Fitment is far and away the most critical thing to nail down. All helmet brands fit differently, and the size number is only a very general guideline. You have to spend the time and try on a bunch of helmets to find the one that fits.

If a helmet doesn't fit your melon correctly, find one that does. Everything else is details.

 

Not sure if you have gotten a helmet or not yet, but Wine Country Motorsports usually comes out to most of the Chin Motorsports events at Sebring. There is a Chin event coming up in October as well. I would head over to that event and check out the selection of helmets. Might be closer than going to their main retail location.

 

I guess WCM actually has a Sebring location. That's about 2 hours closer each way versus their Jupiter location, but still a long-*** day and a lot of fuel in the M3 to try on helmets.

I found a local place that seems to stock the Pyrotect Airflow so I will head there and hope it fits well. If it does, I'm buying that and won't let perfect be the enemy of good.

 

So, one of the guys I was hanging out with at the ChumpCar race had the Pyrotect Pro Airflow SA2010 (with duckbill) and I got to try it on and it fit well. That worked out well because Wine Country Motorsports was phasing out their Pyrotect line-up due to overlap with Bell so they didn't have any in stock.

I did try on a couple of different helmets at WCM, but I ended up walking away thinking the Pyrotect was the best combination of weight, comfort and price. Now I just have to figure out which size he had.

 

edit: nvm just noticed this was 2 weeks old.

 

I have a SA05 Pyrotec that looks exactly like the one you're considering, and I had the same experience as above. Crappy foam failed in a few uses, metal screens had problems later, etc. etc.

Honestly for the $250 I spent on it years ago, it has served me very well and it fits my noggin well. However, that said, it is a humongous POS compared to the nicer helmets out there. I'm getting a new Impact helmet for BAJA, hoping it fits me well enough to retire the ole Pyrotec.

Cliff notes: You get what you pay for, but if you're looking for the cheapest SA2010 helmet you can get, I think the pyrotec is a decent option.

 

Supposedly, the newer ProAirflows had improvements to address the issues you had above.

As for longevity, I think the ChumpCar driver I know has already put more track hours on his helmet than I am likely to ever put on mine so I am optimistic it is "good enough" for a guy that might do 3 or 4 HPDEs per year.

 

That's why I bought mine initially. I was a poor college student/recent grad doing a few HPDEs per year, it was perfect for that.

Then it served me well through three years of club racing, including multiple 12+ hour enduros. Added HANS posts and radio stuff, etc. etc.

In the end I think I had more money in radio and HANS stuff on the helmet than the helmet cost up front...

Like I said, the older version of this helmet has served me very, very well and I do like the way it fits my noggin. It has always looked like a big POS sitting next to all my teamate's $1000 helmets though.