their bespoke CAD software, where the design team can hone the design shape, vent positions, and visor apertures.
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All Arai fibreglass helmets start life in the same way, with the construction of the outer shell. Super-Fibre strings form the base of the shell, and other materials such as Kevlar, Nylon and carbon fibre are used on selected shells. The Super-Fibre strings are chopped into uniform lengths as they are pulled into a large suction chamber, and then sprayed onto a metal mesh mould as it spins, resulting in what looks like a straw hat. This hat is then weighed to ensure that it’s within a tight weight tolerance of just 4g.
HOW T O
3 Forming the shell
This outer shell and further Super-Fibre and other fibre materials are then laid into a mould, and coated with a bonding resin, before an inflatable bladder is inserted (where you head would go), and inflated to force the raw materials and resin into the walls of the mould. The mould is then heated to cook the outer shell, forming what we could recognize as a helmet.
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Nowhere to hide
The hot shell is taken from the moulding device (which is never allowed to fully cool in order to maintain production speed). At this stage it could be described as a ‘blank’, as it doesn’t have any apertures for the visor opening or vents, it is simply a shaped shell. It is also surprisingly translucent at this stage, with the core layers clearly visible. Every Arai shell bears the name of the technician who built it, forever bonded into the construction of the shell.
A laser cuts the visor and vent apertures
5 It’s a laser
The cooled shell is then mounted into the laser-cutting robot to have the visor opening, chin and other main vents cut. Each shell is fitted with a jig to ensure that every single shell is cut to the same exacting standards. With three different shell sizes for each design, this also means three different jig sizes. Arai use lasers (rather than oil or water), as they believe it gives a sharper cut, and doesn’t fray the aperture’s edges.
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MCN ARAI SPECIAL
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Checked, twice
Every shell is then carefully inspected for thickness, weight (again) and structural integrity. If a shell weighs too much, too little, or has any thick or thin patches, it is rejected. Then, just to be completely confident, every shell is sent to another inspection department where all the same weights and measures are doublechecked. The number of faults found is miniscule, but Michio Arai refuses to compromise on this laborious process – every shell has to be perfect.
A spring-mounted caliper measures the shell thickness – every single shell will be checked twice
7 Perfect base
Approved shells are then coated with a light putty-like filler, and sanded back, ensuring that every pinhole or area of roughness in the raw fiberglass shell is filled and smoothed prior to painting. The shell is then undercoated by hand in Arai’s massive state-of-the-art painting bays. The shell will then be sanded again, and checked for any pinhole imperfections. This process is repeated twice, to achieve a fine, even surface for the finishing coat. The shell is weighed again, ensuring too much paint hasn’t been added, which would result in the process being repeated.
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Decals being applied to the template guidelines
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HOW T O
Paint and decals
The shells then move to the decal application stage. All this work is done by hand, but the accuracy has to be millimetre-perfect. To achieve this, every shell is fitted with a fiberglass template for every design, and every decal line is marked onto the shell by hand, giving the decal applicators their positioning guides. The most detailed design requires 150 guidelines. The decals are separated from their print sheets into water baths, then floated into position. Once dry, the invisible external application layer is removed. Without this accuracy, the side-pod designs would never line up with the shell design. Only three of Arai’s replica helmets are still painted completely by hand, using decals only for the Arai badges.
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Perfect finish
Every guideline for the decals is drawn on to the base coat by hand
The helmets are then cleaned and prepped for lacquering, and sprayed in a dust-tight room against a wall of flowing water, which catches all over-spray and flows it away under the mezzanine floor. Even the intakes for the airconditioned spray room have huge dust filters, ensuring that no imperfections are introduced to the paint or lacquer. Once the shell design is completed, it is checked yet again for any errors or imperfections in the paint or decals, and will be rejected if any are found.
