LS2 FF901 Advant X Nova Black Red – Flip-Up Touring Helmet ECE 22.06 P/J

Nova stripped to two colours: matt black and red, with the blade pattern and its fine line-hatching doing all the work and no third colour to complicate it. It is the cleanest reading of the graphic and the one that stays legible furthest away.

Four stars from SHARP — and this is the helmet they tested

The single strongest argument for this helmet is not written by LS2. SHARP — the UK Department for Transport's helmet safety programme, which buys helmets anonymously at retail and publishes every result — tested an Advant X in July 2024 under ECE 22.06 and rated it four out of five stars.

Read the recorded specification and you will see why it applies here and not to the carbon model: composite fibre, 1.6 kg. That is the HPFC shell at 1600 g. The impact scores were maximum fives across all five zones at 6.0 and 7.5 m/s; at the severe 8.5 m/s test the crown, front and rear held five and the sides scored three. The flip-front check recorded the chin bar fully locked through 63 % of impacts — the number that answers the usual objection to modular helmets.

About the Nova Black Red finish

Two-colour graphics age better than three-colour ones, and this is a good illustration of why. Without a secondary accent competing for attention, the eye follows the red blades from the brow back along the flank in one movement, and the hatched gradients at their trailing edges have room to be seen rather than being crowded. Red on black is also the highest-contrast pairing available without going fluorescent, so the pattern holds its shape at a distance where the three-colour versions start to merge. The matt coat keeps the red deep rather than glossy — a lacquered red over black tends to read as sporty in a way this does not, and the flat finish lets the hatching run without highlights breaking it up. Two practical notes: red is the most-chosen helmet colour in this shop, which matters if you ever sell it on, and a predominantly dark shell benefits more from the reflective stickers in the box than a light one does.

A chin bar that folds out of the airstream

The 180-degree rotation is the feature the whole helmet is built around, and it is worth understanding what it buys. A chin bar that stops at the crown presents a flat face to oncoming air; the faster you go, the harder that face is pushed, and the load arrives at your neck. A chin bar folded to the rear sits in air the shell has already disturbed, so there is far less to push against.

The result is that "open" stops being a thirty-second state. Combined with the dual P/J approval this is legally and physically a second helmet, and the transition takes about five seconds without stopping or dismounting. The release is single-control, firmly detented and operable in winter gloves.

P and J: two homologations on one label

The strap label reads ECE 22.06 P/J, and those two letters decide whether you may legally ride with the chin bar open. P certifies the helmet as protective with the bar in place, including a test of whether it stays locked under impact. J certifies it separately as a jet helmet with the bar rotated away. This helmet holds both.

A great many modular helmets carry only the P. Those are approved for closed riding alone, and opening one in motion places you outside the certification it was sold under. Dual homologation costs a manufacturer a second complete round of laboratory testing, which is precisely why it is not universal — and why it is the line on the label worth checking before you buy any flip-up.

HPFC — what the shell is actually made of

Under the paint is a fibre composite, not a moulded plastic. LS2 calls it HPFC and prints the badge on the back of the shell, and it is the same family of material used on the FF811 Vector II and FF817 Challenger II full-face helmets. It is a step up from the polycarbonate-class shells that dominate this price bracket.

The practical argument for composite on a flip-up is load path. A modular shell has a hole where a full-face has none — three of them, in fact — and a laminate lets the fibre be routed around those openings instead of relying on wall thickness alone. Whether that works is exactly the question SHARP answers, and the answer here was four stars.

What the ECE 22.06 plaque actually means

Every helmet on this page carries ECE 22.06, and it is worth knowing what that plaque now costs a manufacturer. The standard it replaced, 22.05, struck the shell at five fixed points and measured only how hard the head was stopped. 22.06 strikes up to eighteen points, at more than one speed, and adds a test that did not exist before: the helmet is dropped onto an angled anvil faced with abrasive paper, so the laboratory can measure how far the head is spun as well as how hard it is stopped.

