Sunglasses

Oakley Jawbreaker

If they're good enough for Cav...

First, Oakley brought us the Jawbones. You might remember them from sitting on the chiselled, lantern-jawed face of George Hincapie, or being the shades Geraint Thomas lost during that crash in last year’s Tour de France.

But the original design has evolved and we’ve moved onto the Jawbreakers which, were developed in conjunction with Mark Cavendish and are the culmination of 100 design iterations, 27 individual parts and 9,600 hours of lab testing.

Cavendish’s influence manifests itself in the Jawbreaker’s lens – it’s huge and covers pretty much the entire field of vision, including across the bridge of the nose. When the Manx Missile launches into a sprint, he adopts a low, super-aggressive position on the bike – much lower and more aerodynamic than many of his bigger, more powerful rivals – and the shape of the Jawbreaker ensures Cavendish has clear sight of the finish line through the top of the lens.

The Jawbreakers were designed in conjunction with Mark Cavendish and are the culmination of 100 design iterations, 27 individual parts and 9,600hrs of lab testing

What’s the use for the rest of us? Judging by our experience, if you wear the Jawbreakers for any significant amount of time, you’ll soon notice the difference when switching back to a regular set of sunglasses with a smaller lens. It feels cramped, as if the glasses are restricting your view of the outside world. Which is what they are doing, really.

One of the problems with large lenses like this is fogging, but with that in mind Oakley have used multiple surge ports (we just call them vents) to ensure it doesn’t always look like you‘re riding in the mist when you’re working hard and wearing the Jawbreakers.

In the past, changing lenses on glasses with full frames has been a real pain because making a full frame that both holds the lenses securely and opens easily is a pretty tricky task.

Price: from £170
Website: Oakley

But Oakley have risen to the challenge and have introduced the Switchlock. It’s a mechanism by which the whole bottom half of the glasses pivots and allows you to slide the lens in and out with ease. It’s smart and also explains the ‘Jawbreaker’ name as you break the jaw of the glasses to remove the lens if you want to clean or change it, with a whole range of lens options available for different conditions.

Models range between £170 for the standard glasses in one of three colours, while there are options at £180, £190, £200 and £210 for various different iterations on the design with photo chromic lenses, polarised lenses and the PRIZM edition, which is Oakley’s own lens designed specifically for road cycling.

And, if you really do think you have what it takes to be the next Mark Cavendish, the Jawbreakers are also available in the CVNDSH version we’ve selected for the RCUK100.