Channeling the attitude, and competitive spirit of the victorious team from the classic Breaking Away, Spy is bringing some style to the cycling world with their new Cutter. The new shades combine casual style with a number of performance features that make them equally at home chasing down a break, or standing on top o the podium. Fans of more traditional cycling style can find it from Spy in their Daft shields, but for anyone looking for something a big different, the Cutter is worth a look.
In addition to style, the Cutters have a unique Fast Track lens changing system, check it out after the break.
While the made in Italy Cutters have a squared lens shape more similar to casual shades than performance, the Cutters are able to offer a wide field of vision due to how big the actual lenses are. When the glasses are on your face, the perimeter of the frame is almost completely out of view offering excellent peripheral vision. I’d say I have a small to medium sized face, and the Cutters are definitely more at home on medium to large faces. Fortunately, Spy includes a larger nose piece that can easily be swapped out which keeps the glasses far enough away from my face that they’re comfortable.
The ear pieces are nicely curved so they fit under nearly every helmet I’ve tried and include Hytrel rubber inserts and nose pieces to keep them in place.
You may have heard or seen Spy’s recent ads for their Happy Lens – essentially a polarized lens that enhances the sun’s good rays to actually improve your mood while blocking all the harmful rays that you don’t want to meet your eyes. Spy incorporated their Happy Lenses with their first use of the Fast Track lens changing system as well as a bonus lens for low light conditions.
All of Spy’s lenses for the Cutter include their Victory Lens coating which is hydrophobic, oliophobic, and scratch resistant which are all good things for a lens that will see plenty of blood, sweat, and tears.
A lot of glasses have replaceable lenses, but if it takes 20 minutes and as many swear words to actually change them it shouldn’t count. Fortunately, Spy has developed an incredibly easy system that rivals Oakley’s Switch Lock for simplicity. I timed myself replacing the lenses which took 46 seconds – not bad for only the second time attempting it. Not quite as fast as the Switch lock, but pretty close.
To change the lenses on the Cutters, you start by pressing the little tab on the bridge which pops open the top of the glasses. The white section is hinged and swings away from the black frame allowing the lenses to be removed.
Simply pulling the frame to side ejects the lens from the cradle and it can be removed. To insert the lens, start at the hook on the outer edge and reverse the process. Considering how easy the system is, Spy did a good job in preventing the lenses from rattling around in the frame.
At 33g, the Cutters aren’t the lightest performance glasses, but they’re not exactly heavy. This is also with the larger nose piece, so know a few grams off for that. Considering how big the Cutter’s lenses are and the lens change mechanism, the weight is actually pretty good.
Cutters will be available this week, offered in 4 different colors – Matte Black/White with Happy Lens Polarized + Bonus Rose lens, Clear Smoke with Bronze w/Green Spectra lens + Bonus Rose lens, Black with Grey lens + Bonus Yellow lens, and White with Bronze w/Light Blue Spectra Lens + Bonus Yellow lens. Cutters will retail from $160 to $180 for the Happy Lens equipped model.
