Rear view cycling glasses launched on Kickstarter by Olympic track champ Callum Skinner

OR if you have a kid you would have bought these for £3. jeepers lad, google it before you launch

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Childrens-Glasses-Mirror-Behind-Fillers/dp/B01A...

Double take on the first pic as it looked like a wigged-up Elton John.  They might want to rethink that bit of merch.

Fugly.  Not sure this has properly been thought through nor the biz model stress tested but good luck to them. 

For a quarter of the touted price you could get some passably decent glasses from Planet X and a discrete bar end mirror.  For the same money you could get an integrated (Varia) radar tail light and a good chunk towards some top end shades.

There have been hundreds of these 'look behind' or surveillance glasses on the market over the years, all rejected by cyclists.  What makes these special other than silly prices? 

I want glasses that will stay on my face and stay in one piece. Not these overpriced gimmicks. forget the competitive side, the glasses aren't aero enough to convince the pro athletes they can afford to have one on their face xD.

I had normal glasses before that share the same profile, without the gimmick or price tag, and the amount of wind wrapping around the lens to blind me was nothing to sneeze at.

Awful looking glasses, but then so many are, however I do get to post a link to the excellent AtWarWithTheMotorist's article on "Situational Awareness"

https://waronthemotorist.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/cyclists-need-more-sit...

Quote:

they “quickly realised that these glasses had applications in the sporting world.”

I can hear the UCI warming up their ban-stick now.

They are the worst looking sunglasses I've seen for a very long time, and priced way out of my league. Even if they were £20 I still wouldn't dare put them on my face - just awful.

I suspect these might also find a willing take-up in the population of secret lemonade drinkers...

I did have a pair of the R White's glasses as a lad, they took some getting used to!

Christ those are ugly!!

Another point...when using cheap sunnies for work I'm often blinded by the sun (behind me) reflecting into my eyes due to the shape of the lens. That's just an unhappy accident on my cheap glasses...this is built in basically?

I had clicked on this thinking this was some type of smart glasses with a video feed projected onto part of the lens 🙂

Years ago I read an article about Reg Harris and his coming 2nd in a British track championship while in his 50s.

He had been leading and claimed that his age had resulted in his neck being too stiff for him to look behind, so he didn't see his rival coming.

A shame he's not around to test these.

You'll want people to be behind you, so they cant see your face with those monstrosities on!

I never fund anything on Kickstarter, or any start-up programme as so many never come to fruition, or are poorly executed, or are just a money making scam. 

“cyclists are the only group of road users that do not have an effective mechanism to see behind them.”

I feel so sorry for him. I was personally born with a neck and find it quite useful!

Glancing over my shoulder takes me less time than checking my computer and I don't really see the essential aspect of these. But hey, by all means, if you like them, go ahead. I'll pass...

Quote:

One of the issues surrounding cycles safety, Hindsight believes, is that “cyclists are the only group of road users that do not have an effective mechanism to see behind them.”

Plenty of mirrors out there, from the DIY bottle cap solutions, bar end mirrors, helmet mounted. There's probably a Kickstarter rear view camera system out there too.

Here are just a few mirrors reviewed by road.cc:  https://road.cc/category/review-section/mirrors

I'm out but mainly because I think the designs are ugly and I have a tendency to break or lose sunnies so don't spend much on them.

Presumably not compatible with "big" hairstyles, as this early best tester has discovered: