Arai Vector-2 Motorcycle Helmet Review

Arai is one of the most well-known, respected, and high-quality brands in the motorcycle world. The helmets this company puts out are amazing, so we’re excited to talk a bit about a favorite that’s been around for a couple of years now with great results: the Vector-2.

Arai’s Vector-2 motorcycle helmet is what you’d consider their entry-level helmet if you look at the range of products they have. It’s the sort of lower end of their scale, but seriously, their scale doesn’t even start until well after many companies scales have ended. Basically, you’re getting an amazing Arai premium helmet, but without all the bells and whistles of their other flagship products.

Arai Motorcycle Helmets.

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It’s a very safe helmet, meeting both DOT and Snell standards, which is about the most important thing to look for in a helmet. Just because it’s not Arai’s best helmet doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality or the safety you’d expect from these guys.

Basically you’re just getting fewer additional features than if you bought an RX-Q or something. However, that means that this helmet does all the basics well and doesn’t have any opportunity to try and do too many things at once. You’ll get a basic, solid, reliable helmet if you pick up the Vector-2

Fit-wise, it’s an intermediate oval, but you can actually alter the liner a little bit by removing a strip of padding, which allows it to fit like a round oval (check out Arai’s explanation of these fits right here).

The liner, which as we just said, can be adjusted, is one single piece. There’s less plastic than before and they’ve put it in places where you won’t feel the snaps, which is always a plus and one of the nice things about a premium helmet like this. Of course the material is great for ventilation and comfort because it wicks moisture and gives a really comfortable fit.

Looking at the face shield, you’ll absolutely love it. It’s really high end and seen on some of the other Arai helmets. An update you’ll notice from earlier models is that you get extra peripheral vision (1cm total), which will drastically increase your ability to see in various riding scenarios. We don’t often think about it, but just take a second right now to pay attention to your own periphery.

Arai Vector-2 motorcycle helmet yellow side view.

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It’s likely that you can see to either side of you and if you really focus it’s almost like you can see a tiny bit behind you. Here’s how you can see how important it is, I just did this funny little test to see…Try looking straight ahead, holding your hand up beside you, slightly behind your head, and sticking 1 finger out. Wiggle that finger and slowly bring it straight forward until you can see it in your periphery. Then pull that finger straight towards your head and see where it lines up. I just did it and it was like an inch behind my eye ball on my face.

Small but important things like this are what you can expect with an Arai helmet – a load of research and development goes into these helmets.

The shield is UV resistant and has a really good seal thanks to an improved gasket and slider combination. You’ll also find 2 brow vents, which don’t actually vent through the back of the helmet like some of the really high end models, but instead vent right onto your face. This is still an effective system, but here’s an example of where you get the highly functioning but ‘basic’ feature with this versus Arai’s other high quality helmets.

The chin vent has 2 positions so you can vent at the shield or the face, it’s up to you. The vent at the top/front of the helmet has been updated from the previous model, now including a switch that you can slide to close the vent, which is great to eliminate air and the elements from getting into your helmet in less than ideal conditions. Otherwise it’s another handy vent that will keep the air moving properly. It’s just cool that you have the option now, whereas before it was always open.

Exhausts are pretty good on this unit, with a couple on the wing, 5 in total, they actually work to suck the hot air out of the helmet by utilizing the vacuum effect created when the helmet cuts through the air. Basically the venting system is designed to regulate your temperature, humidity and comfort, and it’s really cool to see it work like this.

In terms of the rest of the insides (we already talked a bit about the liner above), you’ll see that the cheek pads connect to the neck roll with a small lip. Yet another awesome feature you get with this, thanks to Arai’s high tech research is right here. You actually will get your hot breath taken out of the helmet through a really small vacuum that is created with how the neck roll lip is created. So if you’re going at speed, your breath will be ventilated down and out through this cool feature. Handy for safety and comfort.

Arai Vector-2 motorcycle helmet in matte black.

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Continuing with the max versatility of this unit, not only do you get the ability to turn this into a different head shape with a removal bit of the liner, you can alter the cheek pads and take them from a 30mm all the way down to a 25mm. You just take them out and peel back a few layers of foam that will give you a really adjustable fit and allow a ton of different head shapes and sizes to fit this motorcycle helmet.

So after all that, we’re here to say that this is one heck of a helmet at a really good price point. It’s got some cool features, though is not packed with add ons and additional things that just bring the price up. You get a really good, solid, basic helmet that means you can afford a really good, premium Arai for a load of situations.

We like to look at what owners of these units are saying about them, and on Amazon, users really like it – it’s been a pretty popular staple since it was released, and we’re confident in saying that if you’re looking at breaking into the premium helmet market, this is probably a great choice for you.

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