Hey all, I've settled into a riding arrangement that's sunglasses under the visor. Generally I like this setup a lot for NorCal riding, but the sunglasses have started to fog like nuts, even with anti-fog spray on 'em. My bicycle friends like the Ryders sunglasses which supposedly have a permanent anti-fog baked in. They're not terribly expensive for decent sunglasses, and it seems to me at least possible that they can resist fog in the closed environment of a helmet. Lately I'm driving through SF a lot, and there's a ton of lights and idiots that prevent maintaining a good breeze through the helmet.

Also have and run a tinted visor at times, which I like, but I often get stuck out late and don't really want to bother with bringing another shield all the time. I'm open to better solutions, of course. They don't make a photochromatic visor for my helmet, sadly.

I'm in NorCal too and I'm wondering why you need a visor?

I have two glasses, sun and clear. They both hug the face pretty close to keep the wind out and I can set them out about 1/4" if they fog. I keep the visor up because it's not very clear, even new, they aren't very clear for long.

I started wearing a balaclava and if it covers the nose/mouth, I have fogging issues at low speeds, otherwise no problems.

I don't see a need for a visor if you have sunglasses.

Rocks and crap on the 80, mostly. A lot of my riding is reasonably fast freeway stuff, and before I rode visor-down a lot I got more bugs and gravel and shit than I wanted.

I've been doing a LOT more freeway riding since I got new tires. Being in California, we get TONS of sun, so I use the balaclava, it really helps.

I bought 2 for $ 1.50/ea. The only places that get hit are the small spaces between the sun glasses and the balaclava.

The balaclava also catches the sweat, holds the ear pods in place, pins the ears down and makes helmet removal much faster. It also helps to keep the helmet cleaner.

You'll also notice the handling of heat, having air and sweat around the head REALLY helps keep you cooler.

What I'm working on now is to keep the sun off my nose and out of my eyes.

Note: I've been riding California freeways like this for some 10 years now and really wouldn't do it any other way. That airflow is great.

It won't cost but a few bucks to try a balaclava, the sun on the neck alone should be worth the price.

The back of the neck used to get fried out there.

I've never paid more than $30 for a pair of sunglasses. Sunglasses never last long with me, broken, scratched, lost, stolen.
I buy polarized.
I mostly ride with sunglasses and a clear visor. Sunglasses, visor up for low speed, bug free day. Visor down when going fast, bugs and dust about. Some of the bugs here are an inch long and flying at speed. They are hard, spikey, full of nasty shit and sometimes sting.
Ever had a bee/wasp in your helmet?
Riding at speed with just glasses makes my eyes bloodshot and watery. If I go into a shop, business etc take my glasses off, it looks as though I've been smokin the weed. Not a good look.
If my glasses start to fog up I just pull em off my face a bit. They usually clear up.
My helmet also has a quick visor swap system and I can carry a tinted visor If inclined.

That's another thing I hate about helmets, some have sun glasses built in, some don't, yet it's very simple to add into the design.

I can tell you that we don't have those kinds of bugs here in California. In some 10 years, I've never had a problem that would cause me to change.

When I got caught in hail, I just dropped the visor so that it's just above the eye line, still up and open, just a bit lower. It makes a buffer so that hail doesn't hit me in the face and I've ridden down the freeway at speed that way.

It's very simple to add to the design, but not without changing it's crash characteristics... It requires adding an empty space on almost the whole front half of the helmet that used to be able to be filled with shock absorbing material.

This part I get, but I'll use another example...

I have a GoPro knock off. It looks just like a GoPro in terms of the waterproof case, mounts, buttons, battery, memory chip, etc...

Basically, it looks as if they would buy a GoPro and copy everything they can copy without breaking laws.

Same could be done with a helmet. You buy one, take it apart, see how they do it and copy everything you can.

This is how the App Store works (I'm an app dev). They see your software and they copy it.

I'm not sure your argument makes any sense... There are plenty of cameras on the market with different features than a GoPro, and plenty of them don't have features that the gopro does... It's not a matter of just copying something that exists, its a matter of it isn't necessary in every helmet.

That being said, even most of the ones that are on the market have less protective foam in the area where the sun visor exists, in theory making them less safe. The only one I know of that avoided this was the Shoei GT-Air where they made the helmet physically bigger to keep the same amount of protection while adding the visor.

The point was copying something vs making something from scratch. It has nothing to do with the needs of any camera or helmet.

If someone wanted to make a GoPro type camera, they could just buy a GoPro, take it apart and see how it was made. Right down to the lens, chips, cards, battery, case, etc...

Someone could buy a Shoei GT-Air and take it apart, then copy every part that they can. This is the way things work and why we try to protect things, but some things can't be protected.

These are known as fast followers, they wait to see what others have done, then clone it as quickly as they can. IDK if Shoei has a patent on their design or not, but if not, it wouldn't be hard to clone.

You're quickly getting on to a different topic entirely... I'm not sure how IP discussions have anything to do with your original gripe that all helmets don't have sun visors and it would be easy to add.

