The same floral graphic on a black base. Inverting a design does not simply darken it — it changes which part of the helmet your eye reads first, and here it changes the character completely.

1350 grams, and why that is the headline

🔵 Two hundred grams sounds like nothing written down. Held at the end of your arm it is obvious, and held on your neck at the end of a five-hour day it is the difference between arriving tired and arriving stiff.

The Rapid III is 1350 g ±50 g.

HPTT shell, three shell sizes and ECE 22.06

🔵 A helmet's shell material gets over-discussed because it is the part you can see. The liner underneath does most of the protecting, and it works by permanently deforming.

After any real impact the Rapid III is finished, whatever the HPTT looks like from outside.

No independent safety rating — and the trap that goes with it

🔵 Ratings and homologations answer different questions. ECE 22.06 asks whether a helmet may legally be sold; SHARP asks how it compared when crashed against others.

The Rapid III answers the first. Nobody has asked it the second.

About the Poppies II black and pink graphic

On the white version the pattern sits across a bright field and you read the whole shell at once. Here the black recedes and the pink becomes the only element with any weight, so the helmet reads as a dark shape with marks on it rather than as a decorated surface. It is the more restrained of the two by a considerable margin, and for a rider who wants the graphic without the brightness it is plainly the better answer. The pink still does useful work: it is a colour with no natural equivalent in traffic, so it registers as an anomaly even against a dark base, which is a different mechanism from simple brightness and a genuinely effective one. 🔵 The base is doing what black bases do in poor light, though, so this is meaningfully less conspicuous overall than the white version. Wash it wet; printed artwork does not take repairs. Between the two Poppies finishes the decision is the same one that runs through this whole range: the white version is easier for a driver to see, and the black version is easier to keep looking clean and considerably more discreet. Both are the same helmet underneath, both cost the same, and neither protects better than the cheaper plain black.

What this helmet does not have: an internal sun visor

🔵 Sunset on a westbound road is the case where an internal shield earns its keep, and the Rapid III has nothing for it. Sunglasses under a full-face are awkward to fit and remove; a tinted visor becomes a liability once it is dark.

Consider the FF808 Stream II if that describes your riding.

Chin and top intakes, channelled EPS

Compare within LS2's own range and the ventilation specification is one of the Rapid III's genuine advantages: the FF817 Challenger II runs one intake path, and this runs two.

🔵 The FF808 Stream II has intakes and exhausts but no documented EPS channelling.

Anti-fog — prepared for, not supplied

🔵 Factor this into price comparisons. Some rivals include a Pinlock lens in the box; the Rapid III does not, and the lens is sold separately.

Even so, with an insert added this remains one of the cheaper properly-equipped full-faces available.

Lining, closure and everyday comfort

🔵 A new helmet should feel firm everywhere and painful nowhere. Padding compresses over the first few hours and again across the first season, so the size that feels right in the shop is often a size too large by the following summer.

Buy on the snug side.

Where it sits in LS2's range

🔵 The nineteen finishes divide usefully into three groups: four plain solids at the lower price, dark graphics, and light or high-contrast graphics. Only the last group has a measurable road advantage.

Every one of them is the same helmet underneath.

Care and replacement parts

🔵 Dropping a helmet from waist height onto a hard floor is not automatically fatal to it, despite what gets repeated — but any fall with your head inside it is.

If in doubt, ask LS2. Visors, pads, linings and vent covers are all available if the helmet itself is sound.

In the box

• LS2 FF820 Rapid III helmet — Poppies II, Black and pink (HPTT shell)
• Clear outer visor, fitted
• Chin curtain, fitted and removable
• Breath deflector, fitted and removable
• 🔵 No internal sun visor — this model does not have one
• 🔵 No Pinlock insert — the visor is prepared for a Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™, which is sold separately
• 🔵 No second visor and no intercom — both are separate purchases

Size guide

🔵 Fit matters more than any specification on this page. The liner protects you where it is in contact with your head, and a loose helmet moves before it starts working.

Measure, try, and keep it on for ten minutes.

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF820 Rapid III
• Part number — 168200411
• Colour — Poppies II — Black and pink
• Homologation — ECE 22.06
• 🔴 Safety rating — none. SHARP has no entry for the FF820, Rapid III or Rapid 3 (brand list checked directly). The 2-star result under „FF353 Rapid" belongs to the previous-generation helmet — different shell, different standard — and is deliberately not carried over. No ADAC or Certimoov result either
• Shell — HPTT injection-moulded thermoplastic; three shell sizes (2XS–S / M–L / XL–3XL)
• Weight — approx. 1350 g (±50 g), mid-size shell without accessories
• Sizes — 2XS to 3XL (eight sizes)
• 🔴 Sun visor — none. This helmet has no drop-down internal shield — unlike LS2's FF808 Stream II, FF811 Vector II and FF817 Challenger II. It is most of the reason it weighs 1350 g
• Visor — clear outer visor, scratch-resistant, tool-free change
• 🔴 Anti-fog — prepared for Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ — the insert is NOT included. The pins are fitted; the lens is a separate purchase
• Ventilation — chin and top intakes feeding channelled EPS, with rear exhausts — two intake paths, one more than the FF817. 🔵 Assessed from the published construction; no independent airflow measurement exists
• 🔴 Wind noise — left unrated — no independent measurement is published for this model
• Retention — ratchet buckle
• Interior — hypoallergenic, antibacterial, fully removable and washable. 🔵 No branded wicking fabric (no COOLMAX or X-Static) and no magnetic wind deflector — both appear further up LS2's range
• Included — chin curtain and breath deflector, both fitted and removable
• 🔴 FIM homologation — none — a road helmet, not eligible for FIM-sanctioned competition
• Serviceability — visors, cheek pads in several thicknesses, complete lining, chin curtain, breath deflector and vent covers all available separately
• Replacement guidance — after about five years regardless of condition, and immediately after any impact

• 1× helmet
• Carrying bag
• Reflective stickers