Arai Viper GT helmet review

Reviewed by: Steve Rose for 80,000 miles

By rights, this helmet should have been retired a long time ago. Four years old and with somewhere around 80,000 miles covered, you can see by the scuffs and scrapes that it hasn’t had an easy life.

But the thing is, I can’t stop wearing it. This Viper GT is the most comfortable helmet I own. So snug and cosseting that I forgive it the slightly fiddly vents and the fact that the visor clip no longer clicks shut properly. So comfy that I don’t care that the strap fastens so tightly I can barely get it undone on a cold morning with freezing fingers, so comfy that despite having four newer helmets on the shelf at home, this is the one I wear most. The washable lining means it still smells fresh inside and the three-year-old (but still working) Fog City Hyper Optiks visor insert – which goes darker in bright light – means I rarely have to take the visor off so the side pods are still intact too.

More info: www.whyarai.co.uk