I always wear an expensive pair of polarized sunglasses inside my helmet because I've become spoiled to how great a job they do with brightness and glare. Does anyone have any experience with smoked, tinted or mirrored helmet visors as a replacement for sunglasses? Do they offer any real glare benefit or are they just for show? I imagine a visor that's merely tinted is just as useless as $5 sunglasses?

 

The only advantage I can see is if you are racing either near sunset or in changing cloud cover. Tinted tear-offs could be real useful here.

I like good quality polarized glasses myself.

-b

 

I have one the of mirrored/iridium visors and love it. You can see it flipped up here:

http://www.darylsphotos.com/2006-6-1...dWar%20056.htm

Yes, it does eliminate glare. I also used sunglasses at first but found it too much of pain to put the helmet on and then the sunglasses (when I remembered to get them). The down side is that mine is a blue color and my wife calls it the "Fly Helmet", her reference to the blueish hue fly eyes can have.

I had asked Cossie this question a few years ago as I noticed he was using one (and it looked damn cool in his pics!). For my helmet they are pretty cheap (I think around $50) so I might go get a few different colors for the heck of it.

 

^ So Mahjik you feel the mirrored visor is comparable to a nice pair of polarized glasses?

 

For me, yes. It is a tad darker, but not so much that its a problem.

 

One of the pics of Cossie.

 

I like to add car window tint to the top edge of the visor. This way a little tilt of the head and the sun is blocked but not the track. Its great late in the day when driving into turn 17 a Sebring(straight into the sun). Normally I'll go with good sunglasses on a bright day. Once I had a pair of Vaurnet's that had a yellow tint, NOT GOOD!! Yellow flags looked white, white flags looked yellow. I had to let the Chief Steward look through them when I was pleading my case in the pit lane after passing under a yellow. I explained that I saw the "white" flag and I was looking for the slow vehicle.

 

I'll be switching from a clear to tinted for next season, too. I hate jamming glasses into my helmet. They never sit right and it's just one more thing I have to screw around with.

 

Swapping visors on my Bell is simple and quick so I keep a couple tints on hand for changing conditions. Replacement visors can get pricey though i.e. Iridium.

 

you might consider a open face (w/closed chin) helmet like the Bell S2R, these have a visor to reduce glare, you stay much cooler with the eyeport open while in a hardtop car car, glasses or goggles required but it is a whole lot better than a face shield, been using ths setup for years in ITS and wouldnt consider going back to a face shield............... have used tinted face shield, but those are better suited to a open car..........

 

Well I have to wear glasses cuz I'm blind But I Ditched the sunglasses for the Iridium visor about 2 years ago and have never looked back, love it...plenty dark for full sun while still mantaining good visibility in overcast conditions/shadows. I have also used the tinted tearoffs and the ones I had wear junk compared to a full shaded visor but when racing into the dark there aren't a whole lotta choices. I shudder at the thought of a open face helmet.

 

ccanepa50 I appreciate the hydrid idea but I'll be in an open cockpit this year so I'll need a full face helmet (which I already purchased).

I really like my sunglasses but if I can do nearly as good with a visor, that works for me. I've heard the iridium scratches easily but if I keep a single tearoff mounted it would prevent that, right?

 

I wouldn't say they scratch any easier but it's more apparent when they do scratch, Yes I always keep atleast one tearoff and haven't had any problems.