She was always keen on trying ARAI & Shoei helmets, but complained about their bland designs. I guess, ARAI heard her.
BHPian KarthikK recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Pillion Helmet Addition – Arai RX7X Tsubasa joins the Shark D-Skwal 2 Chameleon
This is just a casual update on riding gear and nothing related to the Ninja as such, but as is the practice with me, any riding gear purchase makes it to the ownership logs and here we are.
The better half has been using a Shark D-Skwal 2 Chameleon helmet for the past two years, and was always keen on trying an Arai / Shoei helmet but she would always complain about how most of their designs were bland and mostly stripes and lines, or else over-the-top MotoGP rider based replica designs which she couldn’t relate to or appreciate.
Oh well, in some parallel world Arai probably heard her complaint over telepathy , and came out with the updated RX7X in early 2024 (also called RX7V Evo in EU) in a particular design called ‘Tsubasa’themed with traditional Japanese art and Sakura (traditional Japanese cherry blossom flowers). On the left are cherry blossom flowers and the Japanese (flag symbol) Rising sun. On the other side are graphics of grass meadows (not sure what they signify in Japanese art), and on the top and sides are a Japanese Red-Crowned Crane bird (apparently some lucky charm symbol in Japan) with full wing span graphics.
Japanese art to the rescue, lol! Images from the official Arai catalogue
The better half loved and wanted this pattern and we were trying to procure this rare pattern in her size, quite unsuccessfully for a few months and had almost given up on it. Meanwhile a friend visiting Japan on work happened to come across it in Tokyo earlier this month, and was kind enough to purchase and bring us the exact same helmet in her size.
Arai RX7X Tsubasa, coupled with the Red Iridium visor. This helmet doesn’t have an inner visor, so she opted for the iridium visor to help with long sunny touring days. 
The other side
Red Crowned Crane wing span graphics
Cherry blossom everywhere 
The entire helmet paint job is glossy and has a strong Glitter effect all over
The existing Shark D-Skwal 2 Shigan Chameleon helmet with the Arai RX7X Tsubasaside by side. The Shark chameleon is called so because the graphics look different in different angles, with the colors changing from grey to blue to purple to pink depending on light color and light angle. The better half likes both and wants to retain the Shark, so both the helmets will co-exist and continue to serve for two-up touring. An immediate need is to wire up another set of Sena’s clamp kit (speakers and mic) into the new helmet so as to interchangeably use the existing Sena BT device across both helmets.
Both are of the same size on the inside, but the Arai is more solidly built on the outside and has a thicker shell, the marginal outer size difference can be seen when placed side-by-side. Anyway, this is not a fair comparison because they are not from the same segment (think Shark’s Race-R Pro for actual comparison with RX7V).
October has some interesting Ninja rides lined up. Until my next ride report, thanks for reading!
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
