Kaos in white and grey is a tonal graphic on a pale base — the visibility of a white helmet with none of the blankness, and the most understated of the light finishes here.

Everything that is usually an extra

🔵 There is a coherent design decision behind this helmet, and it is worth naming: LS2 has spent the weight budget on equipment rather than on lightness. The Rapid III makes the opposite choice at half the price.

Neither is wrong. They are different helmets for different riding.

1600 grams — the heaviest in the range, and why

For distance riding at steady speeds, 1600 g is manageable and the equipment earns its place. For stop-start urban use, the same 1600 g is the thing you will notice most.

🔵 If your riding is mostly the second, LS2's Rapid III is 250 g lighter and half the price.

KPA shell, three shell sizes and ECE 22.06

The EPS liner is the component that actually protects you, and it does so by crushing — converting impact energy into permanent deformation of the foam.

🔵 It works once. That is why LS2, like every manufacturer, says to replace a helmet after any real impact regardless of how it looks.

No independent safety rating — and nothing borrowed from a sibling

🔵 Stated plainly because it is the most important sentence on this page: no SHARP entry, no ADAC test, no Certimoov result exists for the FF818 Storm III.

It holds ECE 22.06 homologation, and that is the whole of the independent evidence available.

About the Kaos white and grey graphic

Tonal work on a pale base is the hardest combination to get right in helmet graphics, because the available range between white and a grey that still reads as light is narrow. Push the grey too dark and the helmet stops being pale, which throws away the whole point; keep it too close to white and the pattern vanishes. This one holds the line, and the behaviour at distance is exactly what you want from a graphic that is not meant to be the point: it resolves into a light-coloured helmet, which is what a driver at a junction is actually reading. Up close it gives you something to look at. On a touring helmet that will be seen far more often at fifty metres than at two, that priority is the correct way round. 🔵 The grey element takes a little of white's maintenance sting out of it — but only a little, and a distance helmet accumulates fly strike and motorway film faster than any other kind. Expect to wash it more often than the dark finishes, wash it wet, and dry it with something clean and soft.

Sun visor and the Pinlock in the box

The mechanism is simple, which is a virtue: a slider, a pivot and a shield, with little to go wrong and replaceable parts if something does.

🔵 Clean both surfaces wet. A dry cloth on a coated screen puts permanent fine scratches into it.

Crown and chin intakes, channelled EPS

The channelling in the EPS is the difference between air passing over your head and air passing through the helmet. Without it the flow tends to hug the shell and never reach your scalp.

🔵 LS2 documents it for this model. It is a large part of why the ventilation assessment here is 4 of 5.

Emergency release, closure and comfort

🔵 Worth noting what the emergency release is not: it is not a quick-release for you. It is designed to be operated by someone else, on you, at a roadside, and it should be left alone otherwise.

The ratchet is what you use every day.

Where it sits in LS2's range

🔵 Hold the equipment constant when comparing prices. A cheaper helmet without a Pinlock and without a sun visor is not cheaper by the difference on the sticker.

Add both to LS2's Rapid III and most of the gap to this helmet closes — though not the weight difference, which runs the other way.

Care and replacement parts

🔵 Five years is the standard replacement guidance and it is not arbitrary. Adhesives, EPS and shell material all change with time, temperature and ultraviolet, whether or not the helmet has been used.

Note the date you bought it.

In the box

• LS2 FF818 Storm III helmet — Kaos, White and grey (KPA shell)
• Clear outer visor, fitted
• Integrated drop-down sun visor, fitted
• Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ anti-fog insert — supplied, not a separate purchase
• Magnetic chin wind deflector, fitted and removable
• Breath deflector, fitted
• 🔵 No intercom — the helmet is prepared for a Bluetooth system, which is a separate purchase

Size guide

🔵 Buying for someone else? The tape measurement is the only reliable input — hat sizes and estimates are not. Measure them and use the chart.

Eight sizes from 2XS to 3XL.

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF818 Storm III
• Part number — 168180702
• Colour — Kaos — White and grey
• Homologation — ECE 22.06
• 🔴 Safety rating — none. SHARP's LS2 brand list carries the Strobe2, FF325 Strobe, Stream 2 and FF320 Stream but no Storm or Storm III; Certimoov has no entry either. Nothing is transferred from a sibling model — a rating belongs to the helmet that was crashed
• Shell — KPA injection-moulded thermoplastic; three shell sizes (2XS–S / M–L / XL–3XL)
• 🔴 Weight — approx. 1600 g (±50 g) — the heaviest helmet in LS2's road range. The sun visor mechanism, the emergency release and the second screen are what it is spent on
• Sizes — 2XS to 3XL (eight sizes)
• Sun visor — integrated drop-down shield, retracting fully into the shell
• 🟢 Anti-fog — Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ insert SUPPLIED in the box — not a separate purchase, unlike LS2's FF820 Rapid III and FF808 Stream II
• Ventilation — large crown intake plus chin intake feeding channelled EPS, with rear exhausts (transparent elements in the covers) and a breath deflector. 🔵 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 with emergency release — tabs allowing responders to withdraw the cheek pads before the helmet is moved
• Chin curtain — magnetic — refits with one gloved hand; fully removable
• Interior — fully removable and washable; cheek pads available in several thicknesses
• Communication — prepared for Bluetooth intercom — no system supplied
• 🔴 FIM homologation — none — a road helmet, not eligible for FIM-sanctioned competition
• Serviceability — both visors, sun visor mechanism, cheek pads, complete lining, magnetic chin deflector, 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
• Pinlock® 70 MaxVision™ anti-fog insert
• Reflective stickers