Same Helmet Different Names? 8 Visor Fitment Groups

The short answer

Same helmet different names is one of the most expensive small confusions in helmet ownership. A rider searches for a visor using the name printed on the box, finds nothing, and assumes the part is discontinued. The helmet is usually sold in other markets under a different name, and the visor for that other name is the same part.

We checked this against our own catalogue rather than guessing. For eight groups of helmet names, the set of visors we list is identical down to the individual listing. Not similar, not overlapping: the same listings, filed under two, three or four different model names.

The ranking below is by one measurable thing: how many visor listings on this site fit that group of names, counted from the live model pages on the day this was written. The largest group here is the Shoei X-Fourteen family at 40 listings, shared across three names. Two groups tie for the most names: Arai’s RX-7V family and its SZ-R family each run to four names for one visor set.

• Ranking criterion: number of visor listings that fit, counted live. Nothing else.
• What this is not: not a quality ranking, not a legality ranking, and not a popularity ranking. We explain why further down.
• The practical move: if your helmet name returns nothing, search the other names in its group before you conclude the visor no longer exists.

Same helmet different names: how we checked

Every model page on this site lists the visors that fit that model. To test whether two names really share a visor set, we pulled the listings behind each model page and compared them item by item.

That is a stricter test than counting. Two model pages could both show 28 listings and still be 28 different listings. What we looked for was set equality: the same listing identifiers, in both places, with nothing in one that is missing from the other.

All eight groups below passed that test on the day of writing. Where a group did not pass it, we have said so rather than quietly dropping it, because the near-misses are the ones that catch people out. There is a section on those below.

Two things this method deliberately does not do. It does not tell you that two helmets are identical in every respect, because a shell can differ in ways a visor does not care about. It also does not read across to anti-fog inserts automatically, since an insert has to match the visor rather than the helmet.

Counts move as the range changes. Treat the numbers as accurate on the day this was published and use the model pages themselves as the live figure. Our visor finder tool is the fastest way to check a name against the current range.

The eight name groups at a glance

Read the table by finding your helmet’s name in the second column. Every other name on that row takes the same visors, so all of them are worth searching. The fourth column tells you how much choice that group has on this site today.

1. Shoei X-Fourteen, X-Spirit III and X-14 — 40 listings

This is the largest of the eight groups measured here, and it is the one where the naming causes the most trouble. The three names all point at the same visor set: 40 listings, identical across all three model pages.

A rider who bought the helmet in one market and moved to another will very often be searching the wrong name for their whole ownership of it. Nothing in the three strings signals that they are related.

What you get with 40 listings is genuine choice of finish rather than a single replacement part, including photochromic options that darken in daylight. It is the deepest set in this article by some margin.

What to search if your name returns nothing

Try all three in order of how the range is labelled: X-Fourteen first, then X-Spirit III, then X-14. Our Shoei X-Fourteen visor listings and the X-Spirit III equivalents resolve to the same parts.

A representative example is this photochromic visor listed for the NXR, RF-1200, X-14 and X-Spirit III, which names four of the model variants in its own title. Listings that name several models in the title are the clearest signal that the fitment is shared.

Where this group stops being simple is its overlap with group 3. Thirty of these 40 listings also appear in the RF-1200 and NXR set, which is a genuine multi-model fitment rather than a naming quirk. The listing quoted above is one of them, and its title names models from both families.

2. Shoei RF-1400, NXR2 and Z-8 — 33 listings

Three names, one visor set of 33 listings, verified identical. It is the second-deepest group here, one listing ahead of the RF-1200 family below it.

The confusion here is sharper than in group 1 because the names share no characters at all. Nothing about the string RF-1400 suggests Z-8, and a search engine will not always bridge them for you. A rider looking at the moulding on their old visor may find a part code that matches none of the three names.

Our own listings already do the bridging where they can. This photochromic visor for the NXR2, RF-1400 and Z-8 carries all three names in its title, which is how a shared fitment should be labelled.

Browsing the group

The three model pages are interchangeable for browsing purposes: RF-1400 visors, NXR2 visors and Z-8 visors return the same 33 listings.

