I looked at the Bell helmets, and I have rode with a friend's for 20 miles, and I was not impressed. Maybe I'm weird, but it was just overall noisey and I was kinda taken back about the lack of quality of them. Then I noticed the RS-1 is Made in China, which for a company that used to be so proud of their "Made in USA" kinda pushed me away from them. Shoei needs to get their crap together and get that transitions shield out asap. Rumor was their first batch did not meet their safety standards, so they threw them out and started over.