Swedish safety gear brand POC might be better known for its radically shaped aero helmets, but it now has a growing range of eyewear too.
In last year’s Tour de France, Ryder Hesjedal sported a fetching pair of Poc Dids, more suited to strolling the streets than pounding the peloton, but this year there’s a dedicated pair of race glasses from Poc, the Do Blade.
- Highs: Great optics, light weight
- Lows: Price, aesthetics may not suit all
The first thing you notice about these sunglasses is the size. The lens is large, coming up taller than most of the opposition. The effect of this is that it offers masses of coverage when you’re down in the drops – there’s virtually no intrusion from the frame into your view in even the most extreme position on the bike.
The flipside is that this can interfere with the brow of your helmet, and at the very least means there’s less airflow over the top of the frame. As a result they did fog up from the top a little, although the mid-length vents at the top of the lens helped them to clear quickly enough.
The frame has a nifty bar in the centre of the glasses, which when pressed helps to release the lens if you want to swap it. The glasses don’t come with spare lenses, but the stock ‘Road’ lens has a level 2 tint, which is neither too dark nor too light and it works well in a wide range of light conditions. The lens is made by Carl Zeiss, and is curved on both the vertical and horizontal axes, making the optics among the best we’ve found.
The slim arms have a moderate amount of flex. Combined with their low weight, the Do Blades are comfortable over long periods of time – there’s minimal pressure on your ears anyway, although if there was a little more flexibility in the nosepiece, fit would be marginally improved.
Aesthetically – and we all know this is important – these really do split opinions. They’re certainly striking, but their large lens and curved frame gives them a slightly feminine look, which some blokes might not like…
