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Oakley Crowbar MX goggles
James - 10th February 2006
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Winter seems to be a year-round thing at this time in the seasons, it never ends. In fact since Christmas its actually got colder. All this is just part of living in Britain.
The only problem is it covers the tracks in mud. Now dont get me wrong I love the mud, given a choice i'd rather ride some tracks in the mud rather than hardpacked dirt, it just makes it that little bit more sketchy, makes you think twice about taking that line, and whoosh the back end is sliding around straight away.
What isnt fun is riding blind. You've got that mega rooty open section at Hopton, halfway down, on the cranks and whoosh, a big clod of mud blinds me. Grab the anchors and just hope for the best while I try to wipe the mud off my face.
Theres a lot of goggles on the market, they all claim to do this and that. Do we need replaceable foam? I dont know, perhaps we do. Theres plenty of styles out there too, 'cos lets be honest, we always look at the design and colour options before we buy anything!
Oakley released the Crowbar MX goggle last year, with a radical design change over the old O-Frame goggles.
Opinions are out over this one, I quite like the stormtrooper-esque looks of the white goggles, and its always good to have something a little different on the uplift truck. So why did I choose them over other eyewear on the market? Oakley are renowned for producing some of the best sunglasses money could buy (a lot of money, admittedly), and their warranty services are amongst the best around, seems reason enough to me?
Some goggles you'll buy will just come with a simple strap, the strap on the Oakleys comes with rubber lines along the length of it, which basically grip your helmet. And they do work, I did a few runs of Bringewood with the goggles facing backwards, to see what the difference was using normal vision and they didnt slip at all. Neither will they when they're slotted into the gap on your helmet. My goggles slipped into the gap of a 661 Bravo without hassle, and a D2 will be fine. Another new feature would be how the strap connects to the body of the goggles, instead of simply clipping at the side, they connect to a flexible arm which means that the pressure pulling against your face is more even, and therefore they wont move as easily as other offerings.
Any goggles will steam up when they have no air flow, and these are no different. However even moving at walking pace cleared the lense straight away, and I've had no problems. The quality of the lense itself is also brilliant, even after catching it in branches on the uplift truck, it still has no scratches.
They also have a tear off system, they will come in laminated sheets of 7 tear offs, however I found it better to just peel one off and use that, then give it a good wipe when it gets a bit mucky (the rich amongst you can throw them away ;o) ) just make sure that its secured to the posts on the lense properly, because I managed to put it on wrong and it came off on one side!
All in all the Crowbars are a quality pair of goggles (is it a pair?), and with a wide range of lense options (clear, blue, mirrored etc) you cant go wrong. I dont think you'll ever go wrong with a set, they certainly dont feel weak to my hamfisted mitts, and with a huge range of colours, I dont the stylish ones amongst us will feel restricted. Simply put, the quality we'd expect from Oakley. Dont take my word for it - Cedric Gracia has been wearing Crowbars all last season!
The goggles are priced at £39.95, and are available from Fuel Racing, just tell them we sent you!
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