I wear the most expensive Bell helmets because they fit, they're cool (temperature & style), and I only buy them when they're being blown out. I don't think there was much difference between the 2010 Bell Volt & the 2011, but some of the mail order places were getting rid of the 2010's so I bought a couple (one for about $90, the other for about $79 as I recall, and they are $170 helmets). So now, barring crashes, I'm set up for helmets for the next several years. I'm still using a 2005 Bell Sweep for the winter.

Bells fit my rounder head much better than Giro's, which are long and narrow (Bell owns Giro, BTW). The brand you buy is governed more by fit than by anything else. If the helmet is REALLY comfortable, buy it!

Before "in-mold" helmet construction became the norm, there used to be a difference between the cheap helmets & the expensive ones. "In-mold" construction just means that the thin plastic outer layer is bonded directly to the styrofoam, so the whole thing is tends to stay together pretty well. Previously, the cheaper helmets had a gap between the styrofoam and the thin plastic - they were not directly attached to each other. As a result, the thin plastic would degenerate and start to chip off, and pretty soon the whole helmet would look ratty, with holes and cracks in the shell. Having said that, the thin plastic on my Sweep is starting to peel off in a couple of places, but it's not cracking or looking ratty at all. But this is a helmet that initially had cost about $170 (more in Canada). So if you're checking out a cheap helmet, just press the outer shell everywhere, and if the plastic has some "give" (like there's a dead air space directly underneath it), don't buy it. All of thin plastic covering should be directly bonded to the styrofoam. After that, check how easy it is to adjust the fit. The expensive Bells have a wheel at the back. In 2005, this wheel had some space between "clicks." In 2010, the ratcheting is much, much finer!

Also, you will find that the topline Bell helmets have a kind of informal sunglass holder that fits Oakley M frames really well. I just take off the Oakleys, invert them, and push the ends into the front vents. A nice way to hold onto your shades for night riding. In the rain, you push them in right-side-up, and you get a bit of the lens acting like a visor to help keep rain out of your eyes, while still allowing you to see forward with your head down. (I do NOT like the visors; they are ugly - they make you look like some wannabe motocross racer - and they obscure too much of my forward vision as I tend to have my head pretty much down in riding position.)

Luis