Matt navy is genuinely uncommon — most manufacturers offer navy in gloss or not at all — and it is the most quietly interesting of the four plain finishes here.

An HPFC composite shell in three sizes

🔵 The shell and the liner do different jobs. The HPFC composite resists penetration and spreads impact load across a wide area; the EPS beneath absorbs the energy by crushing.

Only the shell survives an impact. The liner crushes once and does not recover — and a composite shell hides that better than a thermoplastic one does.

No independent safety rating — and nothing to borrow

🔵 If an independent rating is what you are shopping on, LS2 has helmets that carry one. The FF808 Stream II and FF908 Strobe II both hold 4 SHARP stars, and the carbon FF807 Dragon holds 4 as well.

The Challenger II has never been tested by anyone independent.

Airflow from the top down — and no chin intake

🔵 The ventilation assessment on this page is 3 of 5, and the reasoning is exactly this: a crown intake with channelled EPS and rear exhausts is a proper through-flow system, but the chin intake that sportier models have is absent.

It is a construction judgement, not a measurement. Nobody has measured this helmet's airflow.

About the solid matt navy blue finish

Deep colour under a flat finish is harder to produce well than it looks. Matt clear coat over a saturated base has a tendency to go chalky, which is why so many matt finishes are black, grey or white; navy is dark enough to carry it without that happening, and the result reads as a solid object rather than as a painted one. Practically it combines the two properties you actually want on a distance helmet. Blue sits in the part of the spectrum where road grime shows least — the grey deposit a motorway leaves is obvious on white and a haze on black, and against navy it disappears between washes — and the matt finish absorbs handling marks on top of that. 🔵 It also sits meaningfully above black on the value scale, so it separates from tarmac better in flat light. Matt care is the usual single rule: wash it, never polish it, because abrasive compound leaves a permanent shiny scar on a flat coat. Of the four plain finishes here this is the one we would recommend to a rider who wants a single helmet to do everything without any of it being a compromise: better hidden dirt than white, better visibility than either black, and a colour you will rarely see on another bike. It carries exactly the same shell, visor system and lining as the graphics.

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

The internal sun visor comes out for cleaning without tools, which matters more than it sounds after a summer of insects — on many helmets the inner shield is effectively unserviceable.

🔵 It deploys on a slider and stows completely inside the shell rather than parking in your upper field of view.

Holding on, and letting go

🟢 The emergency cheek-pad release is the feature you hope never matters. Tabs at the base of each pad let responders withdraw the padding before the helmet is moved, which is the moment most likely to disturb a damaged neck.

🔵 It is not a quick-release for you — it is designed to be operated by someone else, on you, at a roadside.

The part you actually touch

🔵 Washing the lining is the most effective maintenance there is and the one most often skipped. Sweat degrades foam, and the foam is what holds the helmet in position on your head.

Cool water, a few times a season, dried away from direct heat.

Where it sits in LS2's range

What this helmet is good at: sealing, quiet and distance. What it does not have: a chin intake, or any independent safety rating.

🔵 Both are stated in full elsewhere on this page rather than left to be discovered after the order.

Care and replacement parts

Look after the visor above everything else. Never wipe it dry — grit dragged across the hardcoat leaves fine scratches, and scratches flare into a starburst against oncoming headlights.

🔵 Wet it, wash it, dry it with something clean and soft.

In the box

• LS2 FF817 Challenger II helmet — Solid, Matt navy blue (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

🔵 Buy tight. Every helmet loosens as the padding compresses, noticeably over the first hours and again across the first season, so the correct size at purchase feels slightly too snug.

Thicker cheek pads are available if it loosens further.

Specification

• Model — LS2 FF817 Challenger II
• Part number — 168170023
• Colour — Solid — Matt navy blue
• 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