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 characteristic to have on a regular basis, however their effectiveness — or ineffectiveness — actually turns into obvious when the solar is shining instantly into your eyes in any respect hours of the day. As somebody who rides outdoor 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 properly over fifty completely different mountain bike and street/gravel helmets in that point, and just lately, I’ve seen an odd pattern. Just like the hairline on my head, the visors on some helmets maintain creeping larger onto the highest of the shell. Now, we will 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 main function? Am I lacking one thing?

Likewise, I’ve spent fairly a little bit of time using and racing gravel in my life, and I genuinely need to know one factor. Are street and gravel riders not bothered by the solar shining instantly of their eyes? I actually am. With the ability to see clearly when using at ~20 mph down a tough gravel street is simply as necessary to me as having the ability to see on a mountain bike path. I’m not attempting to say that street 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 foremost issues that units mountain bike helmets other than street 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 some extent of safety from getting slapped within the face by low-hanging branches or bushes. Some individuals will let you know 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 potential to maintain the solar out of my eyes is its most necessary perform. When the solar is shining instantly into my eyes or onto the lens of my glasses, it negatively impacts my potential to see the path in entrance of me, forcing me to decelerate or danger using 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 must. Maintaining the solar out of my eyes will not be solely extra comfy on my eyes, however safer as properly.

For my part, the perfect 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 prepared 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, in all probability 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 greatly surprised the primary time I rode within the Specialised Ambush 2 helmet a pair years in the past. It was truthfully a very nice helmet with a great deal of head protection, good air flow, a cushty 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 prime of the shell. Sure, the visor nonetheless made it appear to be a mountain bike helmet and supplied ample house 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 number of different manufacturers are proper on the cusp, as properly. 

For instance, my Candy Safety Bushwhacker 2Vi Mips helmet. Sure, it has a three-position visor, however I believe the bottom place continues to be just a bit too excessive. I get that they have been in all probability 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 in the end has management of the place it’s positioned. Why not not less than 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 suppose 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 prime 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…

Fortuitously, there are many mountain bike helmet choices available on the market to go well with everybody’s wants and preferences. And if you happen to’ve by no means even thought-about the visor in your helmet, then I’m sorry for bringing it up. And don’t get me flawed, Specialised, MET, Scott, and Candy Safety make nice helmets; they need to simply seek the advice of me on their visor designs.

Gravel and Highway Bike Helmets

Highway 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 using drop bars would end in a visor obstructing your imaginative and prescient. As such, the brief brims on biking caps have turn out to be the default “visor” for a lot of cyclists when worn beneath a helmet. Whereas pretty brief, 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 affect aerodynamics, and possibly additionally intrude with one’s imaginative and prescient in some extra aggressive physique positions. Nonetheless, the solar shines instantly 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 forestall which can be to trip in a mountain bike helmet or put on a biking cap beneath your street/gravel helmet. The biking cap route works, in fact, however sporting a biking cap below a helmet considerably impacts its air flow, and isn’t the answer that I’m searching for.

I began using gravel continuously again in 2016-ish, and shortly thereafter, I stumbled upon the Smith Community helmet (which got here out in 2017, I believe). It wasn’t probably the most thrilling helmet at first look, however then I seen that it got here with a detachable stick-on brim. This brim is principally the identical dimension 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 top. 

This brim has confirmed to be extremely efficient at blocking the solar when wanted, in comparison with not having any type of brim in any respect. I wouldn’t say it’s an ideal resolution; the adhesive holding it on the helmet finally wears out, the material will get discolored by sweat, and it fades over time. That stated, it’s the perfect resolution that I’ve discovered.

And it acquired me questioning, why aren’t there extra street 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 searching for a greater resolution than a biking cap? I can’t be alone right here, or am I? I don’t suppose the stick-on brim is the final 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 may have it once you want it and take it off once you don’t? Looks as if a missed alternative. I do know not less than one one that desires one. 

Thanks For Listening

I’ve opinions, and I’m certain you have got your personal. Finally, I’m simply hoping that manufacturers maintain making helmets with adjustable visors that truly maintain the solar out of my eyes. I do know it’s just a little extra of an extended shot, however I’d additionally like to see some extra street/gravel helmets with built-in and/or detachable brims, too. Time will inform, however within the meantime, I’ll be on the market using straight into the setting solar.