I have an "old school" open face helmet - not quite old school enough to be orange metalflake - that I use for local jaunts to the lake shore (about 1/4 mile) or city errands. Sure there's danger, but if I was unwilling to face any danger I'd be living in a bubble. For highway or country rides where I might push the envelope a bit I have a Shoei full face. It's due for replacement though, I'll be going to the winter bike shows to see what deals there are. I am not impressed by Bell helmets, still too heavy and many are really car helmets with limited peripheral vision. The budget lines I've actually tried are rather noisy, Shoie and Arai are much quieter IMO. One thing is that it's not too easy to test drive helmets here, I knew the accessory guys at a major Toronto dealer well as i shopped there for about 30 years (closed now, like most of them) and they would let me take one for a quick highway ride... but this doesn't seem to be common. A helmet that fits well in the store can be horrible at speed - some will oscillate, lift, or pull back heavily while some are somehow more aerodynamic though almost identical in shape.
