Best cycling glasses in 2023 | 27 sets of shades rated and reviewed

Though their name might suggest they’re just for shielding your eyes from the sun, the best cycling glasses and sunglasses will do much more than that.

Protecting your eyes from the elements and hazards, such as insects or grit from the road, is also incredibly important.

Like anything you wear when riding, such as a road bike helmet, a decent pair of cycling glasses needs to be durable, comfortable and should ideally offer some versatility – either through interchangeable or photo-chromatic (light-sensitive) lenses.

Of course, they also need to look the business. Let’s be honest and admit that choosing the best cycling glasses is as much about fashion as it is about protection, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

As with any cycling product though, there are far too many brands, styles and price points for any one person to trawl through. With that in mind, our expert testers have selected what they believe are the best cycling glasses on the market right now.

And if you wear glasses day-to-day, our guide to prescription cycling glasses will help you see your options clearly.

Once you’ve cast your eyes over the recommendations, keep scrolling to find our buyer’s guide to cycling sunglasses.

Best cycling glasses in 2023

Bollé Shifter

• £149 / €155 / $159 / AU$229 as tested
• Comfortable and stylish
• Available with prescription lenses

Bollé’s stylish Shifter cycling sunglasses have an angular look that somehow manages to be both thoroughly modern and a little retro.

The impact-resistant, single-piece lens offers great clarity. It’s also well vented and has an anti-fogging treatment applied, so they don’t steam up too easily in humid conditions.

The reassuringly robust frame feels premium and the kinked arms grip your head very well. The thickness of the frame does mean it shows up in your peripheral vision, but it didn’t bother our tester.

There’s also a prescription option available, for those who need it.

• Read our full Bollé Shifter cycling sunglasses review

Endura Dorado II

• £79.99 / €97 / $99 / AU$144 as tested
• Lightweight all-rounder

The Endura Dorado II cycling glasses are svelte, well fitting and come with an array of lenses.

The lower half of the frame is removable, allowing you to adjust visibility.

Madison Crypto

• £60 / €62 / $50 / AU$74
• Multiple lens colours

The Madison Crypto cycling glasses should keep their value, since they pair good looks with quality.

The arms’ tips and hooks provide a very secure fit, including off-road, but perhaps less so on smaller faces.

Oakley Jawbreaker Prizm Road

• £175 / €207 / $184 / AU$214 as tested
• Broad, lightweight coverage
• Easy-to-change lens

The style of Oakley’s Jawbreaker glasses was certainly polarising when they were initially released in 2015, but it’s hard to deny they reignited the trend for big cycling sunglasses.

The coverage of the 53mm tall, 131mm wide lens is excellent, with the chunky frame only visible at extreme angles.

Furthermore, the nose and ear pieces are both adjustable, so you’ll be certain to find a combination that offers a secure fit over the bumpiest of roads, and changing the lens is a simple process.

Our only gripe is we’d like to see Oakley’s excellent hydrophilic treatment on the inside of the lens.

• Read our full Oakley Jawbreaker Prizm Road review

Rudy Project Keyblade

• £150 / €150 / $150 / AU$217 as tested
• Super-clear, photochromic lenses
• Adjustable venting

With excellent photochromic lenses and styling as good off the bike as on, the Rudy Project Keyblade cycling glasses could have a range of uses.

The lenses are also guaranteed to be unbreakable, so they should prove durable.

The ventilation is adjustable and our tester didn’t experience any fogging, so it clearly works as intended.

If you want to a pair of cycling sunglasses with prescription lenses, they’re compatible with the Rudy Project RX optical inserts.

• Read our full Rudy Project Keyblade review

Rudy Project Sintryx

• £130 / €152 / $156 / AU$225 as tested
• Excellent lenses with options for every season

The Rudy Project Sintryx cycling glasses are stylish, practical and equipped for multiple activities.

Coming with three lenses – a lightly tinted lens for low light, a grey option for brighter days and an orange-mirrored Polar 3FX HDR lens for filtering out glare – these are cycling glasses for all climes.

Switching between lenses is also a doddle, thanks to an innovative, spring-loaded design.

Heavily vented frames ensure consistent airflow and we didn’t experience any fogging during testing.

The inclusion of three sets of quality lenses makes this an appealing package.

• Read our full Rudy Project Sintryx review

Smith Bobcat

• £185 / €224 / $209 as tested
• Comfort and coverage

Smith says the Bobcat cycling sunglasses are designed for riding off-tarmac, whether that’s enduro, trail or gravel – and the glasses stood up to that claim in our testing.

