Lazer might be better known for helmets but it also produces a range of cycling glasses suitable for the trails. Hailing from Belgium (perhaps not known as the capital of cool!), the Lazer Kr1 shades buck the stereotype and won’t look out of place hanging out in a beer garden aprés ride. The Kr1’s casual styling belies their performance abilities though, and they work exceptionally well as riding glasses.

How to keep crystal clear vision on the trails

Technology

The Kr1 comes with three lens options, including a dark mirror Carl Zeiss lens. Zeiss only make lenses so the quality and optics are excellent, with no obvious distortion. The clear and yellow lenses are Lazer’s own but don’t suffer from it. The frame is made of a solid feeling plastic; the first time you try to swap lenses is a little worrying but they can withstand a fair amount of abuse! The arms open with a reassuring snap and feature comfortable temple grippers. If you are so inclined the arms can be swapped for a set of Lazer’s shorter Magneto arms that attach to magnetic clips fitted to the straps of your helmet.

Fit

The Kr1’s fit is most definitely ‘middle-of-the-road’. The shaping should fit the majority of head sizes without feeling too exaggerated or tight. The frame doesn’t sit too high on the forehead so should be compatible with a wide range of helmets. Lazer includes a set of larger nose grippers to help fine tune the fit around the nose but personally they felt fine as they came.

The Kr1 fit comfortably with most helmets

Lazer’s new Revolution FF helmet converts between open and full-face

Performance

As with any pair of glasses that use separate lenses there is an amount of frame encroachment within the field of vision. It doesn’t detract significantly from the experience, but looking quickly from side to side it can be noticeable. Lazer hasn’t incorporated any venting into the lenses but has coated them with moisture repellent. Consequently the Kr1 suffer from steaming up when at rest, but as soon as you get moving again they clear rapidly. A couple of weeks of poor weather saw a reliance on the clear lens, and a lot of impromptu mud wiping resulted in a couple of small scratches. As Lazer only sells the lenses as a complete spare set this could prove costly if the scratches get worse.

The larger lenses lend the Kr1 a wide field of vision

Extras

The Kr1 is available in a variety of frame colours and also with a photochromic lens option – Although this bumps the cost of the glasses up to £89.99.