Since we first started recording our road tests, we've been collecting data on helmets from Shoei, Arai, AGV, HJC, Shark, Schubert, and the NolanGroup. While we've used this data to look at how their individual helmets did, we were curious about what results we'd get if we looked at all their respective helmets put together to see what each company offers as a brand. We've used our usual road test setup but also added the average of these helmet's SHARP scores to get an idea of their safety. But first, the burning question, what about Shoei vs. Arai?
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First, let's start with Shoei. Other than Shark or AGV, this is the brand that we've tested out the most. Shoei is definitely more at the premium end of the market, but this does show in their high-quality liners, visor mounts and just general high quality. Shoei helmets usually come in an intermediate oval head shape and are made of their Advanced Integrated Matrix shell material.
Informing our numbers are the collective road tests of the Shoei Neotec 2 (Shoei's modular helmet), the Shoei NXR (their touring helmet), the Shoei GT Air 2 (from sport-touring), the Shoei X-Spirit 3 (their top of the line race helmet), the Shoei Hornet ADV (their adventure helmet), and the Shoei J-Cruise 2 (their ever-popular jet helmet).
Considering the test result from all their helmets combined, Shoei does just as well as we expected it to. For material, with their use of their AIM shell, Shoei gets 4 stars. This also translates into a light weight, giving Shoei another 4 stars. Since most Shoei helmets also come equipped with pin lock insert lenses, that's also another 3 stars. For noise, Shoei does very well, in no small part thanks to the Shoei GT Air 2, so that's 3 stars. Ventilation from Shoei is also solid, given it's 5-star rank. Lastly, as we mentioned, Shoei gets 4.5 stars for its great comfort. Overall, Shoei does very well, getting a total of 4 stars, and come at a very wallet friendly Euro per star rating of 22. Based on these helmet's SHARP ratings, Shoei is also very safe with 4 stars on average.
Now we come to our Arai results. Arai is our second major Japanese helmet manufacturer also known for their safety and quality as well as adding certain special features that other companies just don't have. For example, their visor vents and round shell shape. Their helmets are generally made of their own super fibre via complex laminate construction and this means they usually come in as among the most expensive in most helmet categories. Arai is also known for providing a wide range of head fits from intermediate oval to long oval. For our road tests, we tested out the Arai Tour X4 (their adventure helmet), the Arai Profile-V (their touring helmet), the Arai Renegade-V (their cruising helmet), the Arai SZ-R VAS (Arai's jet helmet), and the Arai RX-7V (their top racing helmet).
Arai definitely does give Shoei a run for their money, but let's see by how much. For material, Arai comes in with 4 stars and, thanks to their special fiber, just manage to come in at 4 stars for weight. We've also got the same 4-star result for their visors. However, for noise, Arai haven't done quite as well getting 2 stars. Nonetheless, for ventilation and comfort Arai have come back again with 4 stars each for their high-quality liners. This just about brings Arai to a total of 4 stars, though it does lag a bit behind Shoei in their performance. These stars will also come in at about 26 Euros/star, which is fairly expensive. Nonetheless, these are safe helmets getting a total average of 4 stars for available helmets and almost all of Arai's helmets in the US are Snell certified.
While we were comparing these two giants, we also decided to throw in a few others including AGV. AGV is a very strong competitor in this case with helmets spanning across almost every category and price point, not to mention being the producers of the famous Pista GP RR that Valentino Rossi himself wears. Though their helmet fit tends towards being narrower, they also to tend to prefer to use carbon fiber materials in their helmet. So, we've tested out the AGV Pista GPRR and the AGV Pista GP R, the AGV K1, AGV K3 SV (AGV's more budget helmets), AGV Sport Modular, AGV K6 (AGV's sport-touring helmet), the AGV X, and the AGV Corsa R.
Overall, AGV do just as well as their competitors. For materials, AGV get 4 stars with their use of multiple shell sizes, and this also leads to 4.5 stars for weight. The visors from AGV also get a collective 4 stars. For noise as well, AGV do well getting another 3 stars. Lastly, for ventilation and comfort, AGV get another 4 stars. This brings their total to 4 stars at about 26 Euros/star, which is the same as Arai. However, their safety does well receiving 4.5 stars overall.
