Oakley Cycling Glasses - Which Oakley goggles to buy for various conditions [Buyer’s Guide]

Oakley’s cycling glasses have been very popular among road cyclists, mountain bikers and gravel riders for a long time, and have also become a staple in the professional peloton. Besides looking gorgeous and sleek, Oakley cycling glasses also contribute to your cycling enjoyment due to their different lenses to suit various weather types and cycling locations. For example, some lenses are suitable for a sunny day and others are your best choice for a ride in rainy conditions. Oakley also offers lenses that are particularly suitable for use in the woods. Read this blog and find out what glasses you need for different conditions.

When buying cycling glasses, you may realise that these are usually not suitable for all types of rides and conditions. As for Oakley’s glasses, these come with different lenses to allow you to choose the best one for the circumstances of each ride. The range of Oakley cycling glasses can be divided according to three types of weather conditions:

• Shady conditions due to clouds or trees
• Bright sunny weather
• Changeable conditions

Oakley cycling glasses for shady conditions due to clouds or trees

Cloudy days are unfortunately a common phenomenon in our country. For your rides on such days you need suitable cycling glasses. Such Oakley goggles feature a Prizm Trail Torch lens with a light transmission of 35%. This percentage indicates how much light passes through the lens. The higher the percentage, the more light passes through the lens. The light transmission of 35% makes these cycling glasses perfect for medium light conditions on cloudy days.

The Prizm Trail Torch lens is, therefore, great for mountain biking because there is plenty of shade in wooded areas. The Prizm lens technology eliminates all the colours you don't want to see. This makes dull colours in the forest or on the road 'warmer' so you experience more contrast. As a result, you can better distinguish roots and overhanging branches on the trails and will not be surprised by them when going fast.

Oakley cycling glasses for shady conditions due to clouds or trees

Oakley cycling glasses for bright sunny conditions

Of course, cycling glasses can also be used as sunglasses. On some summer days the sun is so bright that it reduces your vision considerably. Oakley offers suitable cycling glasses for these conditions too, viz. those with a Prizm Road lens.

With a light transmission of 20%, this lens ensures that sunlight is effectively filtered out of the field of view. It eliminates the colours you don’t want to see and enhances dull colours. Thus, it lets you perceive depth and colour contrasts better while cycling, and lets you distinguish lines on the road, fellow road users and all sorts of other details clearly. 

Then there are Oakley lenses which are perfect for cycling in the snow. Especially when the sun is shining, the light reflected by the snow can be too much for your eyes to handle. With a light transmission of 13%, the Prizm Sapphire Snow lens is suitable for such sunny days but also for mildly cloudy weather.

If the light is still too bright for you with a Prizm Road lens, the Prizm 24K or the Prizm Black lens may be a good alternative option. With a light transmission of only 11%, these Oakley lenses are perfect for even the brightest sunny conditions and prevent you from getting blinded by the sun.

Oakley cycling glasses for sunny conditions

Oakley cycling glasses for varying conditions

So, are you supposed to buy different Oakley cycling glasses for all conditions? Absolutely not. Oakley’s range also includes models that can be used in the great majority of weather conditions. These versatile cycling goggles feature a photochromic lens, which is suitable for use on sunny summer as well as drizzly autumn days. 

Oakley cycling glasses with a photochromic lens get clearer or darker as light conditions change; the light transmission varies between 23 and 69%. So, for example, if you’re riding in cloudy conditions or in a forest, the lens is transparent. If the sun is shining brightly, the lens is dark grey and lets less light pass through to your eyes.

Oakley cycling glasses for varying conditions

An overview of Oakley lenses

Lens type	Light transmission %	Shade from clouds or trees	Sunshine	Varying conditions
Oakley Prizm Trail Torch	35%
Oakley Prizm Road	20%
Oakley Prizm Sapphire Snow	13%
Oakley Prizm 24K	11%
Oakley Prizm Black	11%
Oakley Photochromic	23%-69%

Swap lenses with the Switchlock system

If you have bought Oakley cycling glasses with a lens that is only suitable for sunny weather, and you would also like to have a lens for your rides in the forest or in cloudy conditions, there is a quick and easy solution: Thanks to the Switchlock system you can use a single frame and swap Oakley lenses easily. So, rather than buying all new glasses with a frame, you only need to buy a new lens.

See absolutely everything with HDO and Field of View

For every pair of cycling glasses Oakley works hard to ensure consumers see as much and as well as possible. This is what High Definition Optics (HDO) is for. This feature ensures that the curvature of the lens of the cycling glasses is the same as the curvature of the human eye. As a result, you never have a distorted image and always see everything in sharp focus.

The Field of View principle also contributes to the high quality of Oakley lenses and how they let you see. The lens has been optimised and enlarged to such a size that you don’t see the frame of the glasses. With the Field of View lenses, Oakley guarantees that you have the widest possible field of view without blind spots or other restrictions.