As we roll into the center of fall, decrease solar angles and shorter sunlight hours make helmet visors extra necessary than ever. Realistically, they’re an necessary function to have on a regular basis, however their effectiveness — or ineffectiveness — actually turns into obvious when the solar is shining immediately into your eyes in any respect hours of the day. As somebody who rides outside most days and sometimes close to sundown, having a helmet visor that truly performs the first perform of a visor — shielding the eyes from the solar — is essential to me.
I’ve been testing biking gear for practically a decade at this level. I’ve ridden in effectively over fifty completely different mountain bike and highway/gravel helmets in that point, and just lately, I’ve observed an odd development. Just like the hairline on my head, the visors on some helmets preserve creeping larger onto the highest of the shell. Now, we are able to purchase helmets with visors that don’t do something apart from look goofy, yay! Each time I see one among these curiously designed helmets, I get so confused. What’s the level of placing a visor on a helmet if it doesn’t serve its major function? Am I lacking one thing?
Likewise, I’ve spent fairly a little bit of time driving and racing gravel in my life, and I genuinely need to know one factor. Are highway and gravel riders not bothered by the solar shining immediately of their eyes? I definitely am. With the ability to see clearly when driving at ~20 mph down a tough gravel highway is simply as necessary to me as with the ability to see on a mountain bike path. I’m not attempting to say that highway and gravel helmets ought to have MTB-style visors, however the place are the choices exterior of sporting a biking cap?
Mountain Bike Helmets
Past elevated head protection, one of many important issues that units mountain bike helmets aside from highway or gravel helmets is a visor. For me, visors have served a few features: to maintain the solar out of my eyes and to supply a point of safety from getting slapped within the face by low-hanging branches or bushes. Some individuals will inform you that they protect the eyes/glasses from the rain, however I’ve by no means discovered them to be very efficient at that.
I argue {that a} visor’s skill to maintain the solar out of my eyes is its most necessary perform. When the solar is shining immediately into my eyes or onto the lens of my glasses, it negatively impacts my skill to see the path in entrance of me, forcing me to decelerate or threat driving into one thing that I’m unable to see. Sure, I acknowledge that I can simply decelerate, however with a well-designed visor, I shouldn’t need to. Holding the solar out of my eyes isn’t solely extra snug on my eyes, however safer as effectively.
In my view, the very best visors are adjustable and have a low place that sits low sufficient to dam the solar even on the most excessive angles. In some instances, I can see the sting of the visor when it’s in its lowest place, however that’s a tradeoff I’m keen to make for not being blinded by the solar. When the solar angles aren’t as excessive, the adjustability of the visor permits me to shift it up and out of sight and even larger to retailer glasses or goggles on the helmet. I trip with the visor on my Smith Forefront 3 within the center place, most likely round 90% of the time. For that 10% of the time that I’ve it down, I’m very grateful to have the choice.
Which is why I used to be stunned the primary time I rode within the Specialised Ambush 2 helmet a pair years in the past. It was actually a extremely nice helmet with a great deal of head protection, good air flow, a snug match, surprisingly low weight, and priced decrease than different manufacturers’ top-tier fashions. However I couldn’t get previous the visor. Not solely was it non-adjustable, but it surely was hooked up method up on high of the shell. Sure, the visor nonetheless made it appear to be a mountain bike helmet and supplied ample area to stash glasses within the entrance, however in any other case, it was basically ineffective. To dam the solar at low angles, it required tipping my head ahead to the purpose the place I couldn’t actually see the place I used to be going anymore.
Now, that’s only one instance, and I’m not attempting to single out Specialised for its visor design, even when I don’t agree with it. The Specialised Ambush 2, Tactic, and Camber fashions are in any other case all strong, protecting, and competitively priced helmets. Different manufacturers, like MET and Scott, are additionally producing helmets with visors which can be equally ineffective at performing the first perform of a visor. A couple of different manufacturers are proper on the cusp, as effectively.
