I tried the Giro Vanquish on a 40 minute ride immediately with my normal prescription lenses under the visor. I was so excited at the field of vision (except for the annoying logo on the lens that overlaps with the field of vision with my bike computer). I had been stung by a bee between the eyes on a 50 kph descent in traffic a week ago prompting some better protection. This definitely provides that. But…
I noticed right away that the ventilation vents in the lenses are positioned exactly in my field of vision in a normal, hands-on-pads position. This was super annoying.
Then I noticed that the incredible fit and comfort and the helmet made it center about 5 mm to the left. I guess my skull is not anatomically balanced. The effect was that the bridge of the visor (and the vents) are always slightly off. Eventually I got used to it, but so annoying. Also, the bridge of the visor makes practically zero actual contact with my nose at all, which was glorious since another thing not annoying me on my nose to deal with.
But, after a climb and later on the descent I discovered the no-joy reason that I immediately returned the helmet: ventilation caused my eyes to tear up, not even the cheap 10 dollar sunglasses that go over glasses that old people wear do that. One of the reasons I got them was to keep pollen and dust out of my eyes. My 80s Oakleys did a far better job (as I imagine the prescription Rudy’s I am ordering will as well). But despite all that air blowing around in my eyes, the lack of ventilation on the forehead (which I had gotten used to with the Aether) causes sweat to start dripping into my eyes during the descent. That has never happened with my Aether.
I’m sure I could wear a head band to manage the sweat like most baldies like me do, but I never had to with the Aether. Sure I was more aero, but I couldn’t see out my right eye. The worst part was that I also couldn’t stick my hand up their to manage the sweat drops because I knew if I did the magnets would pop loose and I’d lose the entire visor on the ground. I had just watched a pro hill climb and noticed how many of them had glasses in their helmets on the climb probably to manage the sweat during the ascents. They advertise that you can flip the visor and accomplish the same thing with this helmet, but I would never risk it. The magnets are not nearly as strong when inverted for storage and one look back at the person sucking on my wheel and that visor would catch the wind like a sail and be gone completely.
Bottom line: the helmet feels amazing and is probably a good aero option, but the visor is a wasteful gimmick that should just be completely ignored. I ended up buying the case and the other two replacement visors (from Giro, they do make replacements contrary to other reviews). I’ve already started the returns for all of it.
I look forward to a good pair of prescription, wide-angle eye shades that have a proper seal and are closer to my eyes giving better protection. I’d rather risk another bee sting directly above and between my eyes on the forehead than deal with constant stinging eye sweat on a rolling-hill 100k—especially living in NC where temperatures and humidity are crazy as early as April (today was 31C at 5pm).