Next, we come to Shark, the French helmet manufacturer. Generally, their helmets tend to an intermediate oval fit and are well known thanks to the Shark Evo One Two. So, the helmet's we've tested for Shark are the Shark Evo One 2, Shark Spartan Carbon, Shark Race-R Pro GP, Shark Spartan GT Carbon, Shark Skwal 2, and the Shark Spartan GT.
Shark does well but doesn't quite reach our top three so far. For material, Shark get 3 stars due to their frequently small number of shell sizes. However, for the weight and the visor, Shark do well getting 4 stars. For noise, Shark gets 2 stars unfortunately for poor noise isolation. However, for ventilation, Shark get 3 stars and for comfort another 4. This brings Shark to an overall total of 3 stars at 22 Euros per star, so on par with Shoei. But Shark do still make safe helmets with 4 of 5 stars on average.
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We've also included Schuberth here for comparison's sake, though we haven't tested as many of their helmets as Shoei or AGV. Schuberth, a German company, excel at trying to give you everything in your helmet out of the box, as well as modular helmets like the Schuberth C4Pro. Their helmets usually come in an intermediate oval to round head fit. For our road test, we tested out the Schuberth C4 Pro, the Schuberth C4 Pro Carbon, and the Schuberth M1 Pro (Schuberth's jet helmet).
Schuberth, unsurprisingly, do well, though this is skewed by the small sample size. So, we'll keep it short and just say Schuberth gets 4 stars for material, due to their direct fiber processing method for fiberglass, weight, visor, noise, and ventilation. However, Schuberth did very well for comfort getting 5 stars. This gives Schuberth a total of 4 stars at 26 Euros per star, though this is slightly let down by their 3 stars for safety.
HJC always manage to surprise us on our road tests with their incredibly low prices and high quality and performance. Their helmets are made of their own premium integrated matrix and usually come in an intermediate oval head shape. For this test, we've used our data from the HJC RPHA 90, HJC F70, HJC i90, HJC i70, HJC RPHA 70, and HJC RPHA 11.
Overall, HJC definitely deliver their classic punching above their weight results. For material, the HJC got 3 stars, which is very respectable. But then for weight and visor HJC is able to knock it all the way up to 4 stars for each category. However, for noise HJC does a little worse with 2.5 stars. For ventilation and comfort though HJC comes back with 3.5 and 3 stars respectively. Overall, this brings HJC to a total of 3 stars and 18 Euros per star, which is the lowest here. For safety, HJC also do well with 3 stars.
Last up from our brand comparison is NolanGroup, where we've combined our results for our Nolan and our X-Lite helmets. Both companies come in intermediate-oval head shapes and usually provide very strong middle-range touring and racing helmets. So, in this case, we've tested the Nolan N87 Plus, the Nolan N87, the Nolan N100 5 Plus, the Nolan N100 5, the X-Lite X- Ultra Carbon, and the X-Lite X-803 RS Ultra Carbon.
NolanGroup's performance is very good overall given the number of markets they span. For material and weight, they get 3 stars, while for the visor they get 4 since they so considerately provide you with the helmet's pinlock insert lens. For noise, NolanGroup also do well with another 3 stars and the same goes for comfort. Overall, this gives us 3 stars at 22 Euros per star, which also isn't bad. For safety as well, they do very well with 4 stars on average.
This means we've gone through all of our brands and can now announce our winner. And it's, sorry Arai and AGV fans, Shoei. They got 4 stars overall, but they also did as good or better than every other company in each category not to mention having a great value for money of 22 Euros per star. Next up is safe to say it's AGV with their great safety record as well as solid performance out on the road. Next up, we've got Arai, followed by HJC and Shark and NolanGroup are more or less tied after that. We haven't graded Schuberth here due to the too small sample size.
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So, we now have our answer: for Shoei is the best. But that by no means every helmet they make is the best since this is an average and what helmet you go for also depends on what you're looking for, which can just as easily be offered by AGV, or HJC, or any other company out there. If you're curious about more of these road test results, make sure to check out our Shoei vs Arai vs AGV Video on our YouTube channel, and don't forget to subscribe while you're there.We all know how the X-Spirit 3 compares to the RX-7V, but how does Shoei itself stack up against Arai, or even AGV for that matter?
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