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Spy Raider Review
February 21, 2017The Good
- Good fit
- Great peripheral vision
- Good lens in versatile lighting conditions
- Super-flexible frame
The Bad
- Lenses scratched easily
- Lenses fogged easily
The Spy Raider is a great goggle—the frame and lens are both very flexible so they will conform to virtually any shape face. They fogged relatively easily, and scratched easier than most. The frame size has great field of view, and they did not pinch the nose, and they sealed well with most of the helmets used.
FIELD OF VIEW
The Raider has a surprisingly large field of view—as much as the wide-angle cylindrical goggles boasted by some “oversize” goggles in this class. Our in-house test yielded a 170 degree field of view, which was among the top performers. The nose cut obstructed the view when looking down, but only slightly more than other goggles tested.
FIT & COMFORT
The soft rubber frame is not going to excite everyone, but we loved the flexibility it gave, and the goggles conformed to medium-sized faces quite well. The flexible frame made them super comfortable, and able to fit most, if not all shapes of faces. The strap was easy to adjust and the silicon on the inner strap stuck to the helmet quite well. We paired them with five different helmets, and found no major issues with a goggle gap.
ANTI-FOG POWER
No fogging occurred in the Raider while tested in the relatively dry climate of Colorado. Out of the many goggles tested, the Raider was the third to fog up in our in-house steam room test.
LENS QUALITY
We found ourselves liking the bronze with red spectra mirrored lenses on bright days. We experienced no distortion or glare, and found them to be really good even in the late afternoon after the light went flat. The only downside was the fact that these lenses scratched relatively easily, even after mild use.
FEATURES
The strap was easy to adjust and it stayed in place on and off a helmet due to the thick line of gummy silicon that goes all the way around the inside of the strap. The strap is one continuous piece, and the elastic was just stretchy enough for moving them from face to forehead without any issues. It comes with a lightweight bag for protection. The are one of the lowest-priced goggle in the class.
Leigh started skiing at 8 and converted to snowboarding soon thereafter. His first board was an original 1985 Sims Kidwell Roundtail, which he still rides on powder days. He has written articles for numerous magazines and recently published a novel. He lives and works in Denver and hits the hills on weekends with his family.