With 33 options this group has slightly less depth than group 1. If you want a plain replacement rather than a tint, start with our clear visor range and filter to the model from there.

One caution specific to this group: it is a different visor set from the RF-1200 family in group 3, despite the names being one digit apart. The two sets share only six listings out of 33 and 32, so most of what fits one does not fit the other. Ordering an RF-1200 visor for an RF-1400 is a mistake the numbering actively encourages.

3. Shoei RF-1200 and NXR — 32 listings

Two names, 32 listings, identical sets. The names sit either side of the group 2 pair in the same numbering scheme, which is the source of most of the confusion around both.

The practical point about this group is that an older helmet is often assumed to be unsupported. That assumption does not survive the numbers here: 32 listings puts it one behind the RF-1400 family and well ahead of the great majority of models in our range. Thirty of those 32 also appear in the group 1 set.

The RF-1200 visor listings and the NXR visor listings are the same parts under two names.

Inserts follow the visor, not the helmet

This group is a good place to make a point that applies to all eight. An anti-fog insert has to match the visor it clips into, so insert fitment is quoted against visor families rather than helmet names.

This anti-fog insert listed for the NXR, RF-1200 and RYD spans this group and group 8, which tells you those helmets share an insert profile even though their visors are listed separately.

If you are fitting an insert for the first time, our guide to anti-fog insert fitment covers what has to line up. Getting the insert wrong is more common than getting the visor wrong, because the insert depends on the visor you actually have rather than the helmet it came in.

4. Arai RX-7V, RX-7X, Corsair-X and RX-7V EVO — 28 listings

Four names, one set of 28 listings. It is one of two groups here that run to four names for a single visor set, and it is the deeper of the two by a wide margin.

A rider with this helmet can be searching any one of four strings, and three of them will look wrong to somebody who knows it by a different name. The EVO suffix adds a fifth possibility in casual use, since people shorten it inconsistently.

All four model pages return the same 28 listings. Start from the Arai RX-7V visor listings or the Corsair-X equivalents; you will land on the same parts either way.

Why Arai listings name so many models

Arai’s visor architecture is shared widely across its range, so a single listing often fits well beyond one helmet. This replacement visor listed for the Corsair-X, Defiant-X and Quantum-X is a good example of a listing whose fitment runs across several model families at once.

That breadth is useful and it is also a trap. A listing naming your helmet among several others is fine; a listing naming a similar-sounding model that is not yours is not. Read the full fitment list rather than matching on the first name you recognise.

If you want to understand where those shared architectures come from, our guide on whether motorcycle visors are interchangeable explains what has to match mechanically before any two helmets can take the same panel.

5. Shoei X-Fifteen, X-SPR Pro and X-15 — 19 listings

Three names, 19 listings, identical sets. It is a smaller set than the older flagship families above it, which is the usual pattern for a more recent helmet: the aftermarket has probably had less time to fill in around it.

The naming pattern repeats what group 1 did a generation earlier, with a spelled-out name, a numeric short form and a separate European designation all in circulation at once. Anybody who learned the earlier helmet as the X-Fourteen will instinctively search X-Fifteen, which is one of the three correct answers.

Nineteen listings is still real choice. This X-Fifteen replacement visor is listed for the one family rather than a spread of models, which is worth noticing: a single-model listing gives you no alternative names to fall back on.

What a lower count means in practice

A smaller set is not a warning sign about the helmet. It means fewer finishes are offered, so the specific combination you want may not exist yet even though a plain replacement does.

Browse the X-Fifteen visor listings and the X-SPR Pro listings to see the same 19 options under either name.

If your first choice of finish is missing here, the honest advice is to wait rather than to force a fitment from a neighbouring model. A visor that does not seal properly is worse than the wrong colour.

6. Arai Signet-X and QV-Pro — 13 listings

Two names, 13 listings, identical. This pair is less famous than the RX-7V family but it catches people out for the same reason, and there is no obvious clue in either name that they are related.

