Arai, AGV & Schuberth owners...question

I'm replacing my old, ehem, very old Arai Qantum.
I spent a fair while in Hein Gericke on friday trying on an Arai Viper, Schuberth Pro and the new AGV GP Tech.
I'm now in a quandry as to which one to buy.
The chap in the shop was very helpful, and suggested I try the new AGV as a comparison. I had in my mind I'd either get another Arai, or the Schuberth as I've never had an AGV and assumed the build quality wasn't up to the other 2, but he asured me that this one has been developed from Rossi's helmet & has all the safety & strength benefits of the Arai etc.
Anyway, after walking around the shop with each one for 10 mins, I came to these conclusions:

ARAI:

Pros: Known entity, extremely well built, very snug & comfortable, nice range of styles, Pinlock, allegedly good ventilation.
Cons: Noisy, very short in length and very little room between chin & helmet, so almost impossible to place microphone from starcom unit there.
After 10 mins wearing I found I noticed it pressing lightly on the very top of my head, but not uncomfortable. However, would this cause problems on a long run? very slight reservation about fit on this then.

Schuberth:

Pros: Great features, well built, Pinlock, sunvisor, light, quiet, loads of space to accomodate intercom, nice designs.
Cons: Very uncomfortable neck curtain, bit uncomfortable on the ears, very difficult to get specs in place.

AGV:
Pros: Good build quality, very comfortable all round, nice vent touches (especially the front one which allows for the visor to be snicked open a tad), very easy to wear specs with, loads of space to accomodate intercom, supposedly up to Rossi's (& therefore Arai) safety standard. Looks cool.
Cons: Unknown new design, unknown vent & noise issues, visor only available with tear off posts which is overkill for the road and also would these get on my nerves constatly being in peripheral view??, no pinlock possible with these tear off post visors, only available in plain blk, white, silver.

I concluded in the shop that the AGV was the best fit, but they were all pretty good. I decided to wait until they had a white one in stock, but now I'm wondering if the whole race visor (setup for tearoffs) is going to prove a pain in daily use. Also I'd be paying top dollar for a visor that could never be pinlocked. BUT, they are damn nice helmets in all other ways, from what I can tell.
The Schuberth is an ace design but that curatin really annoyed me and I'm not sure I'll get used to it. It was also a real hassle to get my specs on, BUT the features are well attractive.
The ARAI...well, pretty much spot on in all departments, BUT there's no way I can accomodate an intercom on this one, and the new ones do seem to fit a wee bit different from my old one.

So, any thoughts, tips, recommends. I'd especially like to hear form anyone that's got the AGV - is it as good in real life as is suggested?

Cheers

Rene

LEGS said:

If you are finding the Arai viper's chin bar too close for you, try the Arai Chaser, the chin bar is further away on this model :thumbup

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Cheers Legs:thumbup I assummed they were pretty much identical as the Viper is the replacement for the Chaser (which in itself is the replacement for my old Quantum). I'll have to try on eof those on to see if I can overcome this problem.Thanks for the tip off.

Rene

Legs

Actually , just realised what I wrote, I meant to say Astro so yes you're right.
It seems from all the comments I've had from this site & others, that they're all different anyway, so I'm going to have to do the trying on excersise all over again. Also learnt from a guy on Visordown that race visors are shaped differently to road visors, so that throws another spanner in the works. It seems then that the AGV really is a helmet more for the racer than road rider, which is way off beam for me, nice though it is. Bloomin' eck, who'd have thought getting the right helmet would have been such a difficult thing...........or maybe I'm just picky

Wyn's Dad said:

IMO Shoei's are much more comfy than Arai's, Try one on and see what you think, I think Shrewsbury Honda Centre have them on stock:thumbup

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Thanks mate, I know. Trouble is, after sorting the bike, new tyres, suspension rebuild etc, I'm short of the necessary, which is why I've been looking in Hein Gericke as they do 0% over 10 mths - handy eh?

I'm actually veering back to Arai as my first choice - they just make me feel more secure.........which is the whole point I guess. I contacted Starcom about the difficulty of fitting their microphone in the Arai (what with me being a but Jimmy Hill like) and they said I could shave some foam off the mic guard, so i might be able to get that element of the Arai problem sorted. In which case it's a no brainer really.
Thanks for all your help fellas :thumbup

Rene