Review – Smith Ruckus – Lightweight Shield That Pivots With Your Ride

We previously reviewed the Smith Trace helmet, which gave us the chance to try out the Ruckus sunglasses with them. While other brand sunglasses will work with the Trace, sunglasses from the Smith make the best use of some of the features of the helmet. The Ruckus is billed as a do-it-all pair for the drop bar life and offers versatility through easily swappable lenses. So how did they stack up on the road and gravel?

The Ruckus is a frameless shield design. There are essentially three main parts of the frame, the lens, temples, and nose piece. The lens provides the body of the sunglasses with a brow bar that adds some rigidity to the lens. On the sides, the temples attach the PivLock connectors, which allow for seriously quick and easy transitions from one lens to the other. The only other part that needs to be transferred is the nose piece, which pops on and off pretty easily. Each Ruckus comes with the main lens, a backup rose ChromaPop lens for lower light conditions, a cleaning/storage bag, and a ballistic nylon case that holds it all. Additional lenses are available, and the brow bar can be popped off to move to any new lenses you’d purchase afterward, though they come with a black brow bar and PivLock attachment points.

We’ve mentioned the PivLock technology, so here is how it works. With the temples extended, just grab them close to where they mount on the lens and pull down. The temples will begin to unlock from the lens, and after you have rotated them about 90 degrees, you can slide them out to the outsides of the lens. To reattach the temples, line up the pin of the temple into the hole on the attachment point, push them in, and rotate the temples back up to lock them. Compared to other systems from brands like Oakley, Rudy Project, Roka, and Tifosi, it is probably the easiest we tried. No need to jam lenses into grooves, open trap doors, or flip nose pieces up and down, just pivot the temples and move the nose piece over.

The temples and frame pieces are made from TR-90, a commonly used material in sunglasses that keeps the frames light, comfortable, and durable. The temples use AutoLock hinges that snap solidly into place and stay open when not wearing them, making it easy to dock them into your helmet or put them back on with one hand. Megol temples and nose piece pads help to keep the Ruckus in place and comfortable, even during the sweatiest of workouts. The nose pieces offer some adjustment for higher and lower bridge noses by pivoting on each side with an audible click.

The lenses are made from Smith’s Carbonic polycarbonate material, providing impact protection and optical clarity. Smith also uses their ChromaPop technology, which helps to filter out certain combinations of light. While the eye can see reds, blues, and greens clearly when separated, when you mix green in with red or blue, it is harder for your eye to see. ChromaPop filters out the combinations so you see the three colors, allowing for even more clarity, natural colors, and greater definition, something you’ll really appreciate when you are bombing down a gravel road at 30 mph, dodging potholes. They block all UV rays to help protect your eyes, which is basically a given feature on just about all sunglasses these days.

Now that you know all about the glasses, here’s how we got on with them.

First off, they are made for medium to larger faces and fit what I consider to be my medium-sized head well. Coverage was right where it needed to be with a 53mm tall by 135 mm wide lens. When riding in a more aggressive position, there was plenty of height to see below the brow bar. To the side, the frameless design provided an unobstructed view, with only a little bit of light peaking in. Along the bottom, the shape of the lens followed the contour of my cheeks well, and never felt like they were hitting. Overall, fit and coverage are everything I could ask for.

When riding, the Ruckus stayed in place well. The frame tension didn’t feel like they were clamped to my head, but also never loose. During sweaty and wet rides, the Megol pads kept them locked on my nose and temples without feeling grabby or uncomfortable. Their light weight made them comfortable for all-day riding. On slow climbs, there was a little bit of fogging at times, but not as much as other framed glasses I’ve worn. The lack of frame definitely helped with ventilation. And when I wanted to dock them on a climb or off the bike, they stayed put in various helmets from different brands. I also never had an issue with them with any retention systems.

When it comes to the lenses, clarity and definition are on par with other top brands on the market. Oakley has their Prizm lenses, which I am very familiar with, and the Smith ChromaPop gives them a run for their money. The ChromaPop Black lens was great for sunny days, letting through 10% of light, which makes them their darkest lens. They were comfortable in bright sun and even in the shadows on tree-lined roads and paths. For overcast and darker rides, swapping the ChromaPop Rose lens was extremely easy, and still provided great clarity and definition. This was my go-to lens for rainy days, letting through 50% of visible light. The rose tint with the ChromaPop technology let plenty of light through, even on the tree-lined trails.

Overall, I was really impressed with the Ruckus. While they remind me of the Oakley EVZero Blades, I prefer the Ruckus for two main reasons, fit and versatility. Compared to the EVZero, the Ruckus feels more solid and stable on the head. In my opinion, the brow bar has a lot to do with this, making the lens a bit more rigid than the EVZero. The EVZero always seemed too flexible and loose, and I had problems with it bouncing a little bit on rough terrain. This we never a problem with the Ruckus. When it comes to versatility, the Ruckus has the upper hand with the PivLock temples that allow you to swap lenses. EVZeros are not made to swap lenses, meaning you’d have to spend almost $400 to cover what the Ruckus does for $199.

The Ruckus is available in a range of colors, all with ChromaPop lenses. All models include the ChromaPop Rose second lens. All combinations retail at $199, with the exception of the Photochromatic option, which comes in at $219.

• Matte black frames with Opal, Platinum Mirror, or Black lenses
• Matte Spruce with Bronze Mirror
• Matte White/Black with Black, Violet Mirror, or Red Mirror
• Black with Photochromatic Clear to Grey
• Matte Jade/Black with Green Mirror
• Get Wild (Blue/Pink) with Black
• Matte Gravy with Bronze Mirror
• Matte Black Cinder/Orange with Red Mirror

Additional lenses are available in clear, light amber, blue mirror, and all of the lenses listed above. As mentioned earlier, these additional lenses come with black brow bars and PivLock connectors.

The Smith Ruckus is a great option for someone looking for a light and solid pair of sunglasses that will easily adapt to your ride. The PivLock temples and ChromoPop lenses really make for a great pair of glasses for road, gravel, cross, or really, any kind of riding.

www.smithoptics.com