Review: 100% Speedlab Vision System
18 December 2013 | By AngusMcIntoshIn the depths of the UK Winter, riding becomes a little bit more tricky as conditions deteriorate. Keeping your vision clear is one of the more essential requirements for having a good day out and keeping it rubber side down.
Goggles, and the technologies on show these days, have their origins set firmly in Motocross. Traditionally the roll off system wasn't designed with mountain biking strictly in mind but you would be mad to go thinking it's not a valid option to consider when it comes to keeping your eyes on the trail.
Recently, I took another trip to Revolution Bikepark for a full weekends uplift in some less than desirable conditions. Going to Mid Wales in Winter, I was fairly sure conditions were going to be horrible for almost the entire duration of the weekend so clear vision was becoming a priority.
Step forward the 100% Speedlab Vision System.
First Impressions
I paired the Speedlab Vision System with an exsisting pair of 100% Accuri goggles. The System is essentially a lens with the built in canisters on each end, a mud flap stuck up top, to stop the water and mud dripping down behind the film, and 2 films included ready for you to simply load up and provide the 20/20 vision at the tug of a drawstring.
The mud flap deals with the problem of water run off and smearing consistently and despite it occasionally slipping from the perfect position (similar the picture above) A tug on the cord and it would sort itself.
Build quality is nothing to write home about with the lens but it fulfills a job and that's all that's required.
The Ethics of the Tear off…
I’m not an eco-warrior by any means but I do like the idea of looking after the beautiful surroundings that we get the opportunity to ride bikes in. I can’t stand the idea of pulling a tear off and leaving a strip of clear plastic in the woods that won’t ever be picked up and, most probably, will be ingested by a small animal before the 2000 years pass that it would take to decompose.
I can get my head around using tear offs in a full race scenario, while you're sprinting in the heat of battle, but I know that there will be both spectators and photographers around to pick them up. For me, pretty much anywhere else, having a roll off system where the "waste" is contained on the other side of the goggles has become my favored option.
Field of Vision
The field of vision is somewhat reduced when using roll offs from what it is using the 100% goggles in the dry. The fresh film it pulls through isn't terribly wide either, but in practice that was much less of a big deal than I initially thought it would be.
It’s not the canister encroaching from the end that’s the problem for vision, it’s more that only a 3cm wide strip is ever cleared in the middle.
As you can see from the picture above, the entire "working" area of the goggle is catered for with the speedlab system and after a small ammount of adjustment it became second nature!
Pulling through a fresh strip.
Pulling through a fresh strip of plastic with the rip cord is a little awkward for a complete roll off novice, but it’s suitably fast and easy that your hand shouldn’t have to leave the bars for too long and before you know it, you’ll be grabbing a clean strip of vision while you're in the air like Brendan Fairclough in that awesome 3 Minute Gaps segment.
Obviously as the plastic winds from one roll to another the amount of cord you need to pull varies to provide a completely clean strip but, at all points throughout the canisters life, It was never more than one complete pull to reveal a fresh strip which was something that initially concerned me.
How much does it cost?
Purely from a financial point of view roll offs are actually also vastly better value for money! With 20 tear off’s costing 8.99 which equates to 20 clear visions compared to a 6 pack of films costing just 7.99 which provide you with somewhere in the region of 150 clear strips of vision! Even when you add in the cost of the roll off lens kit costing an initial 29.99 it still doesn’t take long to pay for itself.
The Bottom line.
If clear vision is a priority both on the race track, on an uplift or for a day in the woods you can’t look much further than the 100% Speedlab Vision System paired with any one of the awesome goggles from the 100% line.
Simple, Cost effective clear vision from 100%. When paired with either the Strata, Accuri or Racecraft goggles, riding in the mud doesn’t get much better.
100% are distributed exclusively in the UK by Decade Europe.
