These are my top six helmets for round heads, and the first is the Arai Quantum-X Solid Helmet, which is no surprise. I mean, Arai pays more attention to head shape than anybody.

The Quantum is not shy about being round, and if that’s not enough, they built five millimeters of peel away foam into the padding, so you can make this helmet even rounder if need be.

The crown is adjustable too, which is an extremely rare level of customization.

Arai bread-and-butter is wealthy motorcyclists with weird heads, so I guess it’s just their commercial interest to make the most adjustable helmets around.

Price
Touching quickly on that wealthy bit, the Quantum-X is $800 and boring colors and $1,000 in graphics. Because $200 is pocket change to Arai buyers, because paint costs more money in Japan, because Araya has no shame, choose whichever excuse you like.

Shell Compound
The shell is PBS SCLC for peripherally belted super complex laminate construction, any name that includes the word super complex is designed to impress, not described.

Let’s keep it real Arai and say this is a fiberglass shell with an extra-strong belt wrapped around the top of the I-port.

And that allows me to have less EPS foam allowing for a thinner shell, allowing for a higher field of vision in that full tuck position.

Ventilation
Ventilation is good and bad at the same time. The good is that the vents closed with flaps on top of the helmet that maintain aerodynamics, and therefore how quite the helmet is.

Another good thing about this Arai helmet is the visor ducts which run cool air back to your temples’ blood flow.

The bad is that you have no hope of finding the vent controls with your gloves on.

Speaking of bad, the chin curtain makes the helmet way too stuffy, so rip it out and put it someplace where you’re never going to find it. Again because you’ll much prefer being able to see the emergency pad release tabs.

Plus, you still have the retractable curtain if you want to yank it out for a chilly ride. Arai, the chin curtain thing was pointless.

Face Shield
In a similar vein, the new shield latch is also unnecessary. Push it down, push it up, either way, you need to get in there with your finger to unlock the visor accurately.

It is designed so poorly that I’m not even sure how it was supposed to work, but still, the Quantum-X is special.

It’s crazy comfortable for round heads, it’s crazy safe with five EPS, and it’s crazy light at 1615 grams. You’d still be crazy not to choose the cheaper Shoei RF-1200 instead, but for the roundest noggins, that isn’t an option.

What is an option is the Shoei Qwest, because this is Shoei’s properly round bucket? This could be the best buy of the year. It’s a remarkable helmet selling for only $350 ish since Shoei announced its replacement, the RSFSR.

Long story short, I’m not sure the Shoei RFSR can be much better. This is already one of the safest helmets.

Shoei uses organic fibers to make the fiberglass more elastic, meaning it stretches and crackles the impact across a larger surface area of the shell, on a physical level.

On a statistical level, it means it scored a perfect 5 out of 5 safety rating from Sharp.

the Quest also made my quietest helmets review, which is no mean feat, especially considering it has a somewhat open-ended neck role.

Until there’s another helmet out there that ventilates this well and achieves such a low decibel rating. However, I’m waiting for the RSFSR to prove me wrong.

The Quest is Snell rated, it weighs 1650 grams, it has no Sun Visor so immediately you would think super sport helmet, and immediately you would be wrong.

This helmet is much happier in an upright riding position, and it isn’t that aerodynamic, you certainly wouldn’t want to be head-butting this much wind at 200 miles per hour at the track.

The HJC CL-17 is a more track worthy choice, and it also digs out a new price bracket way down below the $200 mark. One reason I plonk the CL-17 on the track is that it’s loud as shit, but I mean sporting racers all use earplugs anyway, so why not.

It also has a racer cut, meaning that the neckline is drawn upwards. That reduces weight to 1605 grams for this size medium, which is officially witchcraft for a polycarbonate bucket.

The racer’s neckline also poses less risk of breaking your clavicle, makes it easier to go into a full touch position, and easier to shoulder check on the losers behind you.

Of course, the CL-17 is a round head shape; I haven’t forgotten the theme of our article yet. It has an eyebrow vent, which is rare, it has a visor lock, which is less rare, and a pin lock shield included, which isn’t rare at all but always handy.

I’ll take a final jab at the shield mechanism, which opens and closes with the nails’ smoothness on the chalkboard. Also, if you have an enormous round noggin bear in mind that the CL-17 is Snell rated in every size except 3 XL, 4 XL, and 5 XL.