The large lens offers protection and visibility without proving bulky. Two tints (one for low-light and the other for bright conditions) are supplied.

The Bobcat sunglasses are so light and comfy, you’ll barely notice they’re on your head.

• Read our full Smith Bobcat glasses review 

Van Rysel RoadR 900

• £40 / $60 as tested
• Quality lens and solid fit

The Van Rysel RoadR 900 frame arms maintain grip even when wet or sweaty.

Because the RoadR 900 hugs the face, these cycling glasses suit smaller heads.

100% Eastcraft

• £180 / €217 / $205 / AU$324 as tested
• Secure fit and clear vision

The quality lens on the 100% Eastcraft glasses is very clear. It stays so when you’re sweating and inferior lenses would fog up.

In worse conditions, such as wind and rain, the 100% Eastcraft frames stay in place while the outside of the lens dispels water and grime.

• Read our full 100% Eastcraft glasses review 

100% S2

• £160 / €177 / $196 / AU$256 as tested
• Excellent lens quality
• Robust frames

The 100% S2 cycling glasses blend 1980s style and more modern, angular design.

The quality of the mirrored Hiper lens is as good as any and the finish around the edges is noticeably high-quality.

The frames also feel very robust.

The box includes a clear lens for poor weather conditions and two different nose pieces.

• Read our full 100% S2 cycling sunglasses review

Agu Bold

• £40 / €55 / $55 / AU$79 as tested
• Good looks and protection
• Excellent value

Worn by Team Jumbo-Visma, the Agu Bold cycling glasses are WorldTour-worthy shades available at a great price.

The sunglasses have a large, squared-off lens set back slightly from the frame to give great ventilation.

This, combined with an anti-fog coating, keeps the lens clear.

The minimal arms, tacky temple tips and adjustable nose piece ensure fit and comfort.

• Read our full Agu Bold cycling sunglasses review

Alba Optics Delta

• £150 / €169.99 / $194 / AU$287 as tested
• Great fit
• High-quality lens

The Alba Optics Deltas might look as though they’ve been pulled straight from a Tour de France in the mid-eighties, but they are thoroughly modern cycling sunglasses.

The massive 58mm lens offers great coverage and clarity, but they might be a touch too large on smaller faces.

The curvy arms hug your face brilliantly, but can potentially make it difficult to store the sunglasses on your helmet.

Alba Optics offers 11 different lens options though (and eight different frame colours), so you should be able to find something for all conditions.

• Read our full Alba Optics Delta cycling sunglasses review

Alpina Twist Five CM+

• £60 / €76 / $78 / AU$112 as tested
• Excellent fit and good build quality, especially for the price
• Good on and off the bike

The red mirror lens on the Alpina Twist Five CM+ is nicely curved without causing any distortion.

An adjustable nose piece and angle-adjustable arms help give an excellent fit and security on the face.

Small screws all around the frame add to the feel of high build quality and good value.

Aesthetically, these are not particularly sporty cycling sunglasses, which could be a plus or minus depending on your taste.

BBB Avenger

• £50 / €50 / $50 / AU$71 as tested
• Three lenses included, good ventilation
• Great value package

Despite sitting very close to the face, the BBB Avenger cycling glasses have good ventilation, thanks to cutaways at the top of the lens.

The nose piece is adjustable, allowing you to tweak the fit to a degree.

Three lenses are included – a dark tint, yellow for low light and clear – and swapping by popping them out of the frame is straightforward.

We had no qualms with the optics either.

They are broad-framed, so the arms can interfere with some helmets, and the nose piece needed some fine tuning. It’s hard to complain at this price though.

Endura FS260 Pro

• £78 / €97 / $104 / AU$137 as tested
• Secure fit and good value
• Photochromic lens included

Endura’s FS260 Pro is more of a package than a single pair of cycling sunglasses. There are three different lenses in the box, including a photochromic option, making these ideal for days when the weather is changeable.

Our tester found the fit to be particularly secure, even over the roughest terrain, so you won’t need to worry about losing them on gravel or bumpy rides.

The 52mm curved lens offers decent protection from hazards and the elements.

The styling is fairly relaxed, so if you don’t want your sunglasses to overshadow the rest of your outfit, these might be the pair for you.

• Read our full Endura FS260 Pro cycling sunglasses review 

Endura Gabro II

• £50 / $80 / AU$100 / €60 as tested
• Precise fit and sturdy lens

The Endura Gabbro II cycling glasses wrap a big, dark lens around your face, while the grippy arms and nosepiece keep them in place.

