Orion is the softest of the four graphics — where Monza cuts the shell into blocks, Orion washes across it with edges that fade rather than stop. It is the one that changes most depending on the light it is standing in, and the one people look at twice without being able to say why.

What SHARP measured, and where this helmet sits

Four stars from SHARP. The zone detail is where the useful information lives: five out of five at every measured point at 6 m/s and 7.5 m/s, and at the severe 8.5 m/s test, five at the crown and rear with three at the left and right sides.

In plain terms: at the impact energies that account for the large majority of real crashes, this shell performed as well as anything SHARP tests. At the extreme end it is stronger front-to-back than side-to-side. Knowing which is which is more useful than the star count on its own, and it is the sort of thing a manufacturer will never tell you.

About the Orion Matt Black Purple Blue graphic

A graphic built on gradients rather than edges is harder to print and much harder to get right, because there is nothing for the eye to lock onto and any banding in the transition shows immediately. Orion works because the transitions run along the shell rather than across it, following the airflow lines, so the helmet still reads as a single form. Matt is the braver choice for it: a gloss coat would have added depth and taken away the powdery quality that makes these colours read as pigment rather than paint. It is also the finish that changes least across the day, because there is nothing reflective to catch a low sun and blow out the lighter half. Practically, a soft-edged pattern absorbs a scuff visually far better than a hard block edge does — which on a modular helmet's chin bar is worth more than it sounds.

Three shells, and what KPA actually is

Three shells covering XS to 3XL, which puts this helmet level with the best-tooled models in our LS2 range and ahead of both Advant versions, which use two. On a modular helmet that is a real cost: the chin-bar pivots and their reinforcement have to be moulded into every shell size individually. Doing it three times at this price is the clearest signal of where the money went — into tooling nobody photographs.

Ninety degrees, and how the chin bar locks

Riding with the bar raised deserves one honest note, because modular helmets attract confident misinformation. The Strobe II is homologated as a jet as well as a full-face, so the open configuration is approved. But approval covers protection, not comfort: at town speeds an open helmet is pleasant, and on a motorway it is loud and pulls at the neck. No homologation changes that.

What ECE 22.06 and the P/J label mean

Everything fitted to the helmet is tested as fitted under 22.06 — visor, sun visor, vent covers. That sounds like a technicality and is not: it is why you cannot legally retrofit a sun visor to a helmet that was approved without one, and why the drop-down shade in this helmet had to be part of the submission rather than a later addition.

Twin Visor, sun visor — and the Pinlock that is not in the box

The quick-release is the mechanism you will actually use, so here is how it behaves: two catches, a firm pull, and the screen is off. Reversing it needs the visor held at the fully open position before it will seat — the commonest reason people think the mechanism is broken when it is not. About a minute either way once you have done it once.

Air, the breath deflector and the elastic-band liner

Ventilation on a modular helmet has a problem a full-face does not: the chin bar moves, so the chin intake has to work through a component that swings. Here the vent is mounted on the bar itself and travels with it, which keeps the airflow path short and direct at the cost of being the most handled — and therefore most frequently broken — vent on the helmet. It is stocked separately.

1700 grams, no emergency release, and the rest of the honest list

A modular helmet at this price has to leave something out, and it is fairer to say what than to let you find it. Here it is the emergency release system and the Pinlock lens. Neither affects how the helmet performs in the test it passed; both affect ownership — one on the worst possible day, the other on every cold morning until you buy the insert.

Weight is 1700 g. Noise is unmeasured and therefore unquoted; the chin curtain is the practical answer to most of it.

When something wears out

Buy the helmet, then keep it. Everything that fails in normal use is a serviceable part here, and the reason that matters at this price point is arithmetic: a liner, a visor and a chin bar together cost less than half a new helmet, and a helmet that has been re-lined and re-visored is functionally new everywhere it touches you. The shell is the part that does not wear out.

In the box

• LS2 FF908 Strobe II helmet — Orion Matt Black Purple Blue
• Carrying bag
• Reflective stickers
• 🔵 No Pinlock® insert — the visor is prepared for one (DKS520), sold separately

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF908 Strobe II
• Part number — 569082311
• Colour — Orion Matt Black Purple Blue — Orion graphic, matt
• Homologation — ECE 22.06, dual P/J (protective and jet)
• Safety rating — SHARP 4 of 5 stars (tested August 2026, ECE 22.06); chin bar fully locked in 37 % of impacts
• Helmet type — Flip-up / modular, chin bar raising 90° with locking system
• Shell — KPA (Kinetic Polymer Alloy), three shell sizes (XS–S / M–L / XL–3XL)
• Weight — 1700 g (±50 g)
• Sizes — XS to 3XL (seven sizes)
• Anti-fog — prepared for Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ (DKS520) — insert NOT supplied
• Visor — Twin Visor System, scratch-resistant, UV-stable, quick-release
• Sun visor — integrated, tinted, drop-down
• Impact liner — multi-density EPS with moulded ventilation channels
• Retention — micrometric ratchet buckle, reinforced chin strap, chin bar lock
• Emergency release — not fitted on this model
• Ventilation — chin intake, top intake, rear exhaust port, breath deflector
• Liner — 3D laser-cut, elastic-band crown, hypoallergenic, breathable, removable and washable
• Intercom — prepared for the current LS2 Bluetooth system
• Serviceability — complete chin bar available as a spare part in every one of the twelve colourways