Royal Enfield Bar End Mirrors review

Mirrors tend not to gain a huge amount of attention when it comes to motorcycles, except for several key areas. One is the off-road world, where they need to be as strong and resilient as possible. Another is the retro market, where getting the right mirrors on the bike to get an authentic look is crucial. That is the case with the Royal Enfield Bar End Mirrors.

The standard mirrors on this Royal Enfield Interceptor were fairly standard for the market; unassuming as far as accessories go, and finished in chrome to match various other retro-style elements of the bike. The bent-steel arms put the mirrors themselves in roughly the right place for a reasonable view behind the bike on both sides though the right-hand example did seem to pick up some annoying vibrations through the handlebars that blurred the image past around 50mph. You could still see if there was a vehicle behind you but not much more detail than that.

Bar-end mirrors are a nice addition to create more of a retro theme and are particularly used on say café racers or custom bikes, to offer something a little more considered and special. So when we saw that Royal Enfield offered a pair of official accessory bar-end mirrors, we had to give them a try.

Formed in what appears to be cast aluminium and with a decent, chunky feel to them, they look and feel the part out of the box. Each is a smaller diameter than the originals but because of the positioning, actually give a better view behind than the stock examples.

Fitting them is a doddle and a 15-minute process for both. You simply remove the bar-end weights, insert the spacer in the mirror and refit the bar-end weights on the outside of the mirror brackets on the ends of the bars. The Royal Enfield Bar End mirrors come with longer bolts so everything you need is included, with the exception of the Allen key.

They fit really well, with one caveat. On our bike, the ends of the bars had a half-moon protrusion that sat in a recess in the bar-end weights. The spacer for the mirrors was flat, so it acts on just half of the end of the bars rather than the full area but so far, this hasn’t caused any problems.

You need to make sure that you get the angle of the support the same on each side if you don’t, not only will you have to adjust the mirrors for odd positions, but they will also look dreadful and like you have no attention to detail.

Once fitted and adjusted, they work really well. The view from each mirror is at least as good as the factory versions but on the bike, they look so much better and a lot more special. They really suit the retro nature of the bike and are finished in black, giving it a slight stealth look and feel. You don’t have to tuck your elbows in quite as far to see what is directly behind you and unlike the originals, the image is rock solid in both mirrors regardless of the speed.

Verdict

These bar-end mirrors aren’t particularly cheap but they do change the look and feel of the front of the bike quite a lot and they work, curing a blurred image in one of the standard mirrors in the process. The Interceptor doesn’t want for much but these really do have a positive effect on riding pleasure.

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