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Do I Need Polarized Sunglasses For Cycling?

Torege Sports Sunglasses

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Polarized sunglasses have many benefits for cyclists. They are beneficial to your eyes, they reduce glare, and they can be used as a safety precaution.

While all sunglasses are a good idea, wearing polarized sunglasses for cycling is a great idea. Even beyond the protection, you’ll notice a lack of sun glare off of shiny surfaces.

The best cycling sunglasses offer polarized lens as an option to help maximize your cycling experience.

1. To Prevent Glare And Reflections From The Road

Glare and reflections from the road can be very dangerous for cyclists. To protect their eyes, they need to wear polarized sunglasses with a glare-reducing filter.

Polarized sunglasses are made of two panes of polarized lenses that are aligned at right angles to each other. The lenses are made of different materials with different levels of transparency, so that they can reduce both glare and reflections.

It is important to choose the best sunglasses for cycling because not all kinds of glasses work well in all conditions. If you want to prevent glare and reflections from the road, it is best to use polarized sunglasses with a glare-reducing filter.

What it all means is that if you are cycling in the city for instance, you won’t get those bright sun glares off of all of the car windshields. Very handy indeed.

All cycling glass lens colors come in polarized, whether they are yellow, clear, or any other tinted color. Polarization is a way they are manufactured. As such, when you are looking at clear cycling glasses online, you’ll want to read carefully if you need polarized lenses to deal with headlight glare in low-light cycling.

2. To Prevent Sunburns On Your Face

Polarized sunglasses are a must-have for cycling. These glasses can protect your eyes from the sun and also prevent sunburns on your face. They not only offer protection from UV rays, but also reduce glare and reflections from the road.

The anti-reflective coating on glasses is a good feature to have if you need to wear glasses all day long or if you want to use them for driving or cycling purposes. Luckily while cycling glasses can get expensive, you can find great deals on cheap cycling sunglasses from articles such as mine.

Since sports are often played in the sun, polarized sport sunglasses are practically a must.

3. To Prevent Eye Fatigue And Headaches From Multiple Hours Of Biking In The Sun

The best way to prevent eye fatigue and headaches from biking in the sun is wearing polarized sunglasses. This will help with the glare and reduce the amount of light that enters your eyes.

Polarized sun glasses are specially designed to reduce glare on water, road, or any other surface. They are also effective in reducing the brightness of the sun. These glasses are beneficial for people who spend hours driving or cycling in harsh conditions like bright sunlight. It reduces strain on your eyes which is a pretty big deal.

The best cycling glasses ensure they have quality lenses and their version of polarized lenses that enhance your vision and protect against intense bright light. Many times they even have polarization built in.

4. To Reduce UV Radiation On Your Eyes Which Can Lead To Cataracts & Macular Degeneration Over Time

UV radiation can lead to cataracts and macular degeneration, which are both vision-impairing diseases.

There are many ways to protect your eyes while biking outdoors. The most common way is to wear sunglasses that block out UV rays. You can also wear a hat or visor that shades your eyes from the sun.

Polarized lenses with a UV coating are a great way to block the UV rays to help this way.

5. To Protect Eyes From Dirt & Grime

Cycling glasses provide protection from dirt and grime that comes up from the trails as their most basic feature. There’s not too much to say around it, but keeping that gritty dust out of your eyes is pretty important.

If you’re on trails with trees, you will have low-hanging branches here and there, and cycling glasses do wonders for deflecting the hit. It’s important that the rest of the cycling sunglasses are just as strong such as the frame.

Polarized sports sunglasses are ideal if you ride where there is glare such as in the city with lots of glass surfaces. Those environments where you take a road bike really need it and are a clear advantage over non polarized cycling sunglasses.

Photochromic cycling sunglasses are excellent, but it’s very common to see polarized photochromic cycling sunglasses in one package. Looking for that might limit your choices, but like all gear it’s important to establish up front your needs and budget and go from there.

About the Author

Tony K

Senior Technical Writer, MountainBikeExperience.com

Tony K is a technical editor at MountainBikeExperience.com. He has a focus on downhill bike riding but still loves xc bikes too.

With more than ten years of mountain biking experience and more than 5 years testing mountain bikes, Tony has ridden and tested hundreds of different bikes and products, everything from XC to enduro bikes. Tony regularly competes in mountain bike races while seeing how long those compontents can hold up which gives me a lot of insight.

When he isn't shredding down a mountain or camping out, he is writing reviews for Mountain Bike Experience.

Rides: Surly Lowside, Canyon Exceed