So this weekend I went out and did another 100 mile ride before it rained. I got home, pulled off my helmet and I had impressions from the uber thin forehead padding on my forehead that lasted for a good 5 hours! The Arai RX-7 Corsair size large isn't too tight there but there just isn't really any padding. And I do have the thicker cheek pads on order to help it fit my skinny head but hey, this is Arai... one of their oval shaped helmets. And my Astral-X didn't do this, it had great padding. But no way i'm walking around with big red indentations on my forehead. So i jump in the car over lunch today and head back to cyclegear for like the bazillionth time. "hey, it's me again, the first two helmets (agv ti-tech and this arai rx-7 corsair) don't fit, so let's try #3!". So i grab an Arai Astral-X which I used to have. I try that on and ya know... it does fill a little more conforming. But I still have to push it down on my head kinda hard to make it feel like it's on fully. Then the sales guy asks if I've tried the Shoei X-Eleven. I tried Shoei's way back when shopping for my first hemlet and I always had a problem with my ears, they didn't fall in the right spot and wouldn't fold back up... not comfy. But what the hay, i grabbed the X-11 from him and tried that on. The helmet went right on, ears popped up, and it felt snug all the way around, nice and even. And it's a medium. SOLD!
I guess i had tried on the RF-1000 but not the X-11? But whatever, this baby fit, fit even, and felt good. Nice padding too. So they are having a metallic gray shipped from one or two states over so i should have it later in the week.
Anyway, just wanted to let ya'll know and even though I said i tried a crapload of helmets on and shoei didn't fit me and arai fit the best.... I was wrong.
And thank heavens for their 30-day helmet exchange program!