Thirteen listings is a moderate set, roughly half the depth of the RX-7V group above it. That is still enough that a plain replacement and at least some tinted options exist under both names.

The Signet-X visor listings and the QV-Pro visor listings resolve to the same parts.

The multi-model listing pattern again

As with group 4, several of these listings are shared across a wider Arai family. This replacement visor listed for the Astro-GX, Chaser-X and Concept-X shows how far a single Arai fitment can reach.

That is why the count for this group is not a count of parts unique to it. Some of the 13 are shared with helmets that are not in this article at all, which is a good outcome for buyers: it means a part staying in production for one model keeps it available for the others.

It also means a discontinued-looking helmet often still has visors, because the listing survives on the strength of the models it shares with. Before assuming a part has gone, check the wider family rather than only your own model page.

7. Arai VZ-Ram, SZ-R, SZ-R Evo and RAM-X — 12 listings

Four names, 12 listings, identical sets. This is the second of the two four-name groups in this list, and the one where the naming runs furthest from anything a buyer would guess.

Look at the four strings side by side. VZ-Ram, SZ-R, SZ-R Evo and RAM-X share no consistent stem, no consistent number and no consistent suffix. A rider working from any one of them has no route to the other three except a fitment list.

Our own listing titles carry the naming problem openly. This replacement visor listed for the RAM-X, SZ-R Evo and SZ-R VAS names three variants in one title, and the VAS suffix is a fourth string in circulation.

Twelve listings across four names

Browse from the VZ-Ram visor listings or the RAM-X listings for the same 12 parts.

Twelve is the second-smallest set here, one ahead of the pair at the bottom of the table. With four names sharing those 12 listings, the effective choice under any single name is the same as under all of them.

If your visor has started to haze rather than simply looking tired, our guide on when to replace a motorcycle visor covers the point at which polishing stops being worth attempting.

8. Shoei RYD and RF-SR — 11 listings

Two names, 11 listings, identical. This is the smallest of the eight groups measured here and the last of the Shoei pairs.

It is also the group where the naming is least intuitive, because neither name hints at the other and both are short enough to look like complete part designations in their own right. A rider searching RYD who finds nothing has no reason to guess RF-SR.

Eleven listings is the smallest set in this article, so the choice of finish is correspondingly narrow. Browse the RYD visor listings or the RF-SR listings for the same parts.

Small sets and shared inserts

This group shares an anti-fog insert profile with group 3, as the insert listing quoted earlier shows by naming the NXR, RF-1200 and RYD together. That is worth knowing if your priority is fog rather than finish, because the insert range is broader than the visor range here.

A group this size is where the cross-compatibility question becomes practical rather than academic. Our list of visors that fit multiple helmets ranks the listings with the widest fitment across the whole range.

If nothing in the 11 suits you, that list is the better next step than searching a neighbouring Shoei model on the assumption the panels are close enough. They generally are not.

Where the names nearly line up, but not quite

Set equality is a hard test and not every plausible group passes it. The clearest near-miss in our catalogue is the Shoei Z-7.

The Z-7 model page returns 41 listings, which is more than any single group in the table above. It contains every one of the 32 listings in the RF-1200 and NXR set, plus nine more.

Eight of those nine extra listings also appear in the X-Fourteen family’s set. In other words the Z-7 page is picking up multi-model listings that span two families, rather than being a straightforward third name for the RF-1200.

The honest reading is that the Z-7 overlaps both groups without being identical to either. We have not put it in the ranked list, because doing so would imply an equivalence our own data does not support.

Why we are showing you a negative result

A page that only reports the tidy cases teaches you to trust name-matching more than it deserves. The near-miss is the case where a rider is most likely to order confidently and receive the wrong panel.

The rule that follows from it is simple. Treat a shared name as a strong hint and the fitment list on the individual listing as the decision.

If your helmet is a Z-7, browse its own Z-7 visor listings rather than an adjacent model’s page, and check that the listing names the Z-7 explicitly.

How to tell which name your helmet actually uses

The name on the box is not always the name in the range, and the box is usually long gone anyway. There are three better places to look.

