What Does a Moto2 Crash and New Arai Helmet Have in Common?

A new Arai RX-X7 Nagashima race helmet has landed as part of the Japanese brand’s 2025 line-up but its design is anything but ordinary as it includes a very funny and detailed story.

The design, which in typical Arai fashion features a multitude of colours, also features a dog surfing on the back of the helmet and it’s this graphic element of the helmet that has a very particular story behind it.

A few years ago Nagashima suffered one of the most bizarre, yet classy crashes in Grand Prix racing as he suffered a violent highside at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, before landing on top of the bike as he skidded across a wet track.

As seen in the video below, Nagashima managed to surf his way to a stop which is a key reason for the surfing design aboard the replica RX-X7, while the dog element to all this is because of his relaxed character.

Announced as part of a mid-March 2025 release, the Arai RX-7X (known as the Corsair-X in some markets) is the helmet of choice for all its top-level world championship riders and it includes the distinctive R75 shell shape - the Arai R75 shape refers to the curve radius of the outer shell which is claimed to help improve ‘glancing off’ ability during impacts.

The Tetsuta Nagashima helmet is one of several new helmet designs to recently land as part of the Arai race collection as a new Takaaki Nakagami GP3 lid can also be found on the Arai Japan website, as well as a splashy Nakasuga 4 and Ai Ogura design.

The bad news is that the new helmet appears to be exclusive to the Japanese market. All the more reason to book a holiday to the Land of the Rising Sun, wouldn’t you agree?

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