ARAI HELMET FACTORY TOUR
P94
Feature
(Left) Arai America's General
Manager Brian Weston with
the full lineage of Arai shells,
starting left to right. See the
third, half brown shell? That was
a full Kevlar shell, experimented
with back in the early 1980s, that
was ditched due to time, weight
and expense of manufacturing.
(Below) Computer laboratories
help scan a newly hand-sculpted
shell design to ensure it's as
perfectly symmetrical.
there was no bad blood between
Arai and Bell, and the two iconic
brands share a mutual apprecia-
tion to this day.
It wasn't until Mitch joined the
company in the 1960s as a young
man just returned from an Ameri-
can education that Arai shifted its
focus to become a world motors-
ports leader. Mitch had compet-
ed on a semi-pro level, knew the
market, and knew what racers
wanted and needed in a helmet.
It was also the time the famous
Arai shape was born.
Arai's Egg-Shaped Form (ESF)
is core to the design principle.
Like an egg—one of the stron-
gest forms in nature—the ESF
narrows at the bottom, similar to
the shape of the human skull.
This helps to maintain the shell's
integrity in a crash and has been
in constant evolution since Arai
put it on the market when the
Complex Laminate Construction
shell was first sold in 1977. It's no
coincidence if you look at Fred-
die Spencer's 1983 500cc World
Championship-winning Arai, it
bears a close resemblance to the
one Nicky Hayden won the 2006
MotoGP title with and the one
Maverick Vinales wears now.
The ESF is also one of the
main factors at the heart of the
current helmet industry—rotation-
al impact absorption. Arai argues
its sphere-like shape offers its
own form of rotational impact
absorption, known as "glanc-
ing off" in company speak, as it
doesn't allow any sharp points
on the helmet that could catch
and thus pull the helmet (and
therefore, the rider's head) in
any one direction. Combining a
deforming outer shell of about
three millimeters in width with
the egg shape and multi-density,
40mm thick EPS liner crush,
the idea is the helmet will both
deflect and absorb most impact-
