Royal enfields are among the most customised motorcycles in India. It’s no surprise then that the brand itself wanted to get into the custom scene. The company first started with its motorcycles, offering hundreds of accessories and options and now they’ve taken it a step further with custom apparel and helmets.
You start off on the company’s Make-it-Yours (MiY) configurator, where you can choose between an open face, full face or the Urban Trooper helmet we decided to go with. After which, you are taken to a page that allows you to choose from multiple colour options and finishes – matte or gloss. Then, there are options for graphics and custom text on the helmet. The customisation doesn’t stop there and Royal Enfield even lets you choose the colour of the liner inside the helmet.
It takes Royal Enfield around a month to deliver the helmet, but that sort of time frame is expected, given the scale of customisation. It arrives in a high-quality padded box, along with a helmet bag. We also opted for the goggles, which came along in a neat pouch as well. The first thing you notice is how lightweight the helmet is. At 1,100gm, it’s nearly 500gm lighter than my other helmets and that makes a huge difference. It conforms to DOT and ISI ratings, but not to higher standards like ECE 22-05. The shell and inner liner themselves are both fairly thin, and hence the lower weight. There is no crash test data available, but this is a helmet that we’d save for slower city commutes. The peripheral visibility with the goggles on is quite restricted, but that’s normal with most goggles and it’s something you’ll have to live with. Another motivation to keep this helmet down to slow speeds is that it gets quite noisy upwards of 80kph.
The stand-out feature is undoubtedly how cool it looks. The retro design is inspired by off-road helmets from the 1970s and the graphics only make it look more special. This helmet also looks good on a variety of motorcycles, from dirt bikes to cafe racers. At Rs 5,000 (Rs 1,000 for the goggles) it is a bit expensive, but similarly styled helmets from Bell and Shoei can cost as much as 10 times more.
Where: www.store.royalenfield.com
Price: Rs 5,000
Dinshaw Magol
Rishaad Mody