The relationship is about how you can take the design of one thing and apply it to others. It's about adding something to a helmet and how it's not that hard to simply buy a helmet that already has the thing added to it.

It doesn't matter if it's the design of a shoe, helmet, car or whatever, it's about how easy it is to add features to something.

You can buy a high end helmet, take it apart and copy it as you want. Assuming they don't have a design patent, you can have it made and shipping out of China quickly.

Adding sun visors to a helmet is not hard to do, you personally could do this with a very small investment by simply buying one that has it already done and copying it. This is done all the time.

I don't see these as completely unrelated at all.

Because the ones that have a sun visor don't have as much protection in that area as the ones that don't... It's not just about blatantly copying someone elses design... There are plenty of products that don't have features that similar products have... design decisions aren't all about just stealing shit that other people have done.

Your original point was that "it's easy to add to the design" and being upset that all helmets didn't have it... There's a reason for that... Cost, safety, and not everyone wants one in their helmet because many aren't that great... etc

Again, you've gone off on a bit of an unrelated tangent at this point.

Yeah, I've gotten a dragonfly to the visor at ~90, would have been shitty with just sunglasses, I think. NorCal definitely does have some pretty shitty bugs on occasion, but I suspect people have different tolerances.

I'll grab a pair of the Ryders and report back. It'd be worth it to me if they don't fog, since I can get both anti-fog and polarized. If not, it looks like the resale market is decent, so meh.

Yeah, Karl, china does that copy/rip-off thing all the time. It's called stealing intellectual property.

I bought a new jacket and helmet this year.

The shield is one of those schmancy chromatic ones. I've only used it a couple of times because it been too cold to ride. Global warming seems to be going backwards here. But the shield works great, so far. You are asking for trouble riding with your shield open, around here, for long.

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Maybe I've been lucky, and I do notice the wind at freeway speeds, but it really does help keep the face cool. There really isn't much of my face that isn't covered. You got the glasses and the cover, so it's just the nose and I'm thinking of a way to cover that.

My shield is really crappy. I tried to clean it as soon as I got it and plastic polish was removing some coating.

I've never seen a helmet that had great air flow, I drilled out my old one and that more than doubled the air flow, yet it was still an oven in there with the lid closed.

As far as stealing IP, it's really an issue of what is protected and what isn't. IDK what on a helmet would be protected with a patent. It would have to be new, I don't think any of the built in shades have a patent, but I guess they could.

Even the patent runs out after a while.

My whole point here is that you can buy any product and copy any part that's not protected. It's done all the time, in fact, if any business doesn't know their competitors products inside/out, they are fools.

They make special software tools just for doing this for apps, I know, I'm an app dev, have been for many years. Competitive companies always know the products that are on the market.

You can take any helmet and have it cloned in China, China's actually very good at it.

Man, I wish someone would make a photochromatic visor for my helmet. It's a HJC RPHA 11, and there's a photochromatic insert, which is of course useless. They only change color based on UV, and the visor... blocks UV. Maybe if the lid keeps being popular, someone will make one.

Would this work?
https://www.weetect.com/helmet-visor...-visor-insert/

Whoops I just re read you post. Inserts don't work. My bad.

Someone made a stick on for helmets that would roll up. It was like those self sticking car sun blockers, but made for helmets.

http://tintashield.com/

then there's this:

https://www.amazon.com/Invision-SPEE.../dp/B00E82K9N4


I've been thinking about doing this to mine in order to help keep the sun off my nose in the summer.

Someone made a stick on for helmets that would roll up. It was like those self sticking car sun blockers, but made for helmets.

Best Tinted Motorcycle Helmet Visors in US - TintaShield

then there's this:

https://www.amazon.com/Invision-SPEE.../dp/B00E82K9N4


I've been thinking about doing this to mine in order to help keep the sun off my nose in the summer.

The tank bag I have is shaped perfectly to fit a visor around the perimeter of the bag, also giving it support. As a person who already wears glasses, sunglasses are not an option. Also Karl, have you heard of transition visors? They will turn dark in the sun, and clear at night.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

If my visor wasn't down this little beastie would've smacked me in the head. I wasn't going slow either.

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Ooh, neat. May have to snag one of those regardless. My tank bag is too small for an extra visor.

I haven't, but that sounds awesome.

You need to call your neighbor and ask if one of their children are missing because I think you just killed a small child there.

I bought some car window tint that comes on and off before. https://www.target.com/p/brica-white...E&gclsrc=aw.ds


The thing is you might need it on the inside so that it doesn't blow off. IDK, at that price, you should be able to make a few cuts from one and not care much if they blow off.


Even cheaper:
https://www.michaels.com/cricut-wind...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Luckily my OEM windscreen deflected the little bugger's bicycle.

Hey all, figured I'd chime back in. I got the Ryders and they work pretty well. Haven't been able to try them in the rain yet, which is always the worst for fogging, but they definitely resist fog better than normal sunglasses with anti-fog spray. I got mine for about $80, and I think they're a good deal at that price. Not sure I'd pay $120, which seems to be the normal retail.