For instance, my Candy Safety Bushwhacker 2Vi Mips helmet. Sure, it has a three-position visor, however I feel the bottom place continues to be just a bit too excessive. I get that they had been most likely attempting to make sure the visor was by no means within the rider’s subject of view, however that limits its effectiveness at blocking the solar. Plus, it’s adjustable, so the rider finally has management of the place it’s positioned. Why not at the very least present the choice? In any other case, I actually love the helmet and I put on it very often when the solar is larger within the sky.
I assume I’m simply genuinely curious why any helmet model is making helmets with visors that don’t do something. What’s the thought course of behind designing a visor that appears oddly positioned on high of a helmet, and it doesn’t stand an opportunity of really shielding one’s eyes from the solar? Do these individuals solely trip in the summertime, in the midst of the day, or in a deep, darkish forest the place the solar by no means shines? Assist me perceive…
Happily, there are many mountain bike helmet choices in the marketplace to go well with everybody’s wants and preferences. And should you’ve by no means even thought of the visor in your helmet, then I’m sorry for bringing it up. And don’t get me fallacious, Specialised, MET, Scott, and Candy Safety make nice helmets; they need to simply seek the advice of me on their visor designs.
Gravel and Street Bike Helmets
Street bike helmets and, by default, gravel bike helmets, have historically been extra centered on aerodynamics, air flow, and low weight, in comparison with these made for mountain biking. Moreover, because the story goes, the decrease, extra aerodynamic physique place whereas driving drop bars would end in a visor obstructing your imaginative and prescient. As such, the quick brims on biking caps have turn into the default “visor” for a lot of cyclists when worn beneath a helmet. Whereas pretty quick, biking cap brims are literally fairly efficient at blocking the solar.
I don’t disagree {that a} mountain-bike-style visor may and would add weight, negatively impression aerodynamics, and possibly additionally intervene with one’s imaginative and prescient in some extra aggressive physique positions. Nonetheless, the solar shines immediately into my eyes simply as a lot on gravel rides because it does on the mountain bike. And as of now, the one actual choices to stop which can be to trip in a mountain bike helmet or put on a biking cap beneath your highway/gravel helmet. The biking cap route works, in fact, however sporting a biking cap beneath a helmet considerably impacts its air flow, and isn’t the answer that I’m on the lookout for.
I began driving gravel regularly again in 2016-ish, and shortly thereafter, I stumbled upon the Smith Community helmet (which got here out in 2017, I feel). It wasn’t essentially the most thrilling helmet at first look, however then I observed that it got here with a detachable stick-on brim. This brim is mainly the identical measurement and form as an ordinary biking cap brim, but it surely attaches on to the shell, so that you don’t have a cap trapping warmth and moisture or limiting airflow to the pinnacle.
This brim has confirmed to be extremely efficient at blocking the solar when wanted, in comparison with not having any kind of brim in any respect. I wouldn’t say it’s an ideal resolution; the adhesive holding it on the helmet ultimately wears out, the material will get discolored by sweat, and it fades over time. That mentioned, it’s the very best resolution that I’ve discovered.
And it obtained me questioning, why aren’t there extra highway and gravel helmets that present choices like this for shielding your eyes from the solar? Am I the one one who’s bothered by the solar in my eyes and is in search of a greater resolution than a biking cap? I can’t be alone right here, or am I? I don’t assume the stick-on brim is the last word resolution, however why aren’t there extra helmets with detachable clip-on brims? One thing straightforward to put in and take away, so you possibly can have it while you want it and take it off while you don’t? Looks as if a missed alternative. I do know at the very least one one who needs one.
Thanks For Listening
I’ve opinions, and I’m certain you could have your personal. Finally, I’m simply hoping that manufacturers preserve making helmets with adjustable visors that truly preserve the solar out of my eyes. I do know it’s a bit of extra of an extended shot, however I’d additionally like to see some extra highway/gravel helmets with built-in and/or detachable brims, too. Time will inform, however within the meantime, I’ll be on the market driving straight into the setting solar.