Madison Crypto Air 3 Lens Pack sunglasses review
Product reviews
The Madison Crypto Air takes the same blueprint as the much-loved Crypto, but it ditches most of the frame in favour of a lighter and ‘airier’ build. The result is a pair of shades that are more comfortable and very adept at shifting fog, but a slippery nose piece and tricky lens changes stop it from reaching the heights of its standard range-mate. Value, however, is still mind-blowingly excellent.
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Madison Crypto Air - Technical details
The Crypto Air shares many similarities with the standard Crypto, but at first glance, it’s a half-framed pair of glasses that benefits from extra ventilation at the top of the lens.
Built for road, gravel, and mountain bike use, the Crypto Air uses an interchangeable polycarbonate lens that meets ISO 12312. The lens is clipped into a TR-90 plastic frame that has a plastic memory, so if bent, it should return to its original form. That frame is then equipped with non-slip rubber tips and a flexible nose piece, which is said to help adjust for extra venting.
As for the size, the Crypto Air comes in with a lens width of 129mm, a height of 56mm, whereas the frame is 141mm wide.
These specs come with a hard case as standard, regardless of whether you choose the single lens or the three-lens pack. We’ve got the three-lens pack on test, which gets you one tinted, one clear, and one amber lens. They’re compatible with RX inserts, too.
Madison Crypto Air - Performance
The original Madison Crypto glasses are one of the very few things to score a full five stars, and with good reason - they balanced excellent performance with exceptional value. With the Crypto Air, the brand has aimed to hit the very same marks, and for the most part, it has.
Firstly, these are a super comfortable pair of glasses. As there’s less frame, there are fewer grams, so they sit almost seamlessly on the face. Kudos to the bendy rubber arms, too, as they conform to any contours above the ear, without digging in or getting uncomfortable in any way.
Once again, coverage is excellent as the wide lens surrounds most of the field of view. It’s only at the very, very edges where the lens doesn’t reach, but you would have to be trying hard to notice those portions. The Crypto Air’s lens reaches low on the face, too, so when you’re in a more upright position on the bike, there’s nowhere where harsh summer light can reach the eyes.
That tinted lens is par for the course for a Madison pair of specs. The quality is good, albeit not as sharp as that of much pricier glasses, but then, we’re talking a fraction of the cost here. A small bugbear of mine is that the colour of the tint changes from the top to the middle to the bottom of the lens. It graduates from a cooler tint at the top, to a warmer tint in the middle and back to cool. Personally, I find this a little distracting, but it is a cost-effective way of achieving some kind of colour separation that boosts certain colours in certain areas, meaning that there’s greater clarity between the colour of the trail, foliage and the sky, highlighting what’s ahead.
Lens changes are a little tricky this time around, however. The method in which the lens is held in place is no different to other half-framed glasses, but I’ve found that the frame can fool me into thinking that the lens is secure, when really, it’s just sat in place, and has unclipped itself while I’ve been riding. Granted, lens changes won’t happen all that often, but it takes a bit of extra care to make sure the lens is secure.
Living up to its name, the Crypto Air does bring decent airflow to the party, which in turn, keeps fog away very effectively. Only on very slow, breezeless and sweaty climbs did a bit of mist coat the lens, but even the softest of winds rid the fog rather quickly.
Lastly, I’ve found the nose piece to be a little slippery, especially on a sweaty nose. Midway through descents, it’s slipped down, which isn’t ideal, but adjusting the nose piece to fit a certain way does mend this to a point.
Madison Crypto Air - Verdict
Glasses that provide such a bang for buck are very few and far between, with Madison’s own range being the Crypto Air’s competitor. With the Crypto Air, £60 buys you the glasses, the case and two additional lenses that cover all conditions. Spare lenses can be picked up for as little as £15, and if you were to opt for the clear lens option, that’ll set you back £35.
Although there’s not much between them, I did have a better time with the regular Crypto. It’s more secure on the face while bringing minimal penalties to fog and coverage. The Crypto is priced identically to the Crypto Air lineup.
Endura’s Gabbro II glasses come in at £50, and they’re a little more sophisticated in their lens tech as they get a super-hydrophobic coating and an anti-fog rear coating. There are no extra lenses with these, however, which further cements the Crypto Air’s excellent value.
One of the few glasses that compete in terms of value may well be Rockbro’s Photochromic Sunglasses. These are £36 and they use a photochromic lens. Victory Chimp’s £39 A.P.E Optics Vega Evo sunglasses then come in at £40 and get similar technologies to the Endura glasses, and they’re .99p pricier than a standard, tinted Crypto Air.
Once again, Madison has managed to hit that stellar performance-to-price ratio that few others manage to match. The Crypto Air builds on the Crypto’s foundations, making for a lightweight and comfortable pair of riding shades that provide all of the coverage you could ask for. However, they stop just short of perfection as the nosepiece gets slippery, and lens changes require an extra bit of care.
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