Spencer replica helmets being masked-up by hand, ready for painting
Racks of dust-free helmets await their final coat of lacquer before being fitted with vents, an EPS, and visor system
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MCN ARAI SPECIAL
10 Driller killer
The shells then move to the assembly factory, where holes for visor fixing mechanism, chinstrap and ventilation ducts are drilled. The drill bits have to be razor sharp, and are tested before every batch on a reject helmet before customers’ helmets are drilled. Various collets and threaded nuts are then pressed into the relevant holes, ready for the attachment of visors, vents and chinstraps. An army of workers then hand-fit the visor seal, vents, and the main aperture trim. These are all trimmed and fitted by hand, and glued in place. The helmets are weighed again to ensure no-one has been too exuberant with the glue.
Shock absorber
The shock-absorbing EPS inner shell is then installed into the outer shell. This is also done by hand, and it’s a physical process. The shell is placed inverted on a mounting bench, the EPS lightly lubricated, and a few dabs of mastic added. Polythene easing strips are then laid on the shell edges, and the EPS is forced into the shell, and positioned before the glue sets. The skilled fitters do this in just two movements – every time.
A reject shell is used to test the drill’s sharpness
11 12 Safety measures
What is now recognisably a helmet, is then fitted with its chin-strap. Clearly this is a crucial element in the helmet’s construction, and only three Arai employees are certified to perform this role, which is considered as one of the most honoured jobs in the factory. The speed an accuracy with which the strap is riveted in place is poetic to watch, before the fitter double-checks their own work, and passes the helmet down the line.
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HOW T O
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Visor alignment
Every stage of the process is supported by reference check sheets
Visor ventilation ducts are then inserted into the brow and the chinbar section of the EPS is fitted if the helmet is a fullface version. The almost-finished helmet then has its visor mechanism and visor fitted. This is a fiddly process, made to look very simple. With the base-plate loosely affixed, the visor is put in place, and dummy side-pods fitted, which have hole in them to give access to the plate fixings. With the visor perfectly aligned the plates are tightened, and the dummy pods removed, and replaced by the correct ones.
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Prepped for distribution
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Vents and ducts
Final external vents and ducts (for helmets like the RX7 GP) are then added, again using fiberglass jigs to ensure perfect uniformity between every helmet produced. With every global market requiring different labeling, there are myriad crib-sheets for employees in the finishing department, giving them a guide to follow for which markets require which stickers. Once fitted, along with the main Arai logos on plain helmets – again, using a fiberglass template – the helmets are then weighed again, polished, and readied with all the correct manuals, paperwork, and market-specific packing stickers.
The bagged helmets are then inserted into those iconic blue and white boxes, padding added for transit, and manuals inserted. The market-specific stickers are applied to the boxes, and they are loaded for global distribution.
what is super-fibre?
Normal fibreglass just isn’t good enough for Arai, so they worked with a supplier to create Super-Fibre, an evolution of the material that boasts six times the strength. Arai’s material innovation is brought into sharp focus when you handle the raw materials they use – and don’t use. With fat lolly-stick samples to play with, normal fibreglass snaps and splinters with almost no effort. The Super-Fibre tab takes dramatically more effort to break, at
which point it doesn’t shatter or splinter, but maintains much of its structural integrity despite the fault line. Kevlar snaps like a twig, but is hard to rip, while normal carbon fibre material is initially strong, but shockingly brittle. When you compare it to the fat-weave carbon Arai use for their wildly expensive RC, the difference is amazing. The tab bent almost in half before it succumbed, and when it did, it took a lot of abuse to separate the two halves. There’s a lot more to the materials than meets the eye.