The first is the label inside the helmet, under the comfort lining at the back of the head. It carries the model designation used by the market the helmet was sold in, which is the name most likely to appear on a matching listing.

The second is the visor you already have. Many visors carry a moulded code on the tab or along the bottom edge, and that code often identifies the visor family rather than the helmet, which is exactly what a fitment list is built around.

Reading the visor rather than the helmet

Working from the visor is more reliable than working from the helmet name, because the visor code describes the part you are replacing. Our guide to what visor fits my helmet walks through finding and reading those markings step by step.

The third place is the fitment list on the listing itself. If it names your model, that is a direct statement of fit and it beats any inference you might draw from a similar name.

Take the visor off before you order if you are unsure. Our guide on how to remove a motorcycle helmet visor covers doing that without damaging the mechanism, and having the panel in your hand settles most fitment questions in a minute.

Tints, and what a shared name does not decide

Nothing in this article is a statement about whether a given visor may be used on the road. A shared fitment tells you a panel will physically fit; it says nothing about the tint you choose to put in the aperture.

Everything here is scoped to Great Britain, and only to Great Britain. We have not researched the position anywhere else and make no claim about it.

Mirrored, iridium and dark smoke finishes transmit too little light to be used on the road in Great Britain. That is true at any hour, and it is not softened by riding only in daylight. Those finishes are sold for closed-circuit and off-road use.

Why we cannot rank these groups by legality

The legal test is the marking on the individual eye protector, not the colour, the model name or the brand. We do not verify markings on individual items, so we never describe a product we sell as approved or certified.

The seller side of that rule is set out in section 18 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which makes it an offence to sell or offer for sale an eye protector as being of a prescribed type when it is not.

There is a practical point alongside the legal one. The Highway Code’s guidance for motorcyclists notes that scratched or poorly fitting eye protectors can limit your view, particularly in bright sunshine and in the hours of darkness.

That is the strongest argument for getting the name right. A panel forced onto the wrong helmet sits poorly by definition, and poor fit costs you vision in exactly the conditions where you need it most.

Choosing the finish once the fitment is settled

Settle the group first, then choose the finish from what that group actually offers. Our breakdown of motorcycle visor tint options ranks the finishes by how much of the range offers each one.

For most UK riding the answer is a clear panel plus a way of dealing with fog, rather than a tint. Free UK delivery applies across the range, so ordering the correct group is not a question of cost.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Shoei RF-1400 the same as the NXR2 and the Z-8?

For visor purposes, yes. All three model pages on this site return the same 33 listings, verified as an identical set on the day this was written. If one name returns nothing, search the other two before concluding the part is unavailable.

Why does one helmet have several names at all?

Helmets are frequently sold under different designations in different markets, and the aftermarket then inherits all of those names at once. We can only speak to what our own fitment data shows, which is that the visor sets behind those names are identical in the eight cases listed here.

Does a shared visor mean a shared anti-fog insert?

Not automatically. An insert matches the visor it clips into rather than the helmet, so insert fitment is quoted against visor families. Some inserts do span several groups, and the listing title is where that is stated.

My helmet name is not in the table. What now?

The eight groups here are the ones where we could verify set equality, not the complete list of helmets we cover. Search your model directly, and if that returns little, check our list of visors with the widest cross-model fitment.

Can I fit a visor from a similarly named model?

Only if the listing says so. Similar names are a hint, not a fitment statement, and the Z-7 case above shows how two closely related names can carry different sets. The fitment list on the individual listing is the thing that decides.

Does the group tell me whether a tint is road legal?

No. Fitment and road use are separate questions. The legal test is the marking on the individual eye protector, and mirrored, iridium and dark smoke finishes are not for road use in Great Britain at any time of day.

Where to start

Find your helmet’s name in the table, then search every other name on its row. That single habit resolves most of the searches that end in a rider believing their visor is discontinued.

If your name is not listed, start from the visor finder and work from the model label inside the helmet rather than from memory. And if you are replacing a panel because the old one has hazed rather than because you want a different finish, check the clear visor range for the plainest like-for-like option.