Review: Arai RX-7 RR5

Finally heeded the voices in my head and took a trip to Chiap Lee yesterday. Chiap Lee is the local distributor for Arai helmets. They have 2 showrooms, 590 Serangoon Road and 109 Jalan Besar. I went to the Jalan Besar showroom and found that that they have relocated. Well, they just moved across the road, to be beside Regina now. So, scratch that, it's not 109 Jalan Besar as stated on their website, it should be 159 Jalan Besar.

It was about 11am when I got there. I spent about 5 minutes in Regina first, looking at the AGV GP-Tech Elements helmet.

Was quoted  SGD$880 for it. Personally, I like Rossi's helmet designs; very complicated and loud. So why didn't I get the AGV GP-Tech? I did some research online and discovered that, like my AGV K3, the GP-Tech's neckroll cannot be removed for washing. Trust me, after some mileage on helmets, that thing is gonna stink. The neckroll is the piece of lining that wraps around your neck, it's the first of the the helmet's lining that your head touches when you put on the helmet.

And there is this issue with AGV helmets at full tuck. During a full tuck posture, when you're peering through the top of the visor, a ridge at the top of the helmet's opening blocks the top half of your vision, which is extremely annoying and dangerous if you're a track amateur.

Okay, enough about the GP-Tech. I was about to cross the road to the old Chiap Lee showroom when I saw that they have moved over to the slot just beside Regina. Perfect! Walked in and went to the Arai helmets section, looking at all the available RX-7 RR5 designs. The Arai RX-7 RR5 is the same exact helmet as the European RX-7 GP and the North American Corsair V, just different marketing for the different regions.

I did my homework before this and measure my head's diameter. It's 57cm and that translates to a size M. There were only 2 staff in the shop, a middle aged man and a middle aged woman who I presumed was his wife. I vaguely remember the man's name to be something like Ying Leong, somewhere along the initials YL. The man attended to me and brought me a size M helmet for fitting. God, like all the online reviews say, it is pretty difficult to put on an Arai helmet. The neckroll is really tight but once you put on the helmet, it fits like a glove. Very comfortable and snug. I asked to try on a size L. It was easier to put on the larger helmet but it wasn't as comfortable. I recommend that you measure your head diameter before buying any helmets.

So it was down to choice of designs. I was stuck between choosing the Cal Crutchlow and the Nakano Sakura design.

The helmet retails for SGD$980 but because the Cal Crutchlow design uses the copyrighted Monster Energy logo, it costs an additional SGD$50, making it SGD$1030. To help me with my decision, I employed the help of Rafie and Eric through our Whatsapp chat group. To summarize, the Crutchlow design looks better but the Nakano design complements my bike and track suit. On top of that, Rafie already owns a HJC RPS-10 Ben Spies Monster helmet, I figured that our riding group has only enough space for 1 Monster Energy helmet haha. Which means, I bought the Arai RX-7 RR5 Nakano Sakura heh.

After I made my decision, the man called the Serangoon branch to bring over a brand new helmet. I was pretty excited when the dispatch rider delivered the Arai box. Inside the box, other than the helmet, you get an Arai helmet bag, some user manuals and an Arai sticker. The user manuals aren't too useful, because they are printed in Japanese but the detailed step-by-step instructional pictures should be sufficient.

I rode home with the new helmet and I discovered something very pleasing. The RX-7 RR5 is very quiet and the ventilation is top-notch. With all the vents opened, I could actually feel cool air circulating around my head. With great money, comes great products!

Here are some more photos of the helmet.

Allow me to show you something really cool. The Arai RX-7 RR5 has an adjustable spoiler at the back of the helmet! You would want it to be down when you're at full tuck and all the way up (4 clicks) when you doing straight up riding like on a super motard. I leave mine at 2 clicks up. The spoiler is supposed to help put down force onto your head, preventing your head from being dragged around by wind resistance.

Here's the spoiler at the highest position.

And at the lowest position.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this purchase. There are more features of the helmet that I have not described in my review. Do see the video review by Revzilla below.

Next task would be to see how the RX-7 RR5 performs on a race track. Till then, ride safe!