Today I decided to take my old Z1R Blade helmet to ride in instead of the Arai Quantum 2. After a little bit of “dusting off” I was on my way to the office. I was surprised how much different the Blade felt comparing to the Quantum. And not in a good way.

First of all as I mentioned in my Arai Quantum first review it felt much snugger and softer than the Blade. I attributed that it to the Quantum being brand new and not “broken in”. Two months have gone by and the snugness and softness did not go away. And aside from not being as snug and soft the Blade’s interior liner just fells umm, what’s the right word, cheaper. Much cheaper.

Another thing I noticed about the Blade is that it feels much bulkier and at the same time less durable if that makes any sense. Its visor movements do not feel as crisp as of the Quantum and rather flimsy.

Also as I noted earlier the noise level of the Quantum is much lower. And I think I just figured out why. The lower rim of the front part of the Quantum helmet tilts in closer to the neck area. So when you ride on higher speeds the Blade well “suck” more air in under it therefore creating more air noise. And probably that is why my neck felt cold when I was riding in winter.

To wrap up this quick comparo all in all Z1R Blade is not a bad helmet at all and a definitely YES as far as what you get for what you pay. You can find a good deal on the Blade starting $50. That’s really good. But again you get what you pay for. Not to justify the jacked up MSRP of the Arai helmets. But still the quality of Arai shows in every little aspect of the Quantum 2.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Riding, Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.