If you haven’t already, read Evans’ in-depth look behind the scenes at Arai. This brings us to the next point: to fully understand the Defiant-X, it helps to understand how it’s made. The round shape won’t “catch” on the protrusion in the ground like other, more angular shapes have a chance to do. It may sound silly to focus so much on a chinbar of a helmet, but the Arai philosophy has always been on keeping the helmet’s shape as round as possible to allow it to maintain the “glancing off” effect – a term Arai coined to describe how its shape glances off the ground in a slide, with very little chance of the helmet catching on something that could further hurt the rider.Ī graphic that Arai uses to support its glancing theory. In this regard, you’ll find lessons used in other Arais spread throughout the Defiant-X. The Arai PhilosophyĬlearly, Arai is going after a different customer with the Defiant-X, but in helmets, racing still improves the breed. From here, however, the Defiant-X is every bit the Arai we’re familiar with. You can still control the amount of air coming in through the chin vents, of course, only now it’s done with sliding tabs inside the helmet. This subtle difference changes the shape of the Defiant’s chinbar compared to its siblings up and down the family tree, for what some might call a cleaner, smoother shape. Notice a similarity? Unlike the other full-face Arais, the Defiant-X has slits for its chinbar air intakes instead of more traditional vents you can flip open or close. Take a look at some of the other full-face helmets marketed towards this crowd – mainly the Bell Eliminator and the Simpson Bandit series. Why is this? It comes back to the chin bar. And yes, sportbike peeps aren’t excluded, either. It’s own introduction video was targeted specifically at cruiser riders (even though Freddie Spencer features prominently in a non-speaking role…), but riders on naked bikes and touring bikes also apply. It’s marketed towards, shall we say, non-sportbike riders. It’s that same mentality Arai used as the approach for the Defiant-X. But as any financial expert will tell you, it’s best to diversify your assets. Long known as a racer’s helmet company, Arai is well established among the go-fast crowd. We’ll get into the specifics in a minute, but let’s take a step back and look at where the Defiant falls into line. However, in the case of the Arai Defiant-X that we have here, it’s a bit of a departure from the rest of Arai’s full-face lineup. Quite literally, it’s what defines a full-face helmet.
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