Thanks to She Wolf from the members.

It fits like a glove! Now I can see why Matt said I'll never go back to a cheap helmet after wearing this one. I've got the visor tilted all the way down, and my shield doesn't have that distortion I've heard others complain about. The dark tint is really nice; just perfect for sun! Goggles fit really well under it too, I'm really impressed with this thing!

SheWolf wrote:

It fits like a glove! Now I can see why Matt said I'll never go back to a cheap helmet after wearing this one. I've got the visor tilted all the way down, and my shield doesn't have that distortion I've heard others complain about. The dark tint is really nice; just perfect for sun! Goggles fit really well under it too, I'm really impressed with this thing!

Arai makes good shit. I have one Shoei, and 5 Arais. Once they hit 5 years old, I phase them out. The warranty is great when the fabric tears or whatever. Send it back to them, and they will fix it, you just pay shipping to them. Easy.

I stick with the clear shield on the XD, since it is a pain to swap out, unlike my Corsairs. I like to have maximum light during dawn and dusk, and I can just use the beak to shield out the sun when needed.

It is great how the goggles fit dandy with the visor down.

Congrats!
John

Yeah, it's pretty sweet how well the goggles do fit under there. the shield doesn't even contact the goggles or the strap, which is pretty good considering how snug the shield snaps down into place. This thing is built really well!

SheWolf wrote:

Oh my!

As Jeremy Clarkson would say, "I seem to be having a crisis".

I bet your local riding buddies are gonna flip when they see it!

Lynn, I'm so glad you like your new lid! Looks good too! You know you're gonna be like me now tho... a helmet snob. As soon as I got mine the old helmet didn't even exist anymore, just sits in the corner collecting dust.

As for Muddy, I think if we get the chance to come up and ride with you, it's gonna take him months to lose the accent

It's funny cause I don't notice it, but I guess that goes without saying. I didn't even hear what he said when you were pissing yourself in the background. All I remember him saying was 'Oh great Meredith is making fun of me and laughing at me!' As for the other helmet...yeah I already stripped the headphones out of it and am in the process of fitting them into the new one.

Well, the headphones I used for the Fox helmet came up a bit short wire-wise for the Arai. So I butchered a pair of surround JVC headphones from my iPod. Everything's rockin and I have a twin jack for the radar/laser detector now. One thing that's nice is that the cheek pads have that removable liner...and the headphones nestle right into the little pocket that the foam didn't occupy.

Well, now that we made you ahelmet snob try a set of Etymotic ER6 earbuds. The "Arai" of earbuds. Super tiny, amazing sound quality, and block 38 db of noise.

Muddyrabbit wrote:

Well, now that we made you ahelmet snob try a set of Etymotic ER6 earbuds. The "Arai" of earbuds. Super tiny, amazing sound quality, and block 38 db of noise.

Second that statement!

One thing I've tried, and have never been able to wear for anything longer than 10 minutes are earbuds. My ears HATE them. I bought a real nice set of Skullcandy ones and my ears were like...'yeah I don't fuckin think so...' With these ones, I have a female jack I soldered onto the end that hides in between where the cheek pad meets up with the back headliner. All I do is just plug the jumper cable from my iPod to the helmet and instant tuneage! Have the slider switch for the volume too which is handy. The headphones are cushy enuf that they push up against me ear and it's like a pillow with music.

Well have you gotten to ride in it yet?

Nope, not yet. Been stuck doing year end accounting or cuttin down trees. I HAVE been walking around with it on though. I think my neighbors think I've lost my mind. Out in the back yard wearin the bikini and my skid lid, while switching out the sprinklers.

SheWolf wrote:

I think my neighbors think I've lost my mind.

You mean they already don't know that you have lost your mind?

John

I live a sheltered life. I wait until dark to have my little fires and call upon the spirits to work their magic. *looks at the table full of debit slips and bank statements* Obviously I'm apparently not chanting LOUD ENUF!!!

SheWolf wrote:

I think my neighbors think I've lost my mind. Out in the back yard wearin the bikini and my skid lid, while switching out the sprinklers.

I may have you beat.

My neighbors were watching me out in the middle of my yard yesterday with nothing but my snowshoes and my Speedo, running a weedwacker.

There's a story behind that...

Jäger wrote:

SheWolf wrote:

I think my neighbors think I've lost my mind. Out in the back yard wearin the bikini and my skid lid, while switching out the sprinklers.

I may have you beat.

My neighbors were watching me out in the middle of my yard yesterday with nothing but my snowshoes and my Speedo, running a weedwacker.

There's a story behind that...

Those long winters sure do take a toll on Canadians.

John

I managed to get out for a ride today and that helmet is the shitz! It was quiet! The dark tint was really nice, even if it was kinda gross looking outside. And, it kept my face dry and bug free...yes it rained on the way home. I got wet. But two good things; the helmet is awesome, and the Scorpion Pro's were just damned fine in the rain. I was kinda worried about that but they were just as good as the 606's on wet pavement. And ppl were leaning over lookin out their windows to see if there was actually a girl inside the helmet.

jeickerman wrote:

Those long winters sure do take a toll on Canadians.

This was in Montana... where Flathead county has decided to divert their road drainage onto my property, creating a small wide stream on my lawn from spring runoff. Big enough that we had ducks landing and feeding in it up until about three weeks ago. And my "lawn" had gotten thigh high in the water...

As I said, there's a story behind it.

Well...I need to find some more solder. I didn't quite use enuf to keep the wires attached to the plug. Woops! Went to go unplug the iPod and the jack came out in one piece. I'm probably going to have to get smaller cheek pads eventually once these pack in, but that's ok. What else...oh! I can't say that highers speeds are really bad with this lid either. I got up to 80 to pass a pickup, shoulder checked and it didn't try to pull my head back.

Yeah, i dont know what the deal is with people saying the visor catches wind at high speed and is dangerous. I have been up to 120 and looked up just to test it, nothing. Been up to 150 on a GSXR with my xd on and didnt notice anything. I was a bit busy to mess around tilting my head to test it that time.

Now, if you leave the shield have open and tilt your head back just right you can make really cool whistling noises.

Yeah, I got that one already. I thought something was loose on my bike.

At the risk of sounding like a safety nerd (too late for me to avoid that label after 12 years of MSF classes), be careful about how you abuse your hearing inside a helmet. 38dB of attenuation is great, if you only use the phones for attenuation. Helmets aren't particularly good noise elimination devices (http://www.aip.org/asa_laypapers2011/Kennedy.html), so you're starting from a fairly high noise level, initially. I've measured the noise level inside of my Shoei X12 at 65mph to be close to 120dB, continuous and 130dBSPL peak (C-weighted). The attenuation of those in-ear phones is great above 500Hz, but diminishes below that pitch. At 50Hz, it's pretty worthless (which is why manufacturers use A-weighting to fudge the numbers).

The point is that reducing 130dBSPL to 95dB or so isn't amazing protection. Add 50dB of music to the mix and you're degrading your hearing at a rock and roll rate. If you're suffering tinnitus now, count on it getting worse. If you aren't, you're lucky and should count yourself as such.

I got pounded by the blubbering pipes crowd for this, a few years back, but I stand by it: http://home.comcast.net/~twday60/geezer/geezer77.htm. Thirty years ago, I wore hearing protection on stage while the rest of the band went naked. Drummers, particularly, thought I was a wimp. They are mostly deaf today and whine about the whine constantly in their ears. The fact is, the ears are gone and the whine is coming from the sensory-deprived receptors in their brains. Not that they can hear the explanation.