I used to have a Bell Image (2nd version), mentioned in the OP, back in the day. hiero made a good point about retention systems. If it's true that a lot of current helmet turn a dial to squish your head type setups are really just straps glued to the styrofoam, that seems like a week design to me.

My old Giro has straps that go through the styrofoam, but run inside the plastic shell.

The Bell Image was the same way, IIRC.


The later Bell Image (might have been called the Image Pro, or Image II, I don't remember) had straps that went through the styrofoam and wrapped part way around the outside of the shell. Seems much more sound than glue to me. Here you can see the black strap running across the outside of the plastic shell just above the Bell sticker.

I'd say some helmets available today offer better protection than the Image, while most are in the same neighborhood and some offer less protection.