SHARK S700S crash helmet review

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Shark’s budget thermoplastic full face lid with sun visor

The S700S is a budget helmet that’s a step up from Shark’s entry-level S600 model. It’s a thermoplastic shelled full face helmet with integral drop down sun visor, micrometric fastener, quick-release clear visor and has an upgraded internal comfort liner.

Overall/Summary

When you can grab one for around £100, there’s no doubt the Shark S700S is a budget full face helmet – then again, most thermoplastic shelled crash helmets tend to be at the lower end of the price range. However, that’s not to say it isn’t well worth looking at. It’s SHARP four star rated for safety, has an integral UV sun visor, uprated comfort liner and owners reckon that, especially at this price, the finishing is great.

So if you’re after a helmet that’s safe, has some decent features and don’t want to spend too much, then the Shark S700S is well worth checking out.

  • SHARP 4 Star Rated (*Shark S700)
  • Thermoplastic shell
  • Integral sun visor
  • Micrometric fastener

    Shark-S700S-crash-helmet-plain-white-Prime-side-view
    S700S gloss white ‘Prime’ version showing sun visor lever next to the visor pivot.
  • 1.55 Kg (slightly heavier than the average full face)
  • Size XS (53/4) – XL (61/2)
  • Expect to pay £100-160
  • Note: S700S has been discontinued, now replaced by the Shark Ridill.

Safety

Now, it’s worth noting that this specific model, the S700S, hasn’t been tested by SHARP, but its predecessor the S700 was. That scored 4/5 stars (which is obviously pretty good) as did the S900 on which this latest helmet is based. So it’s probably safe to assume the 700S will score the same – particularly when every other Shark helmet (bar one) has scored either three or four stars out of five!

Obviously, it’s passed the ECE 2205 test which all helmets that are sold in the EU have to pass – so we’d be pretty confident in saying if you’re after a safe helmet, then the Shark should do the job.

Other factors that all contribute to safety are that the S700S has a drop down sun visor (especially useful when the sun’s low in the sky in the autumn/winter months) and a micrometric fastener (easy to use and if they’re adjusted correctly in the first place, will keep the helmet securely fastened).

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Shark S700S front view (Lab graphics)

Helmet Noise

Most owners rate the S700S slightly below average for noise suppression. It’s not massively noisy (like some out-and-out sports/racing helmets are) but it’s not quiet either – with one owner commenting that it would’ve helped if Shark had included a chin curtain as standard to help reduce noise coming in under the helmet.

If helmet noise is a particular issue for you, check out our quietest crash helmets section.

Ventilation

The Shark S700S has a single chin vent and two forehead (top) vents. All can be opened/closed by either a slider or toggle switch though all are a bit fiddly to operate so will take a bit of getting used to.

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Showing rear exhaust vents of the S700S Squad helmet

The chin vent is there to direct air onto the back of the visor, while the top vents allow air to enter the helmet and through the channels in the shock absorbing liner inside the helmet to allow the air to circulate around and cool the head. Air then exits the helmet shell via the two rear exhaust vents.

Overall, owners say that ventilation is OK though if you’re going to be riding all year round, you’ll still need to use the Pinlock insert to keep the visor fog-free (see below).

Visor

The S700S has a 2.2mm clear anti-scratch visor and an anti-scratch sun visor.

The sun visor is operated by a lever on the left of the helmet and, while it can be dropped to various degrees with a bit of care, it’s spring loaded to quickly drop the visor fully down and back up again. The sun visor’s also UV380 (filters out 95% of UVA and UVB which is the current CE Standard). A few owners mentioned that the sun visor can clip your nose when you first use it, though it hasn’t stopped them using the sun visor or saying, overall, it’s great!

The main visor works on a ratchet so it can be opened to various degrees between fully open and closed positions. It also has an opening tab to the left hand side of the visor which is, arguably, the best place for it to make it nice and easy to find/open the visor.

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Tika graphics in green

The visor’s also Pinlock-ready and in some countries (including the UK), it will come with a Pinlock in the box, but it’s worth checking with your retailer before you buy. Read here for more information about why Pinlocks can be useful if you live in cold and rainy places.

All good so far. The main visor is also quick-release, which is essential these days so you don’t have to fiddle about with tools to change or clean your visor. The quick release mechanism on the Shark S700S is a bit trickier than some but once you get the hang of it, most owners reckon it’s very quick. To remove the visor, you press in a button at the visor pivot point then push the visor forwards and pull the visor away from the helmet. To replace, you just press the visor backwards onto the pivot and it clicks into place.

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Shark S700S Finks design (also available with yellow highlighting)

Comfort

Shark have updated the liner of the helmet with the specific objective of making S700S more comfortable – and owners seem to agree that it’s worked. The lining is removable and washable (delicates cycle) and, as long as you get the fitment right in the first place, you should find it a comfy helmet.

As usual, if you want see which helmets owners rate as the most comfortable, you can click the link to the most comfortable crash helmets using the tag cloud.

Looks & Graphics

The Shark S700S is a pretty stylish helmet that owners say is well built and, for the price, surprisingly well finished. At the time of writing it’s available in seven different paint schemes as well as a few race rep versions – including three Foggy, a Guintoli and a Redding versions. We’ve included examples of the Oxyd, Squad, Tika, Sprint, Trax, Lab, Finks and Prime (plain) designs around the page, though many of these are available in two or three different colour schemes.

Video

Quick look round the S700S – gives you a taster of what it’s about.

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Rear view of the S700S Spring

Other stuff – fastener, glasses, ACU gold star

Like other Sharks, the S700S has Shark’s glasses-groove in the lining, specifically there to allow the stems of glasses to sit in and not dig into the side of your head. Great touch. As mentioned previously, it comes with a micrometric fastener which is a very easy to use fastener that uses a ratchet mechanism to lock the fastener in place and a simple tag that you pull down on to release it. Quick and easy.

Finally, in the UK the helmet seems to come with an ACU gold star sticker on it, signifying it can be used on the track (despite ACU usually stipulating a helmet for track use usually needs a double-d ring fastener). I’ll try and contact them for clarification and post on the webiste if/when i get it). Either way, if the sticker’s on the lid, then you’ll be fine to ride.

Crash Helmet Buying Guides & Top 10s

For (hopefully!) other useful information to help you when buying your next helmet, check our various Motorcycle Helmet Buying Guides - or have a look at our Top 10 best helmet lists where we've got the top 10 best rated helmets overall along with Top 10 Best Budget/Top 10 Safest/Top 10 Best Full Face/Top 10 Best Modular/Flip-up/ Top 10 Best Sportsbike/Track helmets.

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Squad graphics in orange

Alternatives

You can check out other reasonably priced helmets (generally under about £150) on our Budget Crash Helmets page. However some worth checking out include the Caberg Vox – a SHARP 5 star polcycarbonate helmet also with a sun visor that’s a bit cheaper than the S700S. There’s also the AGV K3 SV which as a sun visor too and is also SHARP 4 star rated for safety. It’s slightly lighter than the Shark but slightly more expensive too.

Definitely want a Shark?

Here you'll find all our Shark crash helmet reviews and previews including full face, flip-up and open face helmets.

Star Ratings

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Safety
Comfort
Noise
Features
Value
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shark-s700s-crash-helmet-reviewA good value, SHARP four star helmet that's comfortable and has some useful features such as a drop down sun visor. It's well put together and well thought out too. Only slight fly in the ointment is it's a bit noisy. Other than that, it's a great helmet at a competitive price.

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