That matters because rotational acceleration is what tears the bridging veins between brain and skull, and until 2021 no European standard measured it at all. 22.06 also tests the visor, and any accessory fitted to the helmet is tested in place rather than removed for the exam. Since January 2024 a new helmet cannot legally be sold in the EU without it.

The tabs a paramedic looks for

Under the shell is multi-density EPS: not one uniform block of polystyrene but zones of differing density, firmer where the standard strikes hardest and softer where a low-speed knock needs absorbing. The ventilation channels are moulded through it rather than cut in afterwards, which leaves the structure intact.

Around that sits a reinforced chin strap, a micrometric metal buckle and an emergency cheek-pad release. That release is the item worth weighing when you compare helmets: it exists for the minutes after a crash, when somebody else has to get the helmet off you, and it appears on very few helmets under 400 euros.

Three screens, one shell

The Twin Visor System is LS2's term for running two screens on one shell — an outer visor for the weather and an internal tinted one for the sun. The Advant X ships with a third in the box: a complete second outer visor, already tinted, for days when the internal shade is not enough.

The outer screens are scratch-resistant, UV-stable, sealed against the shell and quick-release. The internal sun visor drops with a side slider and retracts completely. And the Pinlock 120 MaxVision XLT anti-fog insert is supplied rather than offered — fit it before your first cold morning, not after.

In at two ends, out at the back

Air enters at two points and leaves at one. A chin intake feeds the back of the visor and your face — the vent that clears a screen on a damp morning. A crown intake feeds channels moulded through the multi-density EPS so the air travels across your scalp instead of stalling under the shell. At the rear, an exhaust port creates the low pressure that makes the whole thing move.

A breath deflector sits behind the chin bar and directs exhaled air downwards rather than up onto the visor. Together with the Pinlock insert it is why this helmet can be ridden closed in cold rain — which, on a flip-up, is exactly when you least want to be opening the chin bar to breathe.

Fit, and the honest word on two shells

The size run is XS to 3XL across two shells, split XS–L and XL–3XL. We would rather explain what that means than let the line pass: on a two-shell helmet the smallest size is a large shell with thicker EPS inside it. It fits, it is certified — and it looks marginally bigger on a small head than a purpose-tooled shell would.

Nearly every flip-up is built this way, and the mechanism is the reason. Pivot, latch and sun-visor housing are moulded into the shell, so a third shell size is not a scaled copy but an entirely new tool with all of that geometry re-engineered. For riders between M and XL it is a non-issue; at the bottom of the range it is worth a fitting.

The liner, and one claim we are not making

The liner is laser-cut foam under a breathable, hypoallergenic fabric, fully removable and washable. The laser cut is the detail worth understanding: it varies the depth continuously across a pad, so the padding can be firm where it has to hold the helmet on your jaw and soft where it would otherwise press on a cheekbone.

What is absent is an antibacterial treatment. LS2 specifies X-Static silver fabric for the carbon Advant X and not for this one, and we are not going to blur that. If the interior does eventually compress — every liner does — it is a replaceable part rather than a reason to buy a new helmet, and the cheek pads alone are the cheapest way to tighten a fit that has gone slack.

Before you buy an intercom

The Advant X is prepared for the current LS2 intercom, with one thing to know first: the mount is adhesive, not clamp. There is no slot between the shell edge and the cheek padding. Plan for that before ordering a unit you intended to share between helmets.

The preparation itself is good — speaker recesses moulded into the polystyrene so the drivers do not press on your ears, and a cable channel so the loom lies flat. Fit it once, in the right place, with the surface cleaned with isopropyl alcohol and the adhesive left to cure overnight, and it will hold better than most clamps ever do.

On noise

Wind noise is the specification manufacturers never quote, because it depends more on your bike than on their helmet. What the helmet controls is the seal at the neck roll, the gap under the chin bar and the vents. A chin curtain is fitted as standard, and it is the single most effective piece of quiet in the box — provided it stays in the helmet after you clean it. The 180-degree chin bar helps here: a modular bar parked on the crown sits in clean air and drums, while one lying flat behind the head does not.

