Lavender is the most unexpected finish LS2 offers on this shell, and it turns out to be doing something genuinely useful on the road — for reasons that have nothing to do with whether you like the colour.

An HPFC composite shell in three sizes

🔵 A metal homologation plaque is fitted to the shell rather than a printed label. It matters at borders: it is the approval proof in physical form, and it does not wear off.

The approval it records is ECE 22.06.

No independent safety rating — and nothing to borrow

🔵 Four of the specifications on this page are assessments rather than measurements — fit, ventilation, comfort and wind noise — and all four are flagged as such.

Wind noise is left blank entirely, because there is nothing to derive it from and a manufacturer's feature list is not a measured result.

Airflow from the top down — and no chin intake

🔵 If your riding is mostly urban, ventilation matters less than the brochures suggest — there is no airflow at a standstill regardless of design, and what helps then is a pale shell rather than a clever one.

Above about 40 km/h the crown intake and channelled EPS do their work.

About the Flaman lavender graphic

An eye scanning a busy junction is not measuring brightness; it is looking for whatever does not fit the pattern it expects to find. A traffic scene contains grey, black, white, silver, red, blue and some green, and it contains no lavender at all — nothing on a vehicle, nothing on a sign, nothing at the roadside. A colour that appears nowhere else in the scene is therefore an anomaly, and anomalies are what the visual system is built to catch. Motorcycle conspicuity research has consistently found that contrast against the surroundings does more work than raw brightness, and unused colours are the cheapest form of contrast there is. 🔵 Two practical notes. Pale pigments in this part of the spectrum are more UV-sensitive than the inorganic colours, so store the helmet out of direct sunlight rather than on a windowsill. And there is a side benefit you will notice weekly: you will never mistake somebody else's helmet for yours at a fuel stop. One further point: this is the only finish in the range with no equivalent anywhere else in LS2's catalogue, which for some riders is reason enough. The visibility argument behind it is entirely serious even if the colour is not the one most buyers reach for first — and it costs the same as every other graphic here.

Seeing out: visor, sun shield and the Pinlock in the box

If you wear prescription glasses, an integrated shield is far more practical than prescription sunglasses or a tinted visor: it moves without removing anything, and it moves while you are riding.

🔵 Check it clears your frames when you try the helmet on. That is a fit question rather than a fault.

Holding on, and letting go

🟢 The metal plaque on the shell is worth knowing about before a trip. It records the ECE homologation physically, which is occasionally asked for at borders and cannot be argued with.

🔵 Printed labels fade; this does not.

The part you actually touch

🔵 The antibacterial treatment slows rather than prevents the smell every used helmet eventually develops. What actually prevents it is washing the lining, which takes two minutes here.

Do it a few times a season.

Where it sits in LS2's range

🟢 For a rider covering long distances on mixed roads, the argument for this helmet is what it leaves out as much as what it includes: no chin vent means less draught and less noise on a stage ridden in one go.

🔵 The corresponding cost is fog management in slow wet traffic, which falls entirely to the supplied Pinlock.

Care and replacement parts

Cheek pads in other thicknesses are the most useful spare available and the least often bought. A fit that has loosened over two seasons is usually corrected with thicker pads rather than a new helmet.

🔵 The complete lining and the magnetic chin curtain are both listed separately.

In the box

• LS2 FF817 Challenger II helmet — Flaman, Lavender (HPFC composite shell)
• Wide hardcoated visor, fitted, with double-injection seal and button lock
• Pinlock® 120 XLT MaxVision™ anti-fog insert — included, not a separate purchase
• Integrated tinted sun visor, fitted and removable for cleaning without tools
• Magnetic chin curtain, fitted and removable
• 🔵 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 begins working.

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

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF817 Challenger II
• Part number — 168170473
• Colour — Flaman — Lavender
• Homologation — ECE 22.06, recorded on a metal plaque fitted to the shell
• 🔴 Safety rating — none. SHARP has no Challenger or Challenger II entry and Certimoov has not tested it. Unlike the FF811 Vector II, where SHARP rates the composite version, there is nothing here that could be transferred — not even from a sibling shell
• Shell — HPFC high-performance fibreglass composite; three shell sizes (2XS–S / M–L / XL–3XL)
• Weight — approx. 1500 g (±50 g) — light for a touring full-face carrying a drop-down sun visor
• Sizes — 2XS to 3XL (eight sizes)
• Visor — wide and hardcoated, with a double-injection seal and a button lock
• Sun visor — integrated tinted shield on a slider, stowing fully inside the shell; removable for cleaning without tools
• 🟢 Anti-fog — Pinlock® 120 XLT MaxVision™ insert included — not a separate purchase
• 🔴 Ventilation — crown intake feeding channelled EPS, with rear exhausts. No chin intake — a deliberate touring compromise: less draught and less noise, with fog management running through the Pinlock rather than through airflow. 🔵 Assessed from construction; no independent measurement exists
• 🔴 Wind noise — left unrated — no independent measurement is published for this model
• Retention — reinforced chin strap with a micrometric metal buckle
• Emergency access — emergency cheek-pad release — tabs let responders withdraw the pads before the helmet is moved
• Interior — COOLMAX® — breathable, quick-drying, antibacterial and hypoallergenic; fully removable and washable
• Chin curtain — magnetic — refits with one gloved hand; fully removable
• 🔴 FIM homologation — none — a road helmet, not eligible for FIM-sanctioned competition
• Serviceability — visor, internal sun visor, Pinlock insert, cheek pads (several thicknesses), lining, magnetic chin curtain and vent covers
• Replacement guidance — after about five years, and immediately after any impact — composite can look undamaged over crushed EPS

• 1× helmet
• Elastic carrying bag
• Pinlock 120XLT MaxVision anti-fog insert
• Reflective stickers