For most street riders, the Shoei RF-1400 is the one to buy, and the Arai Contour-X is the one to buy if the Arai shell fits your head better. That is the honest verdict, and it is not a hedge. These two helmets carry the same certification stack, the same stated interior shape and the same absence of an internal sun visor. The RF-1400 does it for meaningfully less money, which makes it the default. The Contour-X answers with 136 g less published weight, four shell sizes instead of an unstated number, and a Pinlock insert already in the box — and if your head is the shape Arai builds for, none of the price argument survives the first fitting.
If your real question is the weight rather than the badge, there is a third answer. The HJC RPHA 11 Pro is published at 1,417 g in medium — lighter than both — at roughly a third of the Arai’s money, and it gives up the Snell rating to get there. We have put a card for it at the bottom of this page rather than pretending the choice is binary.
What both helmets publish
Everything in this table was read from the page named on each product card below, on the date recorded there. Where a maker does not publish a figure, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
| | Shoei RF-1400 | Arai Contour-X |
|---|
| Certification (US listing) | DOT FMVSS 218, Snell M2025 | DOT FMVSS 218, Snell M2025 |
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| ECE 22.06 stated? | No | No |
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| Published weight | 1,651 g (3.64 lb, Shoei USA; size not stated) | 1,515 g (3.34 lb, RevZilla and Cycle Gear; size not stated) |
|---|
| Shell | AIM+ multi-composite (interwoven fiberglass and organic fibers) | PB e-cLc, hand-laid (Peripherally Belted e-Complex Laminate Construction) |
|---|
| Shell sizes | Multiple; count not stated on the page we read | Four (XS, SM, MD-LG, XL-2XL) |
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| Stated interior shape | Intermediate oval | Intermediate oval |
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| Sizes | XS–3XL | XS–2XL |
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| Shield | CWR-F2 with vortex generators; Pinlock-ready, insert sold separately | VAS MAX Vision; clear Pinlock insert included |
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| Internal sun visor | No | No |
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| Ventilation | Not published as a port count on the page we read | 13 ports (7 intake, 6 exhaust), brow vents in the shield |
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| Emergency cheek-pad release | Yes (quick-release cheek pads) | Yes (Emergency Release System) |
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| Our spec score | 9.3 | 9.1 |
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Certification: a genuine tie, and that is the point
Nothing either company publishes separates these helmets on protection. Both carry DOT FMVSS 218, the US legal minimum, and both carry Snell M2025, the stricter voluntary standard written by the Snell Memorial Foundation. Snell certification is not a marketing tier: it is a separate test protocol with its own impact energies, its own penetration test and its own chin-bar and retention-system requirements, and a manufacturer pays to have samples tested against it. Two helmets that both hold M2025 have both cleared the same bar.
Neither US listing states an ECE 22.06 approval, which means neither one publishes the oblique-impact rotational testing that 22.06 added. That is worth knowing and it is not a knock on either helmet specifically — it is a market artifact. Both companies sell ECE-approved versions of their street helmets in Europe; the unit a US buyer receives is certified against DOT and Snell. If published rotational-impact testing is the thing you want, the helmets in our safest helmets ranking that carry ECE 22.06 are the ones to look at, and our helmet safety ratings guide walks the whole standards landscape.
Construction: a belt and a curve against a woven matrix
This is where the two helmets stop being interchangeable. Shoei’s AIM+ shell interweaves fiberglass with organic fibers into a multi-composite laminate, and the company builds the RF-1400 in more than one shell size — it does not state how many on the page we read, so we do not quote a figure.
Arai does something structurally different and talks about it constantly. The Contour-X shell is PB e-cLc— a hand-laid laminate with a peripheral belt around the opening — and the whole surface is built to Arai’s R75 rule: no point on the shell has a radius tighter than 75 mm. The stated intent is a shell with nothing on it for the road to catch, so an impact is more likely to glance than to snag. It is a design argument rather than a certified claim, and Arai is clear about which it is. On top of that, Arai builds four shell sizes across XS to 2XL, so a small head gets a small shell instead of a thick liner.
The practical consequence of the Arai approach shows up on the scale: 1,515 g against 1,651 g, a published difference of 136 g. Over a long day that is noticeable at the neck, particularly for riders who already find a full-face tiring. It is not a safety difference and neither company claims it is.
In the box: the Pinlock is the sleeper difference
The Arai includes a clear Pinlock insert; the Shoei does not.The RF-1400’s CWR-F2 shield is Pinlock-ready, which means the pins are there and the insert is a purchase. The Contour-X’s VAS MAX Vision shield arrives with the insert fitted or boxed. If you ride in the cold, the wet, or at night in humidity, an anti-fog insert is not an accessory — it is the difference between seeing and not seeing, as our fogging guide goes through in detail. Price the two helmets with an insert in both baskets before you compare them.
Ventilation is the other asymmetry in the published record. Arai states the port count outright — 13 ports, 7 intake and 6 exhaust, with the brow vents built into the shield rather than drilled through the shell. Shoei describes the RF-1400’s airflow and its vortex generators but does not publish a port count on the page we read. That is a documentation difference, not a proof that one helmet flows more air, and we are not going to rank airflow on a number only one company printed.
Fit: the part that actually decides it
Both helmets are sold as intermediate oval, and that is the most misleading agreement on this page. “Intermediate oval” is a descriptive label each manufacturer applies to its own interior; there is no standard behind it and no measurement you can compare. Arai’s R75 geometry and four-shell strategy produce a fit that riders describe very differently from Shoei’s, and it is common for someone to find one of these two excellent and the other unwearable within ten minutes.
So the buying order is: try both, in the same session, with the same hair, for at least fifteen minutes each. Then buy whichever one has no pressure point. A correctly fitting helmet that costs more is a better purchase than a bargain that gives you a forehead hot spot at mile forty. Our head-shape guide explains how to work out which family you are in, and how tight a helmet should be covers what break-in legitimately fixes and what it never will.
Who should buy which
Buy the RF-1400if you want the certification stack, a composite shell and Shoei’s shield refinement for the least money, and the Shoei fit suits you. It is the broader size range of the two (XS–3XL against XS–2XL), it scores higher on our spec rubric, and it is the one we rank first in the full-face roundup.
Buy the Contour-X if the Arai shell is the one that fits, if you want the lightest hand-laid Snell helmet of the pair, if you value the four shell sizes because you are at one end of the range, or if you simply prefer that Arai puts the anti-fog insert in the box and prints its vent count.
Buy neitherif the weight is what you were chasing all along. The HJC RPHA 11 Pro’s published 1,417 g in medium undercuts both, and it costs a fraction of the Arai. What you give up is the Snell rating and the certification generation — HJC lists it at ECE 22.05 plus DOT, not 22.06 — and HJC has already moved the line on to the RPHA 12. For a rider who wants light and composite without flagship money, that trade is a reasonable one to make knowingly, and the card below prices it live.
One thing neither helmet will do is tell you how quiet it is. Neither company publishes a decibel figure for these models, no independent body measures helmet noise in the US, and anyone quoting you a dB number for an RF-1400 or a Contour-X got it from a microphone taped inside a helmet on one bike at one speed. If noise is your deciding factor, read what the makers actually publish about noise before you trust a number.