Ekoi Guerra Sunglasses Review

Simon Tuck

Review of Ekoi Guerra Sunglasses with photochromatic lenses.

These half frame, deep lensed cycling glasses come sold as the preferred choice of French Pro cyclist Nacer Bouhanni. They will also be used by Team Quickstep in the 2017 season. You too can use the same glasses as your heroes; Tom Boonen, Marcel Kittel, Niki Terpstra, Dan Martin, Phillipe Gilbert, Luis Alaphilippe and Fernando Gaviria. The Ekoi Guerra Sunglasses come in a very ornate carbon fibre effect cylindrical box. It’s quite impressive but you do need to place it down carefully so it doesn’t roll away!

Marcel Kittel give the Ekoi Guerra glasses the thumbs up!

The entire frame of the Guerra Sunglasses can be customised just like most of Ekoi’s range of sunglasses, clothing, shoes and helmets. The ones I’ve reviewed here have a white half frame with black accents and are the same as the ones I’ve seen some Quickstep riders wearing. Feel free to choose whatever mix of colours you want from the website to match your kit, obviously, it looks like you can even have different colours on each side for the that asymmetrical look. I was quite happy with the subtle white and black ones.

The Guerras come with a novel round case

The photochromatic lenses on the test pair are category 1-2 and are 100% UV rated. They come with a CE transfer on the front which is removable, but is an assurance that these glasses won’t let harmful UV rays damage your eyes. The lens and frame are made from polycarbonate which has high UV, chemical and scratch resistance; these glasses should cope with a bit of abuse. You can buy parts separately if you wish to have different colours, or in the event of damage. There are other lenses available in a cat 3 tint, which is darker than the one on test. You can also choose from a good selection of colours – red, black, blue or green.

Perfect for the mid-ride coffee pose

Ekoi also sell optical inserts so you can use prescription lenses with these sunglasses. The photochromatic lenses on test were great for the low winter sun. I was very impressed with the physical size of the lenses, they have great wraparound protection. In use I never thought twice about the logo on the lenses, it really is at the far reaches of your vision and even with my great peripheral vision it wasn’t a problem. The lenses swap out quickly by turning the tab at the front, at the top of the nose piece. There’s a video below.

The arms can be bent for a custom fit

There’s 6 vents at the top of the frame. With the impressive coverage of the lenses you need good venting. Although I can’t vouch for their performance in the Summer heat because it’s still barely above freezing, they don’t fog up in the cold when you’re on the move. Most glasses fog a little bit when you stop but the Guerras cleared quickly once on the move again.

Six vents across the top help keep fogging to a minimum

The arms of the glasses are nice and tight just as I thought when I first tried them on. In fact, they were too tight and I found with my winter skull cap on, the glasses wanted to push back off my face. But, then I found that if I bent the plastic ends of the arms of the glasses inwards it changed the whole way the glasses sat on my face! They were no longer painfully tight and they didn’t push back off my face. I noticed that the guy in the lens swapping video below also bends the arms of the glasses. The nose piece is also adjustable and these features enable you to get a good, comfortable fit.

I like the idea of being able to change the colours of the frame to suit my bike, my mood, or my team kit. These glasses are great value for money in that respect. Other glasses in this price range may have similar features but they definitely won’t have such a choice of colours. They’re comfortable and have good venting and adjustability. The lenses provide great coverage to protect your eyes from both debris and the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. It’s also quick to pop the lenses out for swapping with a different colour or just for cleaning.

Ekoi

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