Hi guys, After a bit of advice please. I replaced my 4.5 year old Shoei NXR in February with an X-Spirit 3 and have barely ridden 1000 miles in it and have picked up some pretty obvious stone chips that I wouldn't expect from this level of helmet after this amount of time. I purchased through sportsbikeshop and they've been great but unfortunately the only option is to send it back to them, to then send to Shoei to inspect, they're taking 10 days to process returns at the moment and then Shoei are on average 30 days. Obviously I'm not keen on being without my lid for what will basically be summer especially as I sold the NXR so only have an old HJC IS-17 as a spare. The guy at sportsbikeshop said from the pictures, for him, it just looks like I've been unlucky and picked up some stone chips but I honestly feel like the paint must be too thin or not had the final lacquer applied correctly or something, my NXR didn't pick up anything like this in the time I had it. Couple of pics below, interested to hear your thoughts on whether this could be a viable warranty claim or if I'm just going to end up with my not having had my helmet for six weeks.
Doesn't look right to me. Five years with my Shoei GT Air, nothing like this until I came of the bike last year
My Shoei XR1000 always stone chipped up easily. I use Arai these days and they don't. You would have to think that helmets are expected to get an odd stone hitting them and so ought to survive that OK. Yours looks quite savage though.
I’ve got an X spirit 3 but just in plain black, I have the odd tiny chip on it but nothing like the flaking off yours seems to suffer. I have to say, I’m not totally blown away with this Shoei, and I’ve had loads of Shoei helmets in the past, But really not impressed with this one, the vents are nigh on impossible to use on the move and to be honest it just seems vastly overpriced for what it is, I wouldn’t buy another one...
I have a Kiyo rep x spirit 2 and it's still mint, no chips and bought a Kagayama rep x spirit 3 last year and i must admit it is in mat finish and had no issues, I will admit that i am really puzzled at how easily your one has chipped, i would be well pissed off and be on the phone to shoei (They ain't cheap) if it was me!!
Over the last 12 years I have had 3 Shoei, and not had anything like what you show in the photos. It’s almost like diamonds hitting your helmet!!
I’ve got one and paint is shite very thin and chips like a chippy think had mine about a week before it got a chip in it
I have a X Spirit 2 Kagayama that's still mint, after about 8 years, so It sounds like the lacquer is really thin on the newer stuff, although one of yours is obviously just chipped a massive bit of paint off around the actual stone impact.
OK thanks guys. Think I will bite the bullet and send it back for them to inspect, wish I had a paint hardness tester so could actually compare. The one next to the chin vent I'm kind like OK that took a bit of a hit, but the others especially the one above the left brow like you say has just peeled away around the impact. Will send back and see what they say, thanks again
