Dark Shadow Matte takes the same name as the gloss Gun Silver decor in this line and turns it into something else entirely: a matte black shell where the finish itself is the statement, no gloss catching light along the curves, no pale tone drawing the eye from across a car park. Shark's own naming ties this decor to the gloss Dark Shadow, but the two read as different helmets on the shelf — this one is built to recede rather than announce itself, right up until the LED strip switches on.

An open face with a light built in

This shell carries the same system as the rest of the Skwal i3 Jet line: an active LED brake light built into the structure, run by its own accelerometer with no wiring to the bike required. A single button steps through three states — smart brake lights alone, position lights with smart brake lights, or flashing position lights with smart brake lights — and none of it depends on a phone, an app, or a Bluetooth connection of any kind.

Whether it's road-legal here, honestly

Shark's own manual for this specific helmet, a 175-page document distinct from the closed-face Skwal i3's manual, states plainly: check that your country's legislation does not place restrictions on the use of LEDs. No E-mark or homologation number for the light appears anywhere in it. The ECE 22.06 rating on this shell is a head-protection standard, not a vehicle-lighting approval, and nothing found for this listing — from Shark or from independent sources — settles whether a helmet-mounted brake light like this one satisfies German road law. It stays a genuine open question here, not a resolved one.

No chin bar, said plainly

The matte finish changes nothing about the shape underneath it: this is an open-face helmet, and an open-face helmet has no chin bar. Nothing structural sits across your jaw below the visor line, on this decor or any other version of it. That is what choosing this shape over a full-face costs you, in exchange for an open field of view and a helmet that comes off in one motion — both halves of that trade stated here, not just the favourable one.

What ECE 22.06 actually tests

This shell carries ECE 22.06, which replaced 22.05 as the EU's mandatory approval standard for newly homologated helmets from January 2024. The test changed in scope, not just in name: eighteen strike points rather than five, spread across several impact speeds instead of one, plus a genuinely new oblique-impact test against an abrasive anvil that 22.05 never included, scoring the rotational force a glancing hit produces rather than only a straight-line drop's force. Fitted accessories, visor and LED unit both, stay on the shell through every test. Norme 2206 on the price list, no FIM suffix — a road standard, not a competition one.

Weight as a number your neck carries all day

1,425 g for the first shell size is the figure Shark states, identical to the other two current decors of this helmet — the matte topcoat adds no measurable weight over the gloss finish sold alongside it. That number is carried above your neck for the entire time the helmet is on, through a full commute or a full day, not only absorbed in the single instant it is designed to protect against.

Ventilation and the light system together

Two intakes at the front and two extractors at the back give this shell a short, direct airflow path with no chin bar in the way. The LED hardware lives in the rear spoiler, positioned clear of that path rather than blocking it.

Visor: VZ670, side-locking

The VZ670 visor fitted here is shared with the plain Skwal Jet and the Skwal Jet Cup, not the closed-face i3's own visor family. It locks from the side, carries a vortex generator at its edge, and comes with a Pinlock 70 insert and an integrated drop-down sun visor as standard equipment rather than optional extras. No optical-class rating is published for this visor family anywhere in Shark's own material, so none is stated here.

Charging and runtime

The LED system charges over USB-C, the cable stored in the neck protection rather than a loose accessory. Shark's own figures put a full charge at roughly three hours and runtime at up to twelve hours in flashing mode — numbers worth planning a multi-day trip's charging around rather than assuming will hold.

Wind noise, honestly

A matte finish changes how light behaves on the shell, not how air does: an open face is louder at speed than a full-face by construction, with no chin bar sealing air from your ears, and this decor shares that with every other jet helmet Shark makes. No decibel figure is published for it, so none is stated here as if it were.

Where the Skwal i3 Jet sits on price

The plain Skwal Jet starts Shark's open-face ladder at €189.99, the Skwal Jet Cup from €239.99, and the RS Jet pairing spans €249.99 to €319.99 — all without any light system fitted. This helmet's full active LED system puts it at €289.99 to €349.99 across its range, this matte decor included, above every light-free jet in Shark's current line-up.

Spare parts, later

The VZ670 visor and its Pinlock 70 insert are stocked under the same part numbers as the plain Skwal Jet and the Skwal Jet Cup — three current helmets sharing one parts bin, which keeps a replacement visor available long after this particular matte decor eventually cycles out.

What this helmet does not have

No SHARP rating exists for this helmet — the UK programme's results for older Shark Skwal-branded helmets do not extend to this one, and nothing from them is carried over here. No MIPS, no optical-class rating, no published wind-noise figure, and no Bluetooth or app pairing for the LED system, which operates solely on its own onboard accelerometer.

In the box

The helmet arrives with the visor fitted and the Pinlock 70 insert already in place, the USB-C charging cable stowed inside the neck protection, reflective bands, and Shark's documentation covering the 5-year warranty and the LED system's own operating instructions — including the same line about checking your own country's legislation before relying on the light.