Viper uses the same three colours as Titan in a different geometry, and this is the version where blue rather than white carries the composition — a darker, more contemporary reading of the same palette.

An HPFC composite shell in three sizes

The EPS liner is the component that actually protects you, and it works by permanently deforming — converting impact energy into crushed foam.

🔵 It works once. LS2, like every manufacturer, says to replace the helmet after any real impact, and on a composite shell that advice matters more because the outside tells you less.

No independent safety rating — and nothing to borrow

🔵 Where a rating exists we quote it and link it. Where one exists for a different model or a different shell, we say so and leave it out.

For the FF817 Challenger II there is simply nothing to quote, and we are not going to borrow anything.

Airflow from the top down — and no chin intake

The vent covers are inside the ECE 22.06 approval, because the current standard tests a helmet with everything fitted that will be sold on it. They open and close by hand and work in gloves.

🔵 No independent airflow figure exists for this model.

About the Viper white, blue and red graphic

Where Titan runs its bands horizontally in the way a period racing livery does, Viper works diagonally, which changes what the helmet does at distance: hard angular boundaries create edges, and edges are what peripheral vision locks onto. A smooth gradient across a shell gives the eye nothing to fix on and is read as a single soft object; a set of sharp boundaries between light and dark reads as structure and registers faster. That is why high-contrast angular liveries appear on emergency vehicles and airbrushed fades do not. 🔵 The dark blue base means this is a step below the white-dominant Titan for outright conspicuity, and a step above it for keeping clean — blue is the colour against which motorway film shows least. Both cost the same and both are the same helmet underneath. The red is the UV-sensitive element on either, so store it out of direct sun. Of the three Viper finishes this is the brightest, the grey and red version is the most balanced, and the grey with hi-vis is the one with the strongest safety argument. All three share the same angular geometry, the same composite shell and the same price, so the decision is entirely about how visible you want to be and how much washing you are prepared to do.

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

🟢 Sunset on a westbound road is the case that settles the argument for an internal shield, and it is the one a fixed tint handles worst — half an hour later it is dark and you are still behind it.

The Challenger II's retracts completely into the shell, and the included Pinlock keeps the outer visor clear in the cold that follows.

Holding on, and letting go

🟢 A micrometric closure gives you fine adjustment rather than a choice between two holes: you set the strap to the millimetre and click to the same place every time.

🔵 The double-teeth engagement is what makes the click mean something.

The part you actually touch

🟢 Quick-drying matters more than it sounds on a multi-day trip, where a helmet that is still damp at breakfast is a genuine misery. COOLMAX is built for exactly that.

🔵 The whole interior comes out by hand in a couple of minutes.

Where it sits in LS2's range

Choose the finish on how you want to be seen rather than on what the small surcharge might buy in capability — it buys artwork.

🔵 The four solids and the nine graphics are identical in every other respect, including the shell, the visor system and the lining.

Care and replacement parts

🔵 Never repaint a helmet or apply solvent-based stickers to one. Paint solvents attack composite lacquer and resin invisibly, and doing so voids the ECE approval recorded on the plaque.

Choose from the thirteen finishes here instead.

In the box

• LS2 FF817 Challenger II helmet — Viper, White, blue and red (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

🔵 Glasses change the fit, and there are two things to check: that the arms slide in without catching, and that the drop-down sun visor clears your frames when lowered.

Both are fit questions rather than faults.

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF817 Challenger II
• Part number — 168170726
• Colour — Viper — White, blue and red
• 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