Goggles
Goggles
Sealed eyewear worn with a full-face helmet that keeps dust, mud, roost and branches out of your eyes at speed. The foam seal is what glasses do not have.
Also known as: MTB goggles, downhill goggles, moto goggles
Key facts
- Protection
- Medium
Why not glasses
At downhill speeds dust and grit get behind glasses and water fills your eyes. Goggles seal to your face with foam and fit the eye port of a full-face helmet, so nothing gets in.
Choosing a lens
- Clear — for dark forests, dusk and changing light.
- Lightly tinted — the all-rounder for mixed sun and shade.
- Dark or mirrored — for open, sunny tracks above the tree line.
Mud days
Tear-offs or a roll-off system let you clear a muddy lens without stopping. Never wipe the inside of a lens: it scratches the anti-fog coating. Let it dry and blow dust off instead.
Related articles
- Downhill (DH) — Racing one steep, rough track from top to bottom, against the clock, on bikes with around 200 mm of travel. A World Cup run lasts three to four minutes and is decided by fractions of a second.
- Full-face helmet — A helmet with a chin bar that protects the face and jaw as well as the head. Standard for downhill, bike parks and big jumps, and more and more common in enduro.
- Mountain bike helmet — An open-face helmet made for trails: deeper at the back and sides than a road helmet, with a visor and plenty of vents. The one piece of gear no ride goes without.
- Bike park — A resort of graded trails served by a lift or shuttle, so the whole day goes into riding down. Usually a mountain ski resort in summer, with flow, jump and downhill lines.