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J O NAT H A N R E A Factory rider Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R/Arai RX-7 GP
© Copyright: Henk Keulemans
MCN ARAI SPECIAL
“Protection above all else”
From the outside, Arai looks like a company frozen in time – but step inside you’ll find and the truth is very different
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here’s a remarkable calmness, steely confidence, and evident joy of life all simultaneously emanating from the unblinking eyes of Mr Michio Arai, President of the worldrenowned firm since 1986, as he sits across from me in the boardroom of Arai’s Omiya headquarters. Most 75-year-olds would be working hard to enjoy their retirement, but immaculatelysuited ‘Mitch’ – as he was dubbed by the Americans while studying in the States in the early Sixties – shows no sign of stepping down, or slowing down. “I don’t ever want to hear someone’s family say ‘If only he’d been wearing a different helmet’ about an Arai. What we do is a great privilege, and we must strive to provide protection above all else,” he says. It’s a mantra repeated by every member of staff I meet in my two days at the factory. As the firm rapidly developed in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Michio Arai used his race contacts to establish their first ‘factory rider’, Skip Aksland, a vocal young American who tested the firm’s early Styrofoam-lined helmets to destruction. But he kept getting up after every crash, providing the globally emerging Arai brand with a walking, and loud talking, brand ambassador. It was at this point that Michio took the decision that Arai would never make bespoke helmets for racers. “This was good for quality control, because each and every person making helmets in our factory knew that any one of the helmets they made could be worn by a top-level racer. The same is still true today.” It’s easy to criticise the iconic brand for standing still, for failing to innovate or follow the latest trends and fashions in helmet design. Its RX7 has looked fundamentally the same for almost two decades, and is considered by many as archaic in shell shape, devoid of the latest features common elsewhere, and all at a premium price, too. But time inside the factory demonstrates Arai’s unswerving commitment to development. They boast the latest manufacturing technology, materials
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WORDS and images RICHard NEWLAND
research, impact testing, and phenomenal attention to detail and quality control. Every helmet is hand made, each taking an average of 18 man-hours to complete as it journeys through the factory. “We are fine-tuning now,” says Michio. “The basic design of helmets has not changed since the very early days of Arai. It is still a shell, with an EPS, but what we do now is develop materials. The fibreglass we use has much improved energy management characteristics. It is six times more expensive than normal fibreglass, but we use it because it delivers better protection. “Our multi-density EPS is now very advanced, too. In a crash your helmet must be able to cope with multiple impacts, it must act like a shock absorber for your head. This is why we use the R75 shape [Arai’s trademark domed shell], because the helmet must slide smoothly as you scrub off speed. Lots of designs now have ridges and lips, and these can cause the helmet to grip in a crash. The R75 shape does not do this.
“When the global economic crisis hit five years ago, many helmet manufacturers looked for gimmicks to sell their helmets, or looked to save costs. If we can make a helmet cheaper this is good because it is welcomed by buyers, but if in making a helmet cheaper you forget about protection, this is a bad thing. If Arai were making cheap helmets like this I wouldn’t be able to sleep, I would quit. “We did nothing like this. We missed some progress, but we did not go backwards either. Take our helmet from five years ago, and from now, and today’s will look the same but perform better. Our development is inside, it is invisible.” So what of the future for Arai? “The market is now picking up, we are developing new helmets, and when we think of the future, motorcycling will be ok. Growth will come because people strive now for a better quality of life, and motorcycles can help them achieve that. Riding a bike brings freedom, and escape from the busy world we live in.”
‘I sell 35 Arai per week’
Mr Matsuzaki’s tiny shop is never quiet, he’s Arai’s biggest-selling single dealer
Welcome to the UPC Arai Technical Store in Ueno, Tokyo. At about 10ft wide, it’s the narrowest helmet shop you’re ever likely to set foot in. Owner Mr Matsuzaki-san is a man obsessed by the merits of the brand, and when he slides his sales ledger from under the 3ft counter wedged against the back wall of the galley-like shop, you can see why. The weekly tallies tell the same story. 35, 39, 32, 30, 41… Wherever you stand, you can reach out and grab something Arai. Customers file steadily through the front door, buying smallest of spare parts, visors, and helmets (two sold in the 15 minutes I was there). Then a tourist coach arrives. “Tourists? Is this place famous?” I ask. Arai’s Mr Yoshimura-san tells me this is a weekly occurence, visitors from other Asian countries taking advantage of buying on the factory’s doorstep.
