Royal Enfield Rev'It Darcha jacket...

Royal Enfield has steadily been expanding their gear and accessory lines and the Royal Enfield Rev’It Darcha jacket and pants are currently the top motorcycle jacket you can buy from the manufacturer. The company has tied up with the famed Netherlands-based motorcycle gear maker Rev’It and the Darcha, we expect is their first collaboration product with more to follow.

The Royal Enfield Rev’It Darcha is a four-season jacket which consists of three layers. The outer layer is the protective jacket. It is made from polyester with a water repellent coating and includes a mesh polyester liner for comfort inside. The jacket comes with forearm and shoulder armour from Knox while Seesoft makes the bright yellow back protector insert.

The outer shell includes a number of bells and whistles. To start from the top, there is a fleece-lined collar with Rev’It’s excellent adjustable neck snap closure. Removing Velcro from this area – a common alternative – means your buff and the cheek pad bottoms of your helmet will not get chewed up when you leave the collar open for a little extra ventilation.

The main zipper is housed in a flap-equipped enclosure to ward off rain and wind and Rev’It adds their usual webbing-based width adjusters at the waist. Four pockets make up the front of the jacket. The top pockets close with two snaps and Velcro, as do the bottom two pockets. Despite fold over closures, the Darcha maintains that these pockets are water resistant and not proof. Behind the two lower pockets are hand warmer pockets secured with Velcro. There is an inner pocket (also not waterproof) and a large adv-touring style pocket across the back, which also has snap and Velcro closures. Unlike most of these across-the-back pockets which are side-loaders, the Darcha uses a top opening design. That just makes it harder to access yourself.

The jacket is rounded out by generous helpings of reflective . The sleeves have snap-fit volume adjusters and the hem has a shock cord with a cord lock to cinch up the bottom so cold draughts cannot come up from there.

Into this shell mounts the waterproof liner. This liner includes a waterproof inner pocket and little else. Rev’It’s liner cannot be used on its own as a mini-jacket of sorts. And into this second layer mounts the third one, a thermal layer with padded insulation.

The Royal Enfield Rev’It Darcha jacket is excellent in cold and wet conditions. I cannot think of another jacket that offers its capability, fit and performance in that price – Rs 21,999 at store.royalenfield.com. But it isn’t a true four-season jacket, proving too warm for summer conditions. I would say that it makes an excellent second jacket – assuming your first jacket is a nice mesh number. If Royal Enfield and Rev’It were more generous with the vents – given the zip in waterproof liner this should not make any difference to overall performance – there is a great four-season jacket lying dormant in the Darcha. However, if you were looking to buy a terrific jacket for cold and wet conditions, look no further, this is it.