I am a big pain in the ass when it comes to goggles, just ask Steve. I love wide peripheral vision and am used to that Oakley Airbrake lens clarity. Now I only have a couple days (four 30 minute motos) under my belt with the Armega’s, but I have some thoughts for you, some comparisons and some facts about 100%’s new premium goggle.
The 3D modeled lens – this is a polycarbonate material that is specifically designed to have zero optical distortion. There are no imperfections in these lenses which means you can focus on the imperfections on the track instead. Furthermore, their premium lens offering is called HiPER technology which helps contrast red/blue/green color spectrums to really enhance what you are looking at. The best way for me to summarize this is that it almost feels like polarized sunglasses – what you are looking at just seems to pop more. Part of their marketing jargon for the Armega goggle is “Ultra HD Vision” – now I’m not quite sure what to make of that slogan, but know that you might only really notice this HD vision when wearing an Armega goggle that has the HiPER lens in it. However, I am more of a clear lens guy 365 days a year.
The ventilation system they designed for the Armega is also interesting. There are two induction ports on either side of the nose guard that help force air into the frame of the goggle. This air is funneled right into the foam layers (which are perforated by the way) with the intentions of eventually reaching your face. 100% had the goal of maximizing airflow for hot days and also for the cold days – because on the cold days, the more air you have flowing inside the goggle, the less likely they are to fog up. To tie this ventilation design together, they integrated a sweat channel into the upper part of the frame. This channel forces your sweat away from the lens and out of the goggle on either side of the frame. This is something that I got to test a little last weekend, but will most likely see more results when it temps increase more.
So what exactly did my picky ass think? The Armega goggle has the clarity of the Airbrake lens and even when using 14 laminate tear offs, the clarity is so much better than that of a standard lexan lens. Most importantly the nose area of the Armega fits my big ass nose well and doesn’t leave a pinching sensation or blisters like their old goggle did. The foam is soft to the skin and absorbs sweat well, which I can appreciate on these long hot humid days we’ve been having up here in the desert. I didn’t notice much of the “channeling” yet, but am sure to test that out in the very near future. Ventilation seems to be on par with the Airbrake and taking the lens on and off is very painless. What I like about the Armega more than the Airbrake is the lack of fogging. I left the google on while just sitting in the back of the van late one night while it was raining (yes, I was bored) and the Armega didn’t fog like the Airbrake did. The Oakley goggles fog in about 60 seconds with no ventilation, but the Armega took almost four minutes for me to see any reminisce of fogging. So far I have been enjoying my time in these goggles, but will get you more of a durability report very soon.