MICHIO AR AI
“What we do is a great priviledge, and we must strive to provide protection above all else.�
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MCN ARAI SPECIAL
Arai’s most famous Big names, big crashes – and a lasting legacy 1985 Freddie Spencer Arai Super Vent
This is the Super Vent Freddie wore at the Daytona 200 in 1985. By the time the GP season kicked off, the blue and red painted sections had been swapped around. The manufacturing date – September 1984 – is still visible, stamped into the strap. This was the first Arai that came with chin vents, a Japanese invention to aid breathing in the country’s viciously hot and humid summers. You can still smell the sweat inside this Spencer helmet. No surprise there since it’s from 1985, when Fast Freddie uniquely won both the 500 and 250 titles, often jumping off the 250 and only just making it to the 500 grid. Spencer’s Arai was arguably the first modern helmet, because when he started wearing the company’s lids in the late 1970s, Arai was way ahead of its rivals. But Spencer didn’t get to design his own lid, Honda US designed it for him when the factory started its US Superbike team in 1979. Team-mates Mike Baldwin and Steve Wise also wore virtually identical graphics. Spencer ranks fifth in Arai’s all-time replica sales chart.
1. Side pods
Early version of Arai’s trademark system. The visor locks down with a tab on the sidepod to stop the it lifting unless the rider pulls it away from the shell by hand.
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2. Meeting the standard
The label shows that Freddie’s lid was road legal in the USA. It’s also marked as meeting European standards.
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1989 Mick Doohan Arai Giga
Doohan learnt to ride 500GP bikes the hard way – by crashing and re-crashing his Rothmans Honda NSR500. In his first season in 500s he crashed in the pre-season and continued to crash throughout the year, missing three races through finger injuries. This helmet was last worn in the 1989 Spanish GP at Jerez and still has the scutineering stickers. Predictably, he high-sided on the third lap. The AdSis visor mechanism on Doohan’s Giga was new for 1989, and made it the first helmet that needed no tools in order to remove and change the visor.
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AR AI legendS Nakano’s horror highside saw his Arai slammed into the Tarmac eight times
3. Keeping cool
Venting was revolutionary at the time. Holes in the chin bar allowed air to circulate inside the visor, keeping it clear of mist.
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1. Black visor The visor is a modern-day fully black racing visor, which blocked out around 82% of available light, and is still widely used 20 years later.
2004 Shinya Nakano Arai RX7 Corsair
Probably the most abused helmet in racing in the last decade. MotoGP racer Shinya Nakano’s rear Bridgestone de-laminated at 210mph, the speed of the resulting highside wasn’t matched until Marc Marquez crashed on the very same straight nine years later. In the 300 metres from the failure to where a tumbling Nakano hits the wall, his head impacts with the Tarmac on eight separate occasions – five on the left, three on the right – the first taking his full weight. By the
2. Top vent 1
1993 Kevin Schwantz Arai Quantum 2
There’s an FIM racing approval sticker on the back and scuffs from one of Schwantz’s crashes on the side. He had a few in his time. Kevin Schwantz wore two very different Arai designs, this is the second, which he wore from 1992 until he retired. The graphics were wilder than others of the time, thanks to legendary designer, Aldo Drudi. Schwantz and Drudi (who designs Rossi’s paintschemes) spent eight months working on the look, with dozens of different designs
end the helmet has lost its visor, and chin vent, but its structural integrity is intact. Nakano’s Arai took those eight hits well, especially as many were multiple impacts on the same part of the helmet – which is a helmet designer’s nightmare due to the shock absorption quality of the helmet being reduced with each successive impact. Remarkably, Nakano escaped with light concussion, and a bruised shoulder and wrist. The footage has been used by both Arai and Arlen Ness (who made the leathers he was wearing at the time) ever since to highlight the integrity of their products.
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1993 saw the arrival of the top scoop. The idea is that it drags cold air across the shell and forces warm air from inside the helmet to rise and exit through the venting holes. Arai helmets still have these today.
rejected. The central element is the star of Texas on the chin bar, the chequered flag panel and a big ‘splat’ across the back, emblazoned with Schwantz’s name, in case fans didn’t recognize him. At the height of his fame, Arai paid Schwantz $200,000 a year, with bonuses of $5000 for a race win, $3000 for a second and $2000 for a third, plus $100,000 for the title. So they would’ve paid him about $340,000 (£200,000) when he won the title in 1993. He was worth it – Arai’s Schwantz replica has only been outsold by the company’s Mick Doohan replica.
