Viris Raptor Riding Glasses review

The Raptor riding sunglasses, from independent UK brand Viris, are designed for all aspects of cycling, and come with four different lenses.

In addition to a clear lens, there’s a yellow tint for low light, a rose tint that boosts contrast and a polarised mirror lens for bright conditions.

With a highly competitive price, these glasses offer great value, and their performance on the trail impressed, too.

Viris Raptor features

The aforementioned four lenses pop in and out of a semi-enclosed angular frame. It offers decent levels of coverage.

A range of frame colour options are offered, including this paint-splatter version.

The nosepiece’s rubber is mounted on a wire frame to ensure plenty of adjustment.

The arms open out, and feature a soft rubber pad at their end to aid security.

It’s worth noting that since we photographed the Raptor glasses, an updated version has been released, with slightly altered graphics, a new case to carry the lenses and the addition of the rose lens.

I have received a new set of glasses and tested the new rose lens.

Viris Raptor performance

Swapping lenses is relatively easy, with the frame manipulating out of the way of the clips on the lenses. Removal is a touch easier than re-fitting lenses, but I never worried about over-bending either frame or lens.

Once in place, the chosen lens stays put securely.

The adjustment of the nosepiece is impressive, with plenty of scope to fit a range of face and nose size and shapes, as well as easily altering how the glasses sit against the face.

That said, with some mountain bike helmets that came lower down my brow, I found the glasses could rattle on the shell. The glasses don’t work their way down your face, but they can bounce up and down a touch in my experience.

With lighter-weight trail, or road-focused helmets, this was less of an issue.

With larger, more protective helmets, such as a POC Tectal or Giro Switchblade (in open-face mode) I found the outer width of the arms, where they sit away from the face, could interfere with the shell of the helmet, compromising fit slightly.

Optically, Viris has done a good job, with decent clarity and good de-fogging.

However, the lack of a frame at the top of the glasses can mean sweat is more prone to dripping onto the lens.

The lenses themselves are good. The clear option works as you’d expect, and the yellow alternative brightens darker days.

The mirrored dark polarised lens works well in the brightest conditions, and doesn’t seem to give any funny distortions, unlike the Magicshine Windbreaker polarised sunglasses I've also tested.

The rose lens is a great addition, and I used it a lot in typical mixed UK conditions.

It helped me not need to squint in brighter light, but also worked well when dropping into the woods, preventing things appearing too dark. It’s a really versatile lens.

Viris Raptor bottom line

With a host of effective lenses, as well as a decent case, the Raptors are excellent cycling sunglasses that offer great value for money.

Other than when riding with larger helmets, the Raptors became go-to glasses for me during testing, thanks to the versatility and range of their lenses.