Introducing SHIMANO’s New RIDESCAPE Lenses
Continuing our commitment to deliver high-performance cycling-specific eyewear for every rider, SHIMANO is excited to introduce a trio of new condition-specific RIDESCAPE lenses. Each of these new optics options—RIDESCAPE BR (Bright), AR (All-Road), and TR (Trail)—is tailormade to enhance your experience, boosting visual richness and clarity in various riding conditions.
Just like SHIMANO’s array of existing lenses, these new options are specifically tuned to emphasize colors and highlight objects and surfaces unique to a specific riding landscape. The result is heightened visual clarity, where environments that normally appear washed out, dull or flat become more clearly defined, vibrant, and vivid.
Each new lens replaces and enhances a previous lens model in the SHIMANO eyewear lineup including:
- RIDESCAPE BR (Bright) replaces the ES (Extra Sunny)
- RIDESCAPE AR (All-Road) replaces GR (Gravel)
- RIDESCAPE TR (Trail) replaces (Off-Road)
Here's a closer look at each of the new lenses, including visual light transmission (VLT) percentage and what type of riding conditions they’re best suited for.
RIDESCAPE BR (Bright) – VLT 13%
SHIMANO’s darkest road-specific option, the new RIDESCAPE BR lens delivers glare-free riding on bright, sunny days. These lenses, which feature a mirrored gold-colored coating, make colors appear more vibrant and details sharper, while also reducing harsh road glare thanks to their 13% VLT. This reduction in eye strain improves your ability to spot subtle differences in riding surface texture (like potholes or pavement seams), letting you ride with greater confidence and comfort.
RIDESCAPE AR (All Road) – VLT 14%
This highly versatile lens, which feels much lighter than its 14% VLT rating, features a bold blue multi-layer mirror coating and is designed for a wide range of riding surfaces and light conditions. From sunny days on smooth tarmac to overcast outings over rough gravel roads, the RIDESCAPE AR provides a clear view so you can ride further and faster without hesitation.
RIDESCAPE TR (Trail) – VLT 38%
With its lighter tint, these off-road-tuned lenses sharpen visual awareness, letting you more quickly react to rocks, roots, ruts and whatever else the trail throws at you. Additionally the 38% VLT helps reduce glare from quick bursts of sunlight encountered when riding in and out of shade along forested singletrack.
Along with the three new lens options, SHIMANO’s RIDESCAPE collection includes an additional five carryover cycling-specific lenses, each designed to provide high performance and high value.
RIDESCAPE RD (Road):SHIMANO’s most popular on-road lens with 22% VLT performs across a wide array of light conditions.
RIDESCAPE CL (Cloudy):This mirror-coated spare lens with 82% VLT is ideal for low-light outings, when sunshine is at a minimum.
RIDESCAPE HC (High Contrast):Tuned for general-purpose daylight riding, this contrast boosting lens with 13% VLT filters out harsh asphalt glare and sharpens surface details.
Photochromic Gray:With a 17% to 85% VLT range and rapid 8-second light-to-dark transition time, these adaptive lenses automatically change visible light transmission percentage when exposed to different levels of UV light, allowing them to be used in nearly all light conditions.
PC Clear:Another spare lens-only option, SHIMANO’s clearest lens has a 90.7% VLT and is the optimal choice for riding at night.
Whichever lens you choose, you’ll experience the benefits of laser sharp optics thanks to SHIMANO’s use of an ultra-clear, lightweight polyamide substrate that has a low refractive index (the lower the index the higher the visual clarity), and high Abbe value, a measure of chromatic aberration (the colored fringes around an image that cause blurriness). The higher the Abbe value the clearer the image appears.
SHIMANO RIDESCAPE lenses also feature hydrophobic coating on the outer and inner lens surface to increase water-repellency and keep lenses free from dust, oil, and dirt. This helps them stay cleaner longer and makes them easier to maintain. That’s combined with an anti-scratch coating applied to the outer and inner lens surface.
And no matter which lens is right for when, where, and how you ride, SHIMANO’s great-fitting RIDESCAPE Eyewear line-up delivers lightweight all-day comfort and protection. They shield your eyes thanks to UV400 sun protection and a wide field-of-view single lens design that when paired with our rimless or minimalist frames, narrows the gap between the face and lens to reduce wind and dust intrusion.
Our wide array of RIDESCAPE Eyewear frames come in a variety of appealing styles and bold colors, and feature shorter temple lengths that fit seamlessly with an expansive range of helmets. All our frames also use flexible yet durable Rilsan Clear G850 Rnew bio-based polyamide to further improve on-face comfort and reduce environmental impact.
Add it all up and it’s easy to see that SHIMANO RIDESCAPE Eyewear delivers a clear performance and value advantage, letting you be at your best no matter where or when you ride.