However, you can’t swap in something more translucent when the sun goes in.

Julbo Rush

• £165 / €208 / $212 / AU$307 as tested
• Solid build quality
• Excellent lens clarity

The full framing of the Julbo Rush lens doesn’t obstruct your eyeline.

The broad, highly sprung arms have a metal core so that you can bend and mould them to your head shape, making these superbly secure, even when venturing off-road.

They aren’t the lightest cycling sunglasses around, weighing in at 39.5g.

The lens itself is superb with a deep curvature around the face from top to bottom, which means no distortion even at the peripheries of your vision.

The lens also reacts quickly to changes in light. It can shift from cat 0 (fully clear) to cat 3 (dark for bright sunshine) in a matter of seconds.

• Read our full Julbo Rush review

Koo Demos

• £140 as tested
• Great styling and secure fit
• Fantastic lens clarity

The angular frame looks bulky, but with a weight of 31g, the Demos are light while featuring plenty of ventilation to keep fogging to a minimum.

The frames can be paired with a variety of Zeiss Polycarbonate lenses that offer great field of view and clarity. Cutaway sections at the bottom of the glasses enable you to interchange lenses, however Koo offers no clear lenses for the Demos.

Our tester liked the adjustable nose pads, helping the glasses to sit centrally on their face, but found the lack of a hard case to be a let down at this price point.

• Read our full Koo Demos review

Koo Orion cycling sunglasses

• £160 / €160 / $161 / AU$233 as tested
• Adjustable fit and venting
• Tough with superb lenses

With excellent Zeiss lenses, tough build quality and adjustable fit, Koo’s Orion cycling sunglasses are a worthy competitor to more widely known names.

The arms offer up to 15mm of length adjustment, meaning you can adjust them to fit on- and off-road helmets.

The venting can be modulated to provide a little extra protection against fogging on humid days.

Our only gripe is that you only get one set of lenses – a clearer option would be better for darker days.

• Read our full Koo Orion cycling sunglasses review 

Oakley Encoder

• £204 / €172 / $248 / AU$266
• Solid build, decent vision

The Oakley Encoder cycling sunglasses feel rigid despite their frameless design. Together with Oakley’s high-clarity Prizm lens, this feature gives largely unobstructed and sharp vision.

But the Encoder sunglasses’ nose piece occasionally drifts into view as you ride. At this price, this is disappointing and takes the shine off a nearly excellent set of cycling sunglasses.

• Read our full Oakley Encoder sunglasses review 

Oakley Sutro Lite Photochromic

• £173 / $214 / €200 / AU$279 as tested
• Great field of vision
• Photochromic lens offers impressive versatility

Oakley’s Sutro Lite is smaller than the Sutro, but still offers retro-inspired looks and interchangeable lenses.

The photochromic lenses on the model tested responded well to light conditions, though they weren’t as dark as the standard lenses in the brightest of conditions.

At 33g, the Sutro Lites are as light as their name suggests, though the non-adjustable nose piece was a let down.

• Read our full Oakley Sutro Lite Photochromic review

Rudy Project Deltabeat

• £105 / €116 / £119 / AU$171 as tested
• Clear vision
• Excellent fit

Rudy Project’s Deltabeat cycling glasses blend the right amount of stiffness and flex to achieve an ideal fit and remain secure even off-road.

The rounded edges of the robust lenses shouldn’t chip. Although the frames do infringe slightly, line of sight is still clear and the orange-tinted lenses liven up grey days, while dulling down sunlight too.

The frames consist of a Rilsan Clear bio-based polyamide from Castor bean oil instead of the petroleum-based plastics incorporated in most frames.

These keenly priced cycling glasses are also light, weighing only 30g, and come in a hardshell case, which can store a second set of lenses.

Rudy Project Spinshield

• £124 / €140 / $143/ AU$163 as tested
• Huge 57mm-deep lens gives unobstructed vision
• Good fit but nose piece is non-adjustable

The Rudy Project Spinshield’s large lens is fashionable but, more importantly, it’s highly effective, with good optical clarity and nothing intruding on your field of vision.

There are no vents, but the lens sits far enough away from your face that you won’t miss them.

We found the fit spot-on, but the non-adjustable nose piece means the Spinshield can bounce a little on rough terrain, making these cycling sunglasses best suited to road riding.

