Tried on some new helmets about a month ago and liked the medium sized Shoei X-Eleven the best. Didn;t like most of North American paint schemes though.. Ordered a Japanese version from eBay, and finally got it. Fit seems tighter than before, and seems to have a pressure point at the top of my forehead. Was wondering if these helmets should be the same, or perhaps I should have worn it longer in the store?????? Was wondering also if there is any way to alter the padding on top of helmet liner to fit a little better. Any ideas??? sad.gif
Some helmets from Japan do fit tighter...like the OGK brand especially. Most of the helmets have removable liners which sometimes allows you to gain access to the foam pads. You can alter the thickness of the padding, it doesn't take much to make a big difference. Tear into it and let us know what you find out.
I have an x-11 from Japan and one from the US. They fit the same to me. Perhaps you have to break it in because I do notice a difference in the padding of the new vs the old. Once I got the new helmet, I couldn't go back to wearing the old again.
cool.gif That's one advantage of the X-Eleven is that the liner is fully removable. I can pull the top of the liner (which has holes in it for the venting) away from the inner foam, and I can slip in some extra padding I think. In short, I think this problem if very fixable for me, but I really am curious to know if the fit is in fact different, or if it is simply my imagination. I tried the USA X-Eleven helmet and it fit really well in the store, I thought. I wore it for a good ten minutes (long enough for me to confirm that there weren't any major fit problems), and it was comfortable the whole time. I've contacted someone at Shoei, and now I'm just waiting for an answer. Regarding the breaking in of the padding, you may be on to something there: the X-Eleven I tried at Blackfoot had been on the shelf for a while and may have been a demo only, as I noticed a couple of the helmets had "not for sale" on them (some defect perhaps?) Maybe some fella with a pointy head compacted the foam when trying on the demo, thus making it fit better for me in the store........
I dunno. I always try the helmet on at a local shop then order the exact same thing online. That is the easiest way to go.
JBY28, Sep 12 2006, 08:49 PM
I dunno. I always try the helmet on at a local shop then order the exact same thing online. That is the easiest way to go.
That's kinda what I thought I was doing. I ordered the same model and size that I tried in the store. It never occured to me that the fitment and sizing might be different in a different region. I thought the only difference was the color of paintjob.
I'm pretty sure they have different shell sizes for diff markets.
In UK the Arai RX-7 fitted perfectly, but the "same" one back in Oz did not...
AB-Oz, Sep 13 2006, 03:11 AM
I'm pretty sure they have different shell sizes for diff markets.
In UK the Arai RX-7 fitted perfectly, but the "same" one back in Oz did not...
You are right. Here's the response I got from a company that imports helmets:
Dear Quennel,
Thank you for a mail. Japanese X-11 is not the same fitting as USA
version.
The reason is from Asian face.
If you have any further question or problem, please do not hesitate
to contact to us.
Best regards,
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Howard Sugii
JAPAN HELMET STORENow I have to figure out whether I want to keep it or exchange it for a NA version. At least I know this wasn't all in my imagination.......