The Jawbones are Oakley’s latest cycling friendly sunglasses.

I’ve had mine for about 7 months and they replaced Oakley’s Half-Jacket (I think).. which I had for about a year.

I was attracted not necessarily to the aesthetics of the Jawbones, but mostly the interchangeable lens system that it promotes.

On that side of things, I think they have been a success. The light lenses that the glasses came with got me through the winter, and now I use the dark ones. If there is a rainy day, I just swap the lenses accordingly..

From a looks-perspective, the fact that half the Tour de France peloton is wearing these makes wearing them in public with cycling people a simple fit-in. They’re cool. However, leave your cycling social circle, and you could argue that they are ugly.

From a quality perspective, they have lasted well so far, and seem well-built enough, however the lenses scratch easily.

From a visibility perspective is where I’d say I’m a little disappointed though.. firstly, I have the ‘vented’ lenses, and they don’t solve the issue.. I still get fogginess when stopping particularly.. also, because of the overly closed design of the frame, my peripheral vision is not as good as it was with my previous half-open Oakleys. However, this closed design has also prevented a few bugs from entering my eyes from below the lenses! So.. I guess there is always a trade-off.

In summary, I would recommend them, but keep in mind that they are not perfect and you may not need to ‘upgrade’ if you live in a consistently sunny area (like Florida) or get annoyed at fogged up glasses.

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