What it does not control is the airflow leaving your screen. If a helmet is loud on one motorcycle and quiet on another, the screen is usually the reason. Plugs cost a euro and do more than any shell shape.

1600 grams on a flip-up

The scales say 1600 g (±50 g), mid-size shell, no accessories — the standard convention, so the figure is directly comparable with any other manufacturer's. What makes it interesting is the type of helmet it belongs to: flip-ups pay a structural tax that full-face helmets do not, and most of that mass sits forward of your ears where a lever arm makes it feel heavier than it is.

A composite shell is how the tax gets paid down. The number puts this helmet at or below most P/J modulars while keeping an internal sun visor, a certified 180-degree chin bar and a four-star SHARP rating. The carbon version saves 50 grams; whether that is worth 70 euros is a decision only you can make, and we sell both.

Carbon or composite? A straight answer

The obvious question with two shells on the same helmet is which to buy, so here is the comparison without the sales gloss. Composite (this one): HPFC, 1600 g, from 399 €, SHARP four stars. Carbon: carbon 6K shell and chin bar, 1550 g, from 469 €, X-Static silver liner, no independent rating — SHARP tested the composite, and ratings do not transfer between shell constructions.

Everything that defines the Advant X is shared: the chin bar rotating 180 degrees to the rear, dual P/J approval, the internal sun visor, a tinted second visor and a Pinlock 120 MaxVision XLT in the box, the emergency cheek-pad release, the metal micrometric buckle. The choice is genuinely between 50 grams of carbon and an independently measured four-star result.

Where it sits in our LS2 range

Two flip-ups and three full-face models frame this helmet in our LS2 line-up. Read the table for what the folding chin bar costs against a comparable composite full-face, and what the carbon Advant X costs above it.

When something wears out

Worth knowing before you buy rather than after: everything on this helmet that wears out can be replaced individually. Liners in all seven sizes cheek pads, six replacement visors from clear through to iridium gold, the tinted sun visor and its mechanism, complete replacement chin bars in every colourway, chin, top and rear vents in matching finishes, ratchet plates, pins and the chin curtain.

The interior is the part that decides how long the helmet stays honest. Sweat and hair oils break down the foam, the fit loosens, and riders conclude the helmet is finished when the shell is untouched. The full parts list is in the FF901 Advant X Kit.

In the box

• LS2 FF901 Advant X helmet — Nova Black Red
• Carrying backpack
• Tinted visor
• Pinlock® 120 MaxVision™ XLT anti-fog insert (DKS433)
• Reflective stickers

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF901 Advant X
• Part number — 569012531
• Colour — Nova Black Red — Nova graphic, matt black with red
• Homologation — ECE 22.06, dual P/J (protective and jet)
• Safety rating — SHARP 4 of 5 stars (tested July 2024, ECE 22.06)
• Helmet type — Flip-up / modular, chin bar rotating 180° to the rear
• Shell — HPFC fibre composite, two shell sizes (XS–L / XL–3XL)
• Weight — 1600 g (±50 g)
• Sizes — XS to 3XL (seven sizes)
• Anti-fog — Pinlock® 120 MaxVision™ XLT (DKS433) supplied
• Visor — Twin Visor System, scratch-resistant, UV-stable, quick-release; tinted second visor supplied
• Sun visor — integrated, tinted, drop-down
• Impact liner — multi-density EPS with moulded ventilation channels
• Retention — micrometric metal buckle, reinforced chin strap, emergency release system
• Ventilation — chin intake, top intake, rear exhaust port, breath deflector
• Liner — laser-cut foam, hypoallergenic, breathable, removable and washable (no antibacterial treatment specified)
• Intercom — prepared for the LS2 intercom — adhesive mount only, no clamp slot