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MCN ARAI SPECIAL
INSIDE ARAI EUROPE Established in 1983 – it’s a little piece of Japan in Holland WORDS MATT WILDEE IMAGES jASON CRITCHELL
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t looked like the kind of nondescript industrial unit you’d find in any European city. Grey corrugated walls, a grey distribution centre next door and the flat light from a grey sky overhead that promises little. Photographer Jason Critchell and I had already been shown around Arai’s swish Amersfoort HQ and so we weren’t quite sure why we were being whisked off here. Arai Europe’s MD Ingmar Stroeven rolls up the metal shutter and flicks an array of switches. As the strobe lights flicker and warm, I’m met by a wall of helmets. From head-height to the top of the seven-metretall ceiling, three sides of the giant hall that now looms before us is literally lined with 800 helmets from iconic racers.
These aren’t replicas either, these are the actual helmets raced (and crashed) in by some of greatest stars of the last 30 years. It’s easy to pick out heroes – an old Joey Dunlop helmet with insulation tape graphics sits next to a Damon Hill F3000 helmet, there are Mick Doohan lids of various vintages and a selection of smashed-up Kevin Schwantz lids whose scars bear testament to the violence of the old 500GP days. Each and every one is a priceless piece of bike racing history and a lesson in gruesome crashes. It’s the coolest wallpaper I’ve ever come across. “Welcome to the Arai Inspiration centre,” says Ingmar. It’s a pretty confident title, but this place certainly is inspirational. This facility is deliberately placed away from the admin of the office and is used for
Spray-gun genius Pierre Talahatu says the key is not put too much paint on… as it adds weight
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“We paint the prototypes ourselves but when production helmets are made, their colour schemes are made with water transfers.”
AR AI EUROPE
custom-painting sponsored racer’s helmets, destruction testing, prototyping paint schemes and training importers and racers. It’s unsigned and unbranded to keep it away from prying eyes. “We get our sponsored riders to send us at least one of their helmets at the end of the season,” says Ingmar. “It’s very good to have them there as part of our heritage, but also reminds us how important racing is for testing helmets. As a company we’ve learned a huge amount about impact protection and ventilation through racing. Racing demands the best of everything.”
Painting perfection This one is destined for Johnny Mac from MCN’s sister title Performance Bikes
Ingmar leads us though to the spray shop where we meet Arai’s own spray artist Pierre Talahatu. As we walk in he’s working
on a prototype version of the currently US-only Irish-themed helmet worn by Performance Bike magazine road tester Johnny Mac. It’s fascinating watching him at his craft. Brought on as a junior, he’s been at Arai for the last ten years specialising in design as well as application. As well as prototyping new helmets, he’s responsible for racers too. He paints Leon Haslam’s helmets, but has been known to help out when contracted paint sprayers are busy – he’s also painted Dani Pedrosa’s helmets at times. “It’s great dealing with the racers and seeing their enthusiasm, especially when it comes to their own paint jobs. It’s especially good when you deal with one-off helmets for specific races – I remember the enthusiasm Leon had for the helmet that replicated his dad’s lid, for example. It was nice and easy too, being mostly white!”
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MCN ARAI SPECIAL
“The key to painting a helmet is about masking and building up the image in layer after layer,” says Pierre modestly. “But also, it is about not putting too much paint on the helmet – it’s frustrating when a company tries everything it can to keep the weight down, but then a sprayer puts 100g of paint on it. We’d want to do half of that. “We’ll paint the prototypes ourselves but when production helmets are made, their colour schemes are made with water transfers. The problem is that each handsprayed helmet is unique and this means that each one is different. Water transfers mean that we don’t have to do this. It is faster and it allows us to mass produce.”
Clockwise from top left: Penetration testing isn’t part of the EC tests, Arai does it anyway. Anatomy of a crash, all over in 0.1s. An RX-7 GP is dropped onto an anvil during impact testing
Testing times
At the end of the hall are some pretty scary-looking machines. These are test rigs designed to replicate virtually any regulatory impact test a helmet has to go though, anywhere in the world. There’s a machine that replicates the European-spec EC tests, another for the US Snell tests. There are also machines that replicate the sort of crushing forces a helmet could be subjected to and rigs designed to simulate puncture-type impacts. They’re all built with exacting precision and are ridiculously high-tech, but there is an air of brutality about them too – like the equipment from a futuristic S&M dungeon. There’s a lot of investment here, but this place is more than just an importer – Arai’s European arm is owned by the Japanese.
