Bike-Path Warrior

Rydon oozes cachet. It was a darling of the peloton during the Tour de France, which means we bike-path warriors will ride better wearing it. But there’s good reason to covet Rydon. It’s a work of Italian industrial art. The frame is a confection of 22nd-century materials including titanium, silicium, and a dollop of Kynetium, a proprietary aluminum alloy. Allow me to translate: really, really strong and light. The Kynetium bit is a flange in the temple that intersects the bridge at the hinge, which pivots with the smooth precision of fine tooling. This is one hinge that will never require us to make impossible repairs with some itty-bitty screwdriver. The cutout nosepiece is nonslip and adjustable. The straight carbon temple tips hug the noggin like the pincers of a loving lobster.

But that’s all behind the scenes. What really shines are Rydon’s best-of-all-worlds lenses, photochromic and polarized. I start my bike rides in early morning fog and finish in bright scattered sunlight. Rydon starts at 40 percent visible light transmission [huh?] and darkens to 16 percent. Perfect for the vagaries of daylight. A smidgen too dark for a post-sunset return trip, though. (They’re interchangeable, but you have to order extra lenses for extra $$). Polarization sends Pacific glare back to whence it came. The lenses are gray and color-true. The price tag? Not ouchless: $250. But sacrifice photochromic and polarization, and you can talk Rydon down to $165. Buy it: