As we roll into the middle of fall, lower sun angles and shorter daylight hours make helmet visors more important than ever. Realistically, they’re an important feature to have all the time, but their effectiveness — or ineffectiveness — really becomes apparent when the sun is shining directly into your eyes at all hours of the day. As someone who rides outdoors most days and often near sunset, having a helmet visor that actually performs the primary function of a visor — shielding the eyes from the sun — is very important to me.
I’ve been testing cycling gear for nearly a decade at this point. I’ve ridden in well over fifty different mountain bike and road/gravel helmets in that time, and recently, I’ve noticed an odd trend. Like the hairline on my head, the visors on some helmets keep creeping higher onto the top of the shell. Now, we can buy helmets with visors that don’t do anything other than look goofy, yay! Every time I see one of these curiously designed helmets, I get so confused. What is the point of putting a visor on a helmet if it doesn’t serve its primary purpose? Am I missing something?
Likewise, I’ve spent quite a bit of time riding and racing gravel in my life, and I genuinely want to know one thing. Are road and gravel riders not bothered by the sun shining directly in their eyes? I certainly am. Being able to see clearly when riding at ~20 mph down a rough gravel road is just as important to me as being able to see on a mountain bike trail. I’m not trying to say that road and gravel helmets should have MTB-style visors, but where are the options outside of wearing a cycling cap?
Mountain Bike Helmets
Beyond increased head coverage, one of the main things that sets mountain bike helmets apart from road or gravel helmets is a visor. For me, visors have served a couple of functions: to keep the sun out of my eyes and to provide some degree of protection from getting slapped in the face by low-hanging branches or bushes. Some people will tell you that they shield the eyes/glasses from the rain, but I’ve never found them to be very effective at that.
I argue that a visor’s ability to keep the sun out of my eyes is its most important function. When the sun is shining directly into my eyes or onto the lens of my glasses, it negatively impacts my ability to see the trail in front of me, forcing me to slow down or risk riding into something that I’m unable to see. Yes, I recognize that I can just slow down, but with a well-designed visor, I shouldn’t have to. Keeping the sun out of my eyes is not only more comfortable on my eyes, but safer as well.
In my opinion, the best visors are adjustable and have a low position that sits low enough to block the sun even at the most extreme angles. In some cases, I can see the edge of the visor when it is in its lowest position, but that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make for not being blinded by the sun. When the sun angles aren’t as extreme, the adjustability of the visor allows me to shift it up and out of sight or even higher to store glasses or goggles on the helmet. I ride with the visor on my Smith Forefront 3 in the middle position, probably around 90% of the time. For that 10% of the time that I have it down, I’m very thankful to have the option.
Which is why I was taken aback the first time I rode in the Specialized Ambush 2 helmet a couple years ago. It was honestly a really great helmet with loads of head coverage, good ventilation, a comfortable fit, surprisingly low weight, and priced lower than other brands’ top-tier models. But I couldn’t get past the visor. Not only was it non-adjustable, but it was attached way up on top of the shell. Yes, the visor still made it look like a mountain bike helmet and provided ample space to stash glasses in the front, but otherwise, it was essentially useless. To block the sun at low angles, it required tipping my head forward to the point where I couldn’t really see where I was going anymore.
Now, that’s just one example, and I’m not trying to single out Specialized for its visor design, even if I don’t agree with it. The Specialized Ambush 2, Tactic, and Camber models are otherwise all solid, protective, and competitively priced helmets. Other brands, like MET and Scott, are also producing helmets with visors that are equally ineffective at performing the primary function of a visor. A few other brands are right on the cusp, as well.
For example, my Sweet Protection Bushwhacker 2Vi Mips helmet. Yes, it has a three-position visor, but I think the lowest position is still just a little too high. I get that they were probably trying to ensure the visor was never in the rider’s field of view, but that limits its effectiveness at blocking the sun. Plus, it’s adjustable, so the rider ultimately has control of where it is positioned. Why not at least provide the option? Otherwise, I really love the helmet and I wear it quite often when the sun is higher in the sky.
I guess I’m just genuinely curious why any helmet brand is making helmets with visors that don’t do anything. What’s the thought process behind designing a visor that looks oddly placed on top of a helmet, and it doesn’t stand a chance of actually shielding one’s eyes from the sun? Do these people only ride in the summer, in the middle of the day, or in a deep, dark forest where the sun never shines? Help me understand…
Fortunately, there are plenty of mountain bike helmet options on the market to suit everyone’s needs and preferences. And if you’ve never even considered the visor on your helmet, then I’m sorry for bringing it up. And don’t get me wrong, Specialized, MET, Scott, and Sweet Protection make great helmets; they should just consult me on their visor designs.
Gravel and Road Bike Helmets
Road bike helmets and, by default, gravel bike helmets, have traditionally been more focused on aerodynamics, ventilation, and low weight, compared to those made for mountain biking. Additionally, as the story goes, the lower, more aerodynamic body position while riding drop bars would result in a visor obstructing your vision. As such, the short brims on cycling caps have become the default “visor” for many cyclists when worn underneath a helmet. While fairly short, cycling cap brims are actually quite effective at blocking the sun.
I don’t disagree that a mountain-bike-style visor could and would add weight, negatively impact aerodynamics, and probably also interfere with one’s vision in some more aggressive body positions. Still, the sun shines directly into my eyes just as much on gravel rides as it does on the mountain bike. And as of now, the only real options to prevent that are to ride in a mountain bike helmet or wear a cycling cap underneath your road/gravel helmet. The cycling cap route works, of course, but wearing a cycling cap under a helmet significantly impacts its ventilation, and isn’t the solution that I’m looking for.
I started riding gravel frequently back in 2016-ish, and shortly thereafter, I stumbled upon the Smith Network helmet (which came out in 2017, I think). It wasn’t the most exciting helmet at first glance, but then I noticed that it came with a removable stick-on brim. This brim is basically the same size and shape as a standard cycling cap brim, but it attaches directly to the shell, so you don’t have a cap trapping heat and moisture or limiting airflow to the head.
This brim has proven to be incredibly effective at blocking the sun when needed, compared to not having any sort of brim at all. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect solution; the adhesive holding it on the helmet eventually wears out, the fabric gets discolored by sweat, and it fades over time. That said, it’s the best solution that I’ve found.
And it got me wondering, why aren’t there more road and gravel helmets that provide options like this for shielding your eyes from the sun? Am I the only one who is bothered by the sun in my eyes and is seeking a better solution than a cycling cap? I can’t be alone here, or am I? I don’t think the stick-on brim is the ultimate solution, but why aren’t there more helmets with removable clip-on brims? Something easy to install and remove, so you can have it when you need it and take it off when you don’t? Seems like a missed opportunity. I know at least one person who wants one.
Thanks For Listening
I have opinions, and I’m sure you have your own. Ultimately, I’m just hoping that brands keep making helmets with adjustable visors that actually keep the sun out of my eyes. I know it’s a little more of a long shot, but I’d also love to see some more road/gravel helmets with integrated and/or removable brims, too. Time will tell, but in the meantime, I’ll be out there riding straight into the setting sun.