“It’s not all about weight, but where the weight is carried. Protection is what makes a good helmet.” We’re met by Masaki Yamamoto, one of Arai Japan’s leading helmet engineers. While materials have changed over the years, with the advent of carbon fibre and so on, he says that unless you’re using very high-quality carbon, such as with Arai’s RX-7 GP RC, fibre-reinforced composite is the best way to go. “It’s not all about weight, but where the weight is carried – the idea is to keep the centre of gravity as close to centre of gravity of the head as possible – for example your head weighs 5kg, but because of the fact that its centre of gravity is held around the neck, you don’t notice it. We’d rather keep the weight around 1400g, but add extra protection if we can save weight. Protection rather than weight is what makes a good helmet. Let me show you.” First off Yamamoto fires up the testing
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AR AI EUROPE
Yamamoto repeats the test with a boxfresh RX-7 GP from about five times the height – yet this time it registers just 140G. “You will live now,” says Yamamoto.
Yamamoto spends the next hour working through an ever-depleting pile of helmet boxes demonstrating the RX-7 GP’s strengths in side impacts, penetration and why the results of secondary impacts are the most important. He also shows me some rival lids of dubious quality that have
Above: The Arai Inspiration centre. Left: What happens when you are dragged along under a truck. Centre: Impact testing. Right: Arai’s weighted test head TL1000R THAT BEATS PANIGALES
More torque, more grunt, more fun! PB Project Suzuki dusts a Ducati 899
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Saving lives
met with European approval and explains why Arai choose to take the testing as a minimum requirement, not a design aim. He’s very proud of the fact that Arai’s RX-7 GP is the only lid in the world that passes both European and US tests. Ingmar then digs out a helmet that protected its moped-riding wearer after he was run over and then pinned under a truck. The side of the helmet is worn away to the energy-absorbing material, but the man survived. “Every week we get letters from people saying that their crash helmet saved their lives. It’s very gratifying.”
TRUTH
JULY 2014
machine used to simulate the tests for EC approval. The test rig winches up a helmet with a replica head inside to a set height. The dummy head has accelerometers and datalogging equipment to measure the impact when it drops onto an anvil. The decelerative force is then logged. “Anything over a momentary force of 300G equals brain death,” says Yamamoto. “First off we try without the helmet.” The head is winched 40cm up from the anvil and dropped. The thud as metal impacts on the dummy is sickening. “Look – over 300G. This is why people can die falling over in the street.”
Why BMW S1000R is better than a sportsbike!
PLUS
RUTTER TESTS RSV4 AND RC8R Flat-out on PB’s test track
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S P E C I A L
RACING
INSIDE ARAI’S RACE MUSEUM
Spencer, Doohan and Schwantz’s
iconic lids
MODIFYING
THE BRITISH AKRAPOVIC
UK’s most high-tech exhaust makers
+ 22 PAGES OF FETTLING AND TECH GARAGES, TOOLS
John McGuinness on pain Ryan Farquhar’s secret workshop Testing in Japan with Mugen P L U S
WIN AN ARAI TT HELMET & PROJECT BIKES
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We experiment in heRE. We experiment in heRE.
Because we won't experiment out here. Because we won't experiment out here. The only thing better than a helmet that is really good at absorbing impacts is one that is really good at helping you avoid them. Arai helmets are designed to offer maximum protection against impacts. The truth is that all helmets have limits in the maximum level of impact protection given with the currently available technology and materials.
A stronger, smoother shell is critical and will glance off obstacles more easily with less rotational force.
No helmet can protect the wearer against all foreseeable impacts. Nothing is a substitute for safe riding practices.
Therefore, we’re also looking at ways to help you avoid impacts altogether. That is the idea behind our R75 standard: to build a rounder, smoother, and stronger shell that more easily glances off of obstacles in the event of an accident. No helmet can completely eliminate risk. At Arai, however, we are working towards the day when we can say otherwise.
Made for riders, by riders araihelmet.eu