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review

Oakley Radar EV Path sunglasses

8
£160.00

VERDICT:

8
10
Secure and comfortable glasses with some of the best optics out there
Weight: 
28g
Contact: 

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Oakley's Radar EV Path glasses offer a secure, comfortable fit, excellent optics and plenty of style, all of which helps to explain their immense popularity.

  • Pros: Excellent optics, secure fit, tried and tested design
  • Cons: No second lens

The Radar EV Path glasses aren't new but we realised only recently that we've never reviewed them on road.cc, so we thought we'd better call a pair in.

The lens is large but not full-on gargantuan by today's lofty standards. EV stands for 'Extended View' and tells you that the lens is a little taller than that of the RadarLock Path, for example – the distance from the top of the nosepiece to the frame is about 6mm further on the Radar EV.

Oakley Radar EV Path - front.jpg

This means that these glasses provide excellent coverage when you're in a head-down riding position. If you ever find light getting in over the top of the frame or lens of your current glasses, think about giving these a go.

'Path' also refers to the lens shape. The bottom edge is a concave curve whereas Oakley's Pitch lens has a very slightly convex curve down there, so it extends lower. If you can't decide which one is for you, Radar EV Path and Pitch lenses are interchangeable so you can always change at a later date.

Despite curving right around the sides of your face, the lens hardly distorts at all across the field of view. Ask even rival glasses brands and they'll tell you that Oakley's optics are excellent.

Oakley Radar EV Path - side.jpg

Our glasses came fitted with a Prizm lens designed to enhance contrast on both the road and trail (a standard lens is £10 cheaper). There are nine Prizm lenses available and with different light transmission profiles for various conditions, so you can choose the most suitable. The Prizm Ruby that I've been using is best for bright light, and it makes greens and reds pop out. It makes subtle changes in shade really obvious and the whole world a more vibrant place! Go to Oakley's website and you can see the effect of each lens on a typical riding environment

The lens comes with four tiny vents along the top edge to help reduce fogging. Ride eyeballs out and stop suddenly and the lens will inevitably fog up – there's nothing you can do about that – but get rolling again and the vents help a little with getting air circulating again, and the glasses will usually clear in seconds.

You only get a single lens included here, but if you do buy a second one, swapping between them is straightforward: you squeeze the sides of the nosepiece together to release it and then pull the lens away from the frame in the centre. This reduces the tension enough to remove the lens easily.

> Buyer's Guide: 24 of the best cycling sunglasses

The frame is made from what Oakley calls O Matter – probably because that sounds more sciencey than 'nylon-infused plastic' – while the nosepads and the covering used on the arms are a material dubbed Unobtainium. It's a hydrophilic rubber that feels more tacky when it gets damp. I certainly had no worries with these glasses slipping even when sweating loads. In fact, they always felt super-secure either on my face or when stored on a helmet, arms in the vents. Speaking of which...

I tested the compatibility of the Radar EV Paths with a whole load of different helmets (over 20) and the ends of the arms touched the fit systems of a few of them, but it was never a problem. The arms don't have the length adjustment of Oakley's Jawbreakers, for example, but they are surprisingly flexible so you don't get any discomfort even if they do fit over the top of any elements of a helmet, and I never found that this led to any unwanted movement.

You can, of course, buy cycling glasses far cheaper than this, often with a spare lens or two thrown into the bargain. However, the Roka CP-1X and GP-1X glasses that we've reviewed recently are both priced well over £200, as are the Poc Do Half Blade glasses, and each of those models, like the Oakley Radar EV Path, comes with a single lens. A second Prizm lens will set you back £80 while a clear lens is £40. A light-adjusting photochromic lens is £90. The cost price of producing a pair of sunglasses like these is low compared to the amount you have to pay, but you do get excellent optics here.

Conclusion

The Oakley Radar EV Path glasses offer a comfortable and secure fit but it's the optics that really set these apart – the Prizm lens is excellent for increasing contrast.

Verdict

Secure and comfortable glasses with some of the best optics out there

road.cc test report

Make and model: Oakley Radar EV Path sunglasses

Size tested: Standard

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Oakley says, "Our original Radar eyewear combined everything we learned from decades of research with the world's best athletes, and with the taller lens of Radar EV and its extended range of view in the upper peripheral region, the heritage of performance has a new milestone."

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Oakley lists these features:

*Lightweight O Matter frame material

*Unobtainium earsocks and nosepads for increased comfort and performance

*Oakley performance shield lens technology with HDO*

*Available with Prizm lenses to enhance colour, contrast and detail for an optimised experience

*Polarized and Iridium lens options available

*Available with Oakley Authentic Prescription Lenses

*Protective hard case included

*All Oakley lenses offer HDO Technology with the following benefits:

Clarity: Conventional lenses can magnify images. HDO precision gives less distorted vision across the entire field of view.

Refraction: With regular lenses, objects aren't really where you see them. HDO offers a truer visual image so your brain won't have to work overtime.

UV Protection: All Oakley lenses block 100% of UVA, UVB & UVC rays and harmful blue light up to 400 nm."

These glasses use Prizm lenses.

Oakley says, "Prizm is a revolution in lens optics built on decades of colour science research. Prizm lenses provide unprecedented control of light transmission resulting in colours precisely tuned to maximise contrast and enhance visibility.

Prizm Ruby

Light transmission: 17%

Light conditions: Bright light

Contrast: Increased

Base lens colour: Orange

You can't move the nosepiece to adjust the fit but you do get pads of two different sizes.

You can get a prescription lens. According to Oakley, "All prescription orders and prescription warranty claims need to be placed with an authorised Oakley Prescription Dealer."

You can locate an authorised Oakley prescription dealer in your area here. https://www.oakley.com/en-gb/store-finder?q=

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
7/10
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
 
9/10
Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
 
9/10
Rate the product for value:
 
7/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Excellent clarity and contrast, good coverage, and they stay in place even when you get sweaty.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

The Prizm lens is excellent at increasing contrast.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

A second lens would be cool, even if just a clear lens for winter and/or night-time use.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

The Roka CP-1X and GP-1X glasses that we've reviewed recently are both priced over £200, as are the Poc Do Half Blade glasses. Each of those models comes with a single lens, like the Oakley Radar EV.

You can buy cycling glasses far cheaper than this, often with a spare lens or two thrown into the bargain, although Oakley's Prizm lens is excellent.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

The high quality of these glasses isn't in doubt, it's just the price that holds them back from getting a 9.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 48  Height: 190cm  Weight: 80kg

I usually ride:   My best bike is:

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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