How to Choose Cycling Sunglasses

On a bike, sunglasses do more than cut light. They keep wind, dust, grit and insects out of your eyes at 30 km/h, and they have to do it for hours without pressing on your temples or sliding down your nose.

Coverage

Your riding position changes what you need. Low on the bars, you look up through the top of the lens. Climbing out of the saddle, you look down. A wrap shape with a large lens covers the whole field of view and blocks wind from the sides. Killy uses one wide lens on a curved frame for exactly this.

Half frame or full frame

A half frame has no rim along the bottom edge of the lens. Nothing crosses your view when you look down at the road or at your computer, and air moves more freely behind the lens, which helps on long climbs. Tour, Giro and Sprint are all half-frame designs.

Shield lenses for high passes

Above the treeline, light comes off snow and rock from every side. Summit and Ridge use a single wide shield lens with a removable brow guard and side panels, and both come polarized or photochromic.

Weight and fit

A light frame is forgotten after ten minutes. TR-90, a flexible nylon-based material, and polycarbonate keep weight down and bend instead of snapping. The arms should grip without pinching, and the frame should stay in place when you sweat and when you look over your shoulder.

Lens category

Category 3 for sunny roads. For dawn rides, forest trails or winter, a lighter lens helps. Our guide to lens categories explains the numbers.

Polarized on the bike

Polarized lenses cut glare off wet tarmac and car windows, which reduces eye fatigue on a long ride. There are two trade-offs. Some bike computer and phone screens dim at certain angles, and polarized lenses can make wet or oily patches on the road harder to spot. Our cycling models are polarized; if you ride with a screen-based computer, check it with the glasses on before a long day.

Rain and sweat

A hydrophobic coating makes rain and sweat bead up and run off the lens instead of smearing. Tour, Giro, Sprint, Summit and Ridge carry one, along with impact-resistant lenses.

From road to trail

The same things matter for running and trail running: low weight, a stable fit and a lens that sheds sweat. Killy and Sprint work for both, and our Running & Trail selection adds light TR-90 frames like Goldcoast and Oceanside. The full range is in Cycling & Trail.