One Lid, Many Uses; The new Tour X5
All the colours
The new Arai Tour X5, along with all the previous models, its lineage goes back over 15 years, is somewhat of a ‘jack of all trades’. As it’s presented, it’s the perfect touring helmet. The visor comes with a pinlock inner which stops the visor from steaming up in any and all weathers.
The peak helps with aerodynamics and shading the wearers eyes from the sun. It’s added to the helmet in a way that allows it to detach in the event of any unpleasantness. This, in turn, ensures that all the helmets ‘Glancing Off’ features work as well on the new helmet as they do across the rest of the Arai range.
But back to the new visor. It has an all new detaching system. This allows the rider to take the visor off with one button on each side of the helmet. No unscrewing, no multiple stages of fitting and significantly easier re attachment. This is a VAS-A visor system and has been designed to make the most of the helmets Glancing-Off performance. It uses the same qualities as the one used on the companies flagship RX-7 V.
A classic shape, new tech
It's just one of the pieces that sets the company apart from its peers.
The traditional forehead logo hides a duct that allows for more ventilation and more comfort by default. There’s also a flat space on the side of the helmet. If you absolutely have to talk to other people when riding your bike this offers you the space to mount a comms system.
Meanwhile the latest incarnation of the new helmet still allows for use in a number of different genres. Taking the visor off while leaving the peak on placed makes for the perfect motocross helmet while taking the peak off and leaving the visor on makes for a very cool road helmet. That last one is also one that looks very cool on a trackday!
Venting on the Tour X5 is also new and wonderful. That logo duct, first seen on the Quantic a number of years ago, is now joined by a number of other features. The delta duct is the one that sits above the logo duct and it too has been redesigned. A new larger and more effective chin vent not only performs better than the Tour X4 it also looks much better from a design point of view.
A bit of co-branding
A new AR spoiler at the back of the helmet creates the perfect draft and vent air exhaust. All of these parts have been designed to break off in the event of an impact. This means that the helmet doesn’t have anything to ‘snag’ on. Rather it allows the helmet to slide. This dissipates the energy of an impact and allows the helmet to prevent additional damage to the wearers body. After all it’s not the falling that hurts. It’s the landing that causes the problem.
A fully removable lining and a choice of cheek guards allow for an easy to clean perfect fit. Talk to James at www.kennedymotorcycles.com