LS2 FF818 Storm III Helmet – Dynamo Blue/Red

The same angular Dynamo pattern in deep blue with red running through it. Matt keeps both colours muted, so the geometry only resolves once you are close.

Everything that is usually an extra

The Storm III is the best-equipped of the three LS2 full-face helmets in this price bracket, and the equipment is the reason to choose it. Pinlock 70 MaxVision supplied, not offered. An internal sun visor that deploys with a slider and lifts out by hand. A magnetic chin curtain that clicks into place rather than needing to be threaded.

About the Dynamo Blue/Red finish

Navy is the quiet alternative to black — dark enough to be understated, blue enough that nobody mistakes it for a rental helmet. Red sits where the panels turn, and the matt finish stops the pair from reading as a racing livery. Like all matt paint it wants a matt-safe cleaner rather than polish, which is the standard price of a finish that hides fine scratches this well.

A large top intake, and what it feeds

Two intakes, ducted polystyrene, rear extractors, breath deflector — and the intakes are large. That is the single specification LS2 leads with on this helmet, and on a shell carrying a sun visor it matters more than usual: a sun-visor housing takes up space that would otherwise be liner, so the air has to work harder to reach your head.

The release you hope never to need

The chin strap closes with a ratchet buckle on reinforced webbing, and the cheek pads carry an emergency release system — pull tabs that let a first responder draw the padding clear so the helmet can come off without moving your neck. It is a feature you will never use yourself, which is rather the point of it.

Two screens, one shell

You look out through a Max Vision aperture — LS2's widest cut — with a scratch-resistant hardcoat and a twin-injection seal that keeps rain out of the gap. A button lock stops the visor lifting at motorway speed. Seven replacement screens are available, from clear to iridium.

What the ECE 22.06 plaque actually means

Worth a paragraph, because most shops leave it as a line in a table. ECE 22.06 tests up to eighteen impact points where 22.05 tested five, uses more than one impact speed, and — the substantive change — measures rotational acceleration through an oblique drop onto an angled, abrasive anvil.

Straight-line impact was always the easier problem. Rotation is what a real crash usually delivers, and it is what damages the brain at energies a shell survives comfortably. The standard also brings the visor and every fitted accessory into the test, and has been mandatory for new helmets sold in the EU since January 2024.

Fit and shell sizes

The range spans XXS to 3XL across 3 shells. That split is what keeps proportion sane — a small size sits close to the head instead of ballooning, and a large one is not wrapped around a shell that was never sized for it.

The bit you actually touch

The interior is the part you actually touch, and here it is thick, removable, washable, antibacterial and hypoallergenic. Add a magnetic chin curtain and prepared speaker recesses and the helmet is ready for long days rather than short commutes.

On noise

Nobody publishes a decibel figure for this helmet and we are not going to invent one. What can be said is where the noise comes from: turbulence at the base of the shell, air entering under the chin bar, and open vents. The chin curtain here is magnetic, which is not a gimmick: a popper-fastened curtain gets left off after the second cleaning, and a curtain that is not fitted does nothing. The sun-visor housing does widen the shell slightly at the temples compared with a helmet without one, which is a small aerodynamic cost for a large practical gain.

The rest is not the helmet's doing. A tall screen that pushes dirty air straight at your head will make any lid loud, and a naked bike at 130 km/h will beat the best-sealed helmet on the market. Earplugs remain the cheapest upgrade in motorcycling.

1600 grams, and what it buys

The scales say 1600 g (±50), which is 250 g more than the Rapid III and the heaviest helmet we list from LS2. Every gram of that difference is equipment: sun visor, its housing and slider, the button-lock visor mechanism and the emergency-release cheek pads. If you want the features, you carry the weight.

The scales say 1600 g (±50), taken on a mid-size shell with nothing added to it. Weight is the specification riders under-rate at the counter and over-rate after a long day — a helmet is a mass on the end of a lever, and the lever is your neck. Wind load at motorway speed compounds it.

Placed against the rest of our LS2 range, only 5 models undercut it, all of them more expensive.

Where it sits in our LS2 range

Eight LS2 full-face models are listed here and they form a ladder rather than a wall of choices. The Storm III is the equipment high point of the affordable half.

When something wears out

A helmet is not a sealed unit and the parts that wear are not the shell. Interiors compress, visors scratch, vent covers snap off in a car park. We stock the Storm III liner in every size, seven replacement visors from clear to iridium, the tinted sun visor, plus the chin curtain, chin bar trim, nose guard, ratchet mechanism and vent covers in six finishes.

That matters for how long the helmet lasts you. A liner that has taken a summer of sweat is the usual reason a helmet that once fitted starts to move on your head — and replacing it costs a fraction of replacing the helmet. The full parts list is in the FF818 Storm III Kit.

In the box

• LS2 FF818 Storm III helmet — Dynamo Blue/Red
• Carrying bag
• Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ anti-fog insert
• Reflective stickers

Specification

• Shell — KPA, three shell sizes (2XS–S / M–L / XL–3XL)
• Weight — 1600 g (±50 g)
• Sizes — XXS to 3XL (eight sizes)
• Homologation — ECE 22.06
• Retention — ratchet buckle, reinforced chin strap, emergency cheek-pad release
• Visor — Max Vision aperture, scratch-resistant, UV-stable, double-injection seal, button lock, quick-release system
• Anti-fog — Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ supplied
• Sun visor — integrated, tinted, tool-free removal system
• Ventilation — large top intake, chin intake, rear exhausts (all with transparent sections), channelled EPS, breath deflector
• Liner — maximum-comfort interior, antibacterial, hypoallergenic, breathable, removable and washable
• Chin curtain — magnetic
• Intercom — prepared for the current LS2 Bluetooth system
• Finish — Dynamo graphic, matt