• Read our full Rudy Project Spinshield review

Scicon Aerocomfort Glasses

• £227 / €247 / $253 / AU$365 as tested
•  Great spec and performance

The Scicon Aerocomfort cycling glasses are expensive, but pack in impressive technology.

The impact-resistant, photochromic, OLEO/Hydro coated lenses are water- and chemical-resistant, and are guaranteed against cracking.

They also transition from fully clear to a dark smoked lens in just 8.25 seconds.

The lens vents top and bottom do their job of keeping fogging at bay.

For prescription glasses wearers, the Aerocomforts have an RX adaptor available as well.

• Read our full Scicon Aerocomfort Glasses review

Scott Sport Shields

• £89.99 / €99.95 / $102 / AU$148 as tested
• Impressive lens clarity
• Good fit

Based on their original 1980s design, Scott produced the Sport Shield cycling glasses in celebration of its 60th anniversary, but less bold designs are also available.

The enormous lens measures over 60mm at certain points, giving these an incredibly bold look.

The frames have a sturdy, premium feel and the single-piece lens itself performs brilliantly. Coverage and protection are, thanks to their size, fantastic.

The price is good, but the package only includes one lens tint, which somewhat limits their all-conditions versatility.

• Read our full Scott Sport Shields cycling sunglasses review

Tifosi Alliant

• £64.99 / €95 / $96 / AU$144 as tested
• Curved and vented lenses

The Tifosi Alliant cycling glasses stay firmly on your head thanks to rubbery arm tips and an adjustable nose piece.

The lenses are supplied in three different colours, but they might not be deep enough for bigger heads.

Tifosi Amok

• £60 / €60 / $68 / AU$95 as tested
• Comfortable and stylish
• More affordable than premium brands

The Tifosi Amok cycling glasses offer top-notch performance at low cost.

The full-frame design features a mid-size lens (you only get one, but it’s easy to switch out if you buy another separately) and it works well in a range of conditions.

The glasses are also comfortable to wear, with sticky temple tips and an adjustable nose bridge to keep the shades secure.

• Read our full Tifosi Amok cycling sunglasses review

Also consider

The following cycling sunglasses scored fewer than four stars, but they are still worth considering.

• Rudy Project Defender review
• Oakley Sutro review
• Oakley Windjacket 2.0 review
• KOO Open Cube review
• Giant Apus review
• Shimano S-Phyre X1 review
• 100% Speedcraft Air review

Buyer’s guide: what to look for when buying a set of cycling sunglasses

Lens

The lens is clearly the most important component in a pair of cycling sunglasses, so you need to consider your choice carefully, based on your riding style and requirements.

While mirrored lenses can look cool, they’re really only designed for use on very sunny days. If you live somewhere where it’s often dark and wet, you’ll want to consider a sunglasses package that includes multiple lens options.

Alternatively, some brands offer photochromic lenses, which react to the light level to change their light transmission value, meaning they’ll automatically get darker when it’s sunny, then clearer when it’s not.

Frame

Frame choice is arguably more a matter of fashion because it will dictate the overall shape and look of any pair of cycling sunglasses.

Big, eighties-style sunglasses are back in fashion at the moment and these do have several advantages, such as massive amounts of protection and coverage, but their bold looks aren’t for everyone.

Large frames, for example, can often hover in your peripheral vision, which some riders might find annoying, whereas frameless models offer a much more unrestricted view.

Arms

The arms of cycling sunglasses need to be robust enough to safely hold the glasses in place over even the roughest terrain. Often, tacky rubber inserts are added to increase friction without causing discomfort.

High-quality models will also have reassuringly stiff arms and hinges without any play. If you’re spending a quite substantial sum of money on sunglasses, you want to know they’re built to last.

Nose bridge

Everyone has a different-shaped face and nose, so cycling sunglasses with adjustable or interchangeable nose pieces can offer a more personalised fit.

This can be especially important on sunglasses with large frames, where it’s key to ensure the frame doesn’t impinge on your view too much.

Other features

When shopping for sunglasses, it’s worth considering the overall package. While some options just include a single lens and frame, others will include multiple lens options, a microfibre bag and possibly even a hard case.

These extras all add significant value and mean you’re unlikely to need to keep spending more down the road to get, for example, a clear lens for the winter months.

Additionally, if you’re a glasses wearer in everyday life, it’s worth considering brands that offer prescription lenses.

Contact lenses and normal lenses are certainly a viable option, but most wearers will have experienced days when wearing contact lenses for long periods of time can start to get uncomfortable.