Rapha Reis Glasses

The Rapha Reis Glasses are designed to work for racier rides and offer a huge peripheral vision, a comfortable fit, and great styling, but they are pretty pricey.

For more choices in eye protection, check out our guide to the best cycling sunglasses.

> Buy now: Rapha Reis Glasses for £160 from Rapha

Rapha eschews the current trend of 'bigger is better' with its new Reis glasses. They're not small, as such – their wide lens offers plenty of coverage around the periphery – but you won't look like an alien, as with many other high-end glasses.

The glasses come in four different frame and lens options, including Black/Rose, Black Mirror/Silver Mirror, Sedona Sage/Yellow, and White/Green, each offering a different look as well as suitability for a specific set of light conditions. If you can't get the combination you like off the shelf, Rapha also offers individual lenses for £65 a pop. The glasses come with both a soft and hard case, but no extra lens.

Whichever option you go for, the design is the same – made in Italy, with a single curved piece of what Rapha calls 'High-strength Rilsan G820 Renew high performance polymer (62% biobased)', with Megol arm grippers around the sides to keep the glasses in place.

The polycarbonate lens is similarly curvy, with a pronounced lip on either side of the lower section, presumably to allow air to flow around the glasses rather than underneath and into your eyes. They also feature a hydrophobic coating, which is pretty standard at this price level.

Two sizes of Megol nose-piece help you get the correct fit, and both these and the lenses themselves are easy to swap when needed.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the Reis glasses is their weight – at a mere 28g they are very light. Not the lightest we've ever tested, but certainly at the lighter end. They also feel quite dainty, though at the same time the material feels pretty substantial, so no concerns there.

On the move, these glasses have clearly been designed for a racy position, which works for me as my saddle to bar drop is quite generous. Their large field of view gives you plenty of visibility without the top of the frame getting in the way; they're comfortable, they stay in place even off road, and they also offer plenty of protection against the wind when you're going quickly.

We were sent a spare lens with our glasses, so I tried them with both the Rose lens and the Silver Mirror lens. The Rose was ideal for the light conditions in spring, offering good contrast and a suitable level of filtering (18% light transmission) with the sun just peeking out from behind the clouds, while not being too aggressive to make dappled light tracks a nightmare.

I used the Silver Mirror lens (10% light transmission) on bright days in the summer, and that offered lots of protection in very bright sunlight, but was a bit too much for mixed light conditions that I tend to encounter on gravel rides.

The only thing I didn't particularly like was that the glasses perch a bit higher up and further out than I am used to, regardless of which nose-piece I tried. It didn't affect their performance, it's just something to bear in mind.

Value

At £160, the Reis glasses are certainly at the higher end of the spectrum, and although you get a decent soft and hard case included, the lack of a spare lens does mean you'll have to stump up at least £65 if you want more options for different light conditions. That said, I'd argue that the Black/Rose option will cover off most eventualities. In fairness, these are very high quality glasses, and look great without being too in your face, so to speak.

They're slightly cheaper than the similar-ish Ekoi Ottimo Glasses, at £176.17, though they are a great alternative, with even more options to choose from, including photochromic lenses (and currently discounted to £123.32).

For £40 less, the Rudy Project Astral sunglasses look racy, with a lens that, like the Rapha Reis, works well in a variety of light conditions. Unlike the Reis, Matt found the lens shape caused some issues with airflow and he wasn't totally sold on the fit.

There are much cheaper options, though, such as the Galibier Regale Ultra Optics, for £39 to £46 depending on the lens, which do everything you could want, other than the lenses not being interchangeable – though at that price you could just buy more of them.

Conclusion

If you're in the market for some high-end sunnies that don't make you look ridiculous, the Rapha Reis glasses are well worth checking out.

> Buy now: Rapha Reis Glasses for £160 from Rapha

Verdict

Quality glasses that perform really well but at a reasonably high price