Royal Enfield Lightwing Full Face Modular Helmet Review

A couple of months ago, I got the opportunity to test out the Royal Enfield Lightwing full face modular helmet. Having used only Vega and Steelbird helmets up until then, I was obviously very intrigued to see how this one was and more importantly, if it actually felt like an upgrade over the two entry-level brands that I used. Here’s how that went: 

It’s A Looker 

The Lightwing is quite an attractive helmet and that’s definitely one of its major USPs. The livery on our particular test helmet looks particularly attractive to me. The turquoise and black graphics are mixed tastefully and the helmet looks appealing without being too gaudy or in-your-face. Even the Royal Enfield badging at the front and the rear of the helmet is nicely done. 

Taking On Daily Duties

Good looks will only take a helmet so far though, right? So I put the Lightwing to the daily grind immediately and that’s where the chinks started showing in a bit. For starters, I would’ve liked the view port to be a bit larger. And while its fitting is a lot more snug than the Vegas and Steelbirds, I wish it was a bit tighter than what it is, for the helmet is a super airy one, especially at higher speeds. But more about that later. 

The first thing about the Lightwing that I wanted to try was its sun visor. Did they help me look cool? Well…they actually did. I went around town with the sun visor down a lot more than I expected, trying to look like a smug, cool bossman. Even the mechanism to pull the visor down is quite intuitive and I never really found myself fiddling around for the lever. 

But most importantly, the visor never dropped down when going through bad roads. That was my major gripe with the sun visor that my Vega helmet had; it’d suddenly drop down every time I went over a deep pothole at speed. Given that our roads do have a fair bit of them, it was rather annoying to have the visor drop down even when I don’t want it to. So I’m glad that it’s not the case on this Royal Enfield helmet. What the sun visor did bring though, was a slight sense of top-heaviness and you will feel that extra weight when making sudden head movements. 

Modulating My Commutes

Having never really tried a modular helmet, I was intrigued to see how this one was. And that attempt was….well a mixed bag. They bring along a fair bit of convenience, for you can munch or drink something without having to remove the helmet and I get that. 

But the moment I started ‘riding the modular way’, I understood that it wasn’t really my thing. The sheer amount of wind blasts on your face under even remotely brisk acceleration was annoying and even dangerous. That said, it did make me look rather cool in the pictures. Heck, I almost felt like a cool power ranger that way. So yeah, while the whole modular thing might not be very big on functionality while you’re riding, it’s certainly useful when you’re off it, and will definitely make you look cool…whatever floats your boat. 

Out Of Its Comfort Zone

My commutes involve highway stretches as well and that’s where the Lightwing felt out of place almost immediately. The helmet is an incredibly loud space to be in anything beyond 60kmph and the slight looseness that I talked about earlier means there’s a lot of buffeting as well. Even a steady 80kmph cruise felt very loud so if you have high-speed plans in your itinerary regularly, the Lightwing will struggle there. 

Making things worse for the helmet were the rains. Testing the helmet in July-August meant it was raining a LOT and the Lightwing struggled there too. The water droplets accumulate on the visor easily and unfortunately, they stay there. It fogs up very easily too so late-night highway jaunts were quite a nightmare, for the visibility was very low. One jugaad for me though, was to ride with the visor up and the sun visor down, for that protected my eyes and there was no fogging. But even that wasn’t really a long-term solution because visibility at night with the sun visor down was obviously low. Plus we don’t really recommend riding with the visor up for prolonged periods. 

But…

The Lightwing costs Rs 4,500 and that makes it a very affordable helmet. And that, unfortunately, puts a cap on the things that we can expect from it, given how price-sensitive our market is. 

Should You Buy The Royal Enfield Lightwing Helmet? 

The Lightwing definitely feels more special than the Steelbirds and Vegas of the world. So if you own one of them, the Lightwing will definitely feel like an upgrade. It is a good-looking helmet that’ll make you look good too. But, if you want that one helmet to be your do-it-all one for the next couple of years, you might want to look further. But we do highly recommend that you try one on for size before you put your money down for one. But if you're looking for something a bit better, we’d advise you to extend your budget just that little bit and have a look at the MT Hummer series, which costs Rs 5,250.