Bollé B-Rock shades
£155 › Slim rim riding glasses
SOME PRODUCTS ARE intended for use in one market, but can find new life in another, and so it is with Bollé’s B-Rock mountain bike glasses. Since Adam Yates wore them to fourth place overall and the white jersey at this year’s Tour de France, they’ve gained more road attention. Glasses with full rims are back in fashion, partly due to a certain large American brand’s prevalence, but after basic style similarities, things diverge.
Sharing arms and lens shape with Bollé’s 5th Element rimless road glasses, the B-Rock’s frame is in two sections. The lower part incorporates the replaceable and adjustable hypoallergenic nosepiece that can be tweaked for a comfortable fit, and the upper reinforces the lens between the arms. A slim rubber strip on the frame below each eye, and across the brow improves hold, comfort and sweat management too.
The frame has plenty of spring to conform to different head widths, plus almost half of each arm can be bent to conform ideally to your temples and helmet, with a compressible internal rubber strip providing extra grip.
Our pick of the four models available has a Trivex Modulator Brown Emerald lens, which has a light brown tint and multi-layer blue-green mirror coating. Trivex is lighter and stronger than the polycarbonate used in most sunglasses, and has great optical qualities, offering superb clarity and sharpness. Its water and oil-resistant treatments plus large temple vents keep it immune from steaming up and other contaminants, and the outer coating reduces dazzling.
Coverage is such that whatever your head position, vision is superb in all directions, and the slim frame is almost completely out of sight and never distracting. The Modulator lens is photochromic too, meaning that it adapts to light levels. We’ve found it equally impressive on the brightest days, and when going in and out of heavily shaded areas on dull days. The brown tint really improves contrast in all light, and their colour vibrancy is uplifting.
They weigh just 32g, and have so far played nicely with every helmet we’ve worn them with, and in hundreds of miles on and off-road have remained firmly where we put them.