A carbon race helmet that does not read as black. The Drift graphic puts magenta, violet and turquoise brushwork over the bare weave, and the result is a helmet you can pick out of a car park and, more usefully, one a driver at a junction has a better chance of resolving. Underneath it is the standard FF805 Thunder GP Aero: 100 per cent carbon, 1,280 g declared, ECE 22.06.

Drift Blue Purple, up close

The base stays visible carbon. Over it run torn white ribbons across the crown and flank, a magenta and violet wash that gradients into turquoise along the lower edge, and fine ink-like squiggles in cyan and pink scattered across the rear. A large white LS2 script sits behind the visor mechanism at an angle, like a signature rather than a badge.

It is a busy design that stays legible because it is drawn in a limited palette. From ten metres it reads as one purple-to-teal shape; from arm's length it resolves into individual strokes.

Colour and being seen: what the evidence actually says

This is worth doing carefully, because it is where helmet marketing usually invents numbers.

The substantial work on the question is a case-control study of motorcycle crashes published in the BMJ in 2004 by Wells and colleagues in Auckland. It compared riders who crashed with riders who did not, and found that wearing a white helmet was associated with a materially lower risk of crash-related injury than wearing a black one. It did not test purple, it did not test graphics, and one study in one country twenty years ago is not a law of physics.

What can be said without stretching it: this helmet carries a large area of high-chroma colour at eye level, and high-chroma colour is easier for a driver to separate from a grey road scene than a dark, low-contrast shape. That is a reason to prefer it over plain black, and it is not a substitute for a headlight, a lane position and the assumption that nobody has seen you.

A race shell that happens to be colourful

Nothing about the construction is softened for the graphics. This is the same helmet as the plain carbon version: double D-ring rather than a ratchet, no drop-down sun visor, a fixed racing spoiler, and an eye port cut for the head position you hold on a bike with clip-ons.

If you want a colourful touring helmet, this is the wrong tool — it is loud, it has no sun visor, and the fastening takes two hands. If you want a race helmet you can also find in the dark, it is exactly right.

Carbon 6K and 1,280 grams

The shell is 100 per cent carbon fibre in a 6K weave — six thousand filaments per tow — and LS2 declares 1,280 g with a 50 g tolerance. We report that as the manufacturer's figure; we have not weighed one.

What the number buys is not acceleration but endurance. Your neck holds the helmet steady against every bump and every look through a corner, the effort accumulates, and under 1,300 g is the point where a long day stops ending early because of your shoulders.

One outer shell size

LS2 builds the GP Aero in a single outer shell for XS through XXL, where the GP PRO above it uses three. The size range is made up in padding thickness alone.

Said plainly: a small head carries the outside dimensions of a large helmet, and a large head gets thin padding. The middle of the range is where this works best, and both ends are worth trying on first.

Air path and the release tabs

Intakes at the chin, at the brow and on the crown; channels cut through the EPS; an exhaust under the rear spoiler; a breath deflector behind the chin bar. All of it works in gloves.

The cheek pads sit on LS2's Emergency Release System — red pull tabs that slide the pads out so a helmet can come off a rider without rotating the neck. You will not use it, and it is one of the details that tells you which side of the sport-versus-race line this helmet was designed on.

Visor, Pinlock and tear-offs

Class A polycarbonate, wide aperture, scratch resistant, UV filtering, quick release, button lock at the closed position, tear-off posts already there.

The Pinlock 120XLT MaxVision lens is included, not an upsell: 120 is the top anti-fog grade, XLT the larger format, MaxVision the cut that reaches the edge of the aperture so there is no frame in your peripheral vision. A tinted visor and tear-off films come in the box too.

ECE 22.06 in short

Mandatory in the EU since January 2024. Eighteen impact points against five under the old standard, multiple impact speeds, an oblique impact on an abrasive anvil that measures the rotational acceleration behind most brain injury, and a Brain Injury Criterion assessment rather than peak deceleration alone. Vents and visor are tested fitted.

Living with a multi-colour gloss finish

Gloss over a graphic like this is the right choice — matt would kill the gradient — and it is also the easier surface to keep. Swirl marks polish out, insects lift with less work, and the clear coat protects the printed layer underneath.

Two cautions. Magenta and violet pigments fade faster under UV than almost anything else in a paint system, so this is not a helmet to store on a parcel shelf. And never dry-wipe a graphic finish: grit dragged across a printed decal leaves marks that no compound reaches.

What this helmet does not have

• No FIM homologation. In the FF805 family that belongs to the Thunder GP PRO alone.
• No sun visor. Bring a tinted screen if you ride into the evening.
• One outer shell size for six helmet sizes.
• No SHARP, ADAC or Snell rating for any FF805 Thunder.
• No noise figure. We publish measurements, not estimates, and there is no measurement.
• No intercom included; the shell is prepared for the LS2 unit.

In the box

• LS2 FF805 Thunder GP Aero helmet — Drift Blue Purple, gloss
• Carrying backpack
• Tinted visor
• Pinlock Max Vision 120XLT anti-fog lens
• Tear-off films
• Reflective stickers

Size guide

Specification

• Helmet — LS2 FF805 Thunder GP Aero, full-face
• Article — 168059274
• Livery — Drift Blue Purple, gloss over visible carbon
• Approval — ECE 22.06; FIM belongs to the GP PRO, not this helmet
• Construction — 100 per cent carbon fibre, 6K cloth, one shell size
• Mass — 1,280 g ± 50 g as declared by the manufacturer
• Screen — Class A polycarbonate, wide aperture, quick release, tear-off posts
• Fog control — Pinlock 120XLT MaxVision insert included
• Fastening — double D-ring with Emergency Release System pads
• Size range — XS–XXL, 53 to 64 cm
• Vents — chin, brow and top, exhaust under the rear spoiler
• Padding — removable and machine-friendly, laser-cut foam
• Comms — cut for the LS2 intercom; no electronics in the box
• Conspicuity — large high-chroma area at eye level — see the section above on what that does and does not mean

• 1x LS2 FF805 Thunder GP Aero helmet — Drift Blue Purple
• 1x carrying backpack
• 1x tinted visor
• 1x pinlock Max Vision 120XLT
• 1x tear-off films
• 1x reflective stickers