Arai’s new off-road helmet, the Arai VX-Pro4, is the best-ventilated full-face lid the popular Japanese helmet manufacturer has ever produced.
The new Arai VX-Pro4 off-road helmet represents something unique from the Japanese helmet manufacturer because the company claims that it is the best-ventilated helmet it has ever sold.
Arai’s reputation for pursuing safety in its designs has often resulted in helmets that lack the internal air movement of some of their competitors. Indeed, it isn’t too big a stretch to speculate that if the company had its way, all motorcyclists would wear a completely round lid with no openings whatsoever because that would make for the strongest possible shell. Naturally, that’s an unrealistic design, but Arai has always attempted to minimize the number of holes that it pokes in its hand-formed outer shells.
So, does this new attention toward routing head-cooling air through the VX-Pro4 signify a change of values and a bucking of Arai’s proud safety tradition in order to better respond to the desires of potential customers? Hardly, says Brian Weston, Managing Director of Arai Helmet, Inc.
“With its improved features, updated design and legendary Arai focus on rider protection, we’re confident the new VX-Pro4 will only build on that tradition,” Weston said when Arai unveiled the VX-Pro4 to select members of the motorcycling press at Perris Raceway in Southern California, recently. Weston says that while the new model offers a more aggressive look to go with several updated features and improvements, it is still at its core an Arai, constructed with the experience and attention to detail that Arai has gleaned over its six decades as a motorcycle helmet manufacturer.
Every VX-Pro4 starts with a hand-molded shell built to Arai’s unique R75 Shape concept—R75 stands for a radius of 75mm, which makes the helmet as round as possible, while meeting Arai’s shape requirements, to better disperse impacts. The shell material consists primarily of Arai’s exclusive Super Fiber, which, the company claims, offers exceptional strength and elasticity. Arai says that Super Fiber costs up to up to six times more than standard fiberglass, but the payoff is that it provides 30% higher tensile strength and increased penetration resistance. Arai’s cLc (complex Laminate construction) method is a precise and time-consuming manufacturing process in which Arai’s master craftsmen build a shell from many individual pieces. In case you’ve ever wondered why Arai helmets command premium price tags, these are some of the differences the company will cite.
The VXPro-4’s shell is the most ventilated Arai helmet ever, courtesy of its updated Air-Through top front, top rear and side port ducts, which represent a significant improvement in ventilation over VX-Pro3 while also being easier to clean and maintain. The VXPro-4’s new top rear duct diffusers can be easily removed or replaced simply by removing a single screw on the rear duct brace.
Internally, the VX-Pro4 features Arai’s proprietary EPS liner, which features multiple cells of different densities within the same one-piece liner to better disperse energy that comes through the shell. As one EPS cell is crushed under impact, the surrounding cells assist with the energy absorption.
The VX-Pro4’s close and compact chin bar is similar to the chin bar of the VX-3 Pro, and it’s something that Arai is willing to acknowledge that many of its customers tend not to appreciate. Like the rest of the helmet, the VX-Pro4’s chin bar is carefully designed to keep the overall shell shape as smooth, round and compact as possible to resist snagging or digging in during a crash.
“Our customers are constantly wishing that our chin bar extended farther away at the front of the shell,” Weston told us. “They say, ‘If I pucker my lips, I can kiss the chin bar.’ Our response to that is, ‘Don’t pucker your lips.’”
However, the VX-Pro4 does incorporate a freer-flowing chin bar vent grill, which now mounts from the outside and can be easily removed for cleaning or damage replacement. Like the visors and vents on any Arai helmet model, the vent is also frangible, meaning it is designed to break away from the chin bar during a crash.
The VX-Pro4’s visor peak is also 14mm longer and 5mm wider than the VX-Pro3’s to improve debris and roost deflection. Larger air outlets in the peak are also used to help reduce lift and buffeting. To aid with goggle strap positioning, the VX-Pro4 features strap locators in the side port cowlings and top duct center brace.
Interior updates on the VX-Pro4 include a removable neckroll for convenient and easy cleaning, plus an improved emergency cheek pad release system, with tabs that are easier to access by rescue staff.
The Arai VX-Pro4 won’t be available in dealerships until October 2014, but it will naturally come in a several color and graphic combinations, including White, Black Frost, Tip Orange, Tip Red, Tip Blue, Tip Green, Tip Yellow and NuTech. MSRP has been set at $599.95 to $609.95 for solids and $729.95 to $739.95 for graphics and racer replicas.
For more information on the Arai VX-Pro4 and the entire 2014 Arai lineup, visit AraiAmericas.com.
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