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Rapha unveil new City Glasses collection

The new range of shades are designed to be functional on the bike and stylish off it

Rapha's latest eyewear range has all the features of highly technical sports sunglasses, but they look like a pair of high fashion shades. 

21 of the best cycling sunglasses

Rapha say the City Glasses are "styled for everyday living while possessing the technical functionality required of sports eyewear". The Italian-made shades weigh just 30g, which is lighter than most sports-specific pairs, and have a two-position locking hinge system to keep them secure on the move.

Manufactured in Italy, the lenses from Carl Zeiss are scratch-resistant, hydrophobic and oleophobic for visual clarity. The brown lens version offer the least light transmission at under 10%, and the green transmit just 12.81%.   

H1-17_City_Glasses_Macro-Details_21.jpg

The Rapha City glasses in tortoiseshell colours

The arms are made with tough stainless steel, with a cotton-based material on the temple grips so the shape can be customised to the rider's head. The frames are made from Mazzucchelli Italian acetate that is both lightweight and durable.  

The City Glasses are available in five different colours, and the lenses are prescription ready. They're retailing at £160 on Rapha's website. 

 

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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4 comments

Avatar
drosco | 6 years ago
2 likes

Bit of an expensive niche too far. They'll look daft if you're in cycling gear, but riding to the shops, why would I need to spend £160 on some special sunglasses?

It's Rapha though, so someone will buy them to go with their chamios cream that apparently smells of mont ventoux.

Avatar
BarryBianchi | 6 years ago
0 likes

" the green transmit just 12.81%"   Fick.  For £160 for this vaguey Ray-ban esque tat I would have been in at 12.82%, but they have blown it.

 

And: "the lenses are prescription ready. "  WTF?

Avatar
Broady. | 6 years ago
0 likes

Really nice, good alternative to Tom Ford et al.

Avatar
don simon fbpe | 6 years ago
1 like

Neither expensive nor niche enough.

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