For those of us who don’ t safeguard our vision, it’ s not a question of if but when our awesome motorcycle life goes away.

Story by QUINN REDEKER / Photos by KEVIN WING

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A PINGUECULA? No, it’ s not a character from a Steven King novel. It’ s a fleshy- colored bump that grows on your eye, caused by long- term exposure to sun, wind, and dust. It’ s okay, I had no idea myself when the eye doctor revealed what had been pestering my eye and distracting my on- bike focus for the last few months working motors in Ventura, California. But it made sense that as a motor cop, blasting around in a three- quarter helmet every day in the Southern California sunshine, wind, and muck, my eyes would have to suffer right along with my farmer’ s tan and sun- chapped skin. It was not only frustrating but downright scary at times, because without exceptional vision and concentration, I faced significantly increased risks while riding my motorcycle around the city doing super duper motor cop stuff.

But a contributing factor to my poor eye maintenance, and one I’ m sure you’ ve dealt with as well, was my spending loads of cash on high- quality, top- tier sunglasses only to have them get lost or destroyed in short order. In fact, it seemed that the more I spent on my sunglasses, the sooner they had to be replaced due to loss or damage. I remember buying a cool pair of Oakley’ s on a Tuesday, only to assist patrol with a combative shoplifter and have them get trampled and destroyed on the following Thursday. Then I bought some vintage Ray Ban Wayfarers at the beginning of a motor school I taught only to have them fly off my head and break into three parts during a tactical on- bike drill just one week in.

What was the solution I employed after that? You guessed it: gas station cheapos. You know the ones; they sport cool, flamed arms that give you headaches because they’ re too thick, have rubber nose pieces that melt away from your sun block, and have mirrored lenses that spontaneously pop out when you briskly turn your head to the left? Yes, all that. And to add insult to injury, I have a narrow face, so it was not uncommon for the frames to crack after a few weeks because they were too wide to fit between my face and helmet without getting substantial force applied to the bridge. The worst part? My eyes were not sufficiently protected from the sun’ s harmful rays.

Now that I’ m older and have slowed down enough to notice all the subtle signs that I did a subpar job of taking care of myself over the years, I’ ve been scrambling to make up for lost time. And that has led me to be far more scrutinizing about the sunglasses I wear when I ride. That said, my objective with this article is to get you up to speed on the knowledge and experience I’ ve gleaned surrounding wearing sunglasses specifically for motorcycle riding. Let’ s get started.

Now as I mentioned, I was the grand prize winner of a pinguecula, and a big cause turned out to be chronic UV radiation

50 / SEPTEMBER 2026 / RIDERMAGAZINE. COM