Italy’s premium sports glass manufacturer Rudy Project is celebrating its 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion it’s launched a special limited edition of the Rydon glasses.
The 30th Anniversary Rydon 18k optics are built using the same tough but very light Grilamid frames as usual, but here they’re finished a light gold with even the Kynetium alloy temple pieces having the same mirror finish underneath the soft-touch temple tip grippers.
The real special treatment however is reserved for the mirroring on the lenses themselves. The proprietary process uses real 18k white gold for an incredibly dense mirroring.
Aside from the added bling these are still the same ultralight (24g), highly adjustable riding shades they always were. As you might expect, they won’t come cheap though… with the price tag confirmed at €349 (we’ll add UK and US pricing as soon as we have it) you certainly won’t want to leave them behind at the coffee shop.
Even the alloy arm pieces are finished in a mirror polished gold coating
Tralyx and Synform shades funnel air, fold small
Alongside the Rydon specials Rudy has also launched two new models, the Tralyx and the Synform. The Tralyx glasses have been designed in combination with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and wind tunnel experimentation to create a half-framed design claimed to offer a wide range of uncluttered vision and also, through its open-webbed frame design, draw air through the frame and channel it outwards past your temples to reduce heat build up, and reduce the chances of fogging. Rudy also claims an aero advantage over classic half-frame shapes.
Its not just the frame where Rudy’s designers have been busy though – they’ve also incorporated a new temple tip design called ‘adaptive tips’. These open needle-eye shaped tips have a steel core allowing you to bend and shape them to exactly fit your head.
It also means that in conjunction with Rudy’s helmet range which all-incorporate glasses docks (as seen on the new Boost aero road helmet), they should remain secure even when you’re not perching them on your nose.
This brings us to the third innovation on the Tralyx, that being a new adjustable nosepiece. The Ergonose IX uses a co-moulded combination of soft and grippy materials to offer a secure yet comfortable fit while retaining the adjustability of Rudy’s previous generation nosepiece.
The new Tralyx glasses feature a frame with cut-out sections designed to allow air to channel through and aid cooling
The Tralyx glasses come in both standard lens sizes and a smaller (depth) SX lens for smaller faces. They're is available with the unbreakable ImpactX Photochromic lens or RP Optics Smoke Black, Transparent or Multilaser options. Mainland Europe pricing is confirmed at €139 with US and UK to follow.
The final new glasses model is the Synform. The new frame has one simple trick up its sleeve, that being that it folds up upon itself and packs away into a small pocket sized hardcase. The central hinges on the frame use aluminium hardware that’s easy to service, so they shouldn’t go floppy even after extended use.
The same attention to detail has been paid to the arm-hinges. Rudy has designed new hardware, which combines aluminium and polyoxymethelene to create what’s known as a suspended hinge. This, it’s claimed, absorbs and nullifies the vibrations that can lead to traditional hinge screws vibrating loose, meaning they’ll in theory stay as tight and stiff as they day you bought them.
Whether or not you see a need for a pair of riding shades that fold up to half their size is a moot point – we admit to having doubts – but having hands- and heads-on time with the Synform we’re warming to the idea of a pair of shades that can be packed away and safely stowed in a jersey pocket.
The Synform is priced at €279 and available in four variations of the ImpactX Photochromic lens plus Smoke black, Transparent and Polar3X Grey Laser in RP Optics.
The Synform glasses can be folded in on themselves
BOOST 01 helmet aims to harness crosswinds
Finally, in the wake of the Wingspan and Wing57 TT/triathlon helmets, Rudy has developed the new BOOST 01 road helmet. It’s designed in conjunction with bike-aero legend John Cobb (the man behind the legendary Oval twin-foil fork), Pininfarina’s wind tunnel team and Rudy’s own design engineers.
The BOOST 01, it’s claimed, offers true aero benefits with a comfortable fit and cooling airflow when riding. The 01 can be had with or without an optical shield constructed using the same polycarbonate RP Optics as Rudy’s glasses.
Like the Wing series of helmets the BOOST also uses a central dorsal ridge. The subtle central peak to the helmet shape, Rudy claims, can use side-on forces (a crosswind) and shape into a forward boost-giving force (hence the name).
Rudy's new BOOST 01 helmet was designed in conjunction with John Cobb and Pininfarina's wind tunnel
Rudy says the dorsal ridge reduces torque forces on a rider’s neck by 65 percent, helping to reduce the chance of discomfort on longer rides. Compared with Rudy’s standard road helmets the BOOST has a 12 percent reduction in drag, measured at 978g for the brand’s standard road helmet compared with 864g for the 01.
The large temple and forward facing vents have removable solid-mesh covers so on hot days you can remove them for maximum cooling, and on cooler ones clip in the inserts for a small aero-gain and less free-flowing air.
On the inside of the 01 Rudy has used the same design elements as on the Wing57 – large free-flowing internal channels to allow for cooling airflow. It also follows similar shaping at the helmet’s tail, which conditions the flow of the air into a less disruptive straighter exit very much like the Vortex Killer design Rudy introduced on the Wing57.
The BOOST 01 will be available in the spring with European pricing set at €199.
