I run with a smoked/tinted faceshield during most of my daytime riding. A lot of my riding takes me into areas with twisties and tall redwood trees, which throws bright spots mixed with shadows on the roadway. I was driving my car the other day with my polarized sunglasses, and was able to see much better from the light-to-dark areas.

My thinking now is it is better to ride 100% of the time with a clear shield and a good pair of sunglasses, and not do the Darth Vader method.

Or, does someone offer polarized tinted faceshields?

Seriously, a week ago I was on my usual route under the same conditions. A particular road I ride a lot has fun curves where you can go pretty damn fast - 70mph on most curves for several miles. The road then does a straight bit under bright sunlight, then into a dark sharp curve where you have to reduce speed to 45 - and again, you cannot see the curve until you are in it, so it's scary if you come in too hot.

I hit that curve, got into the shaded area and I see someone's wrecked, almost totalled sport bike leaning up against a fence - obviously someone who didn't make that turn and almost certainly the sun was a factor. (It was just the bike, so I surmise he was coming back to retrieve it later).

* Last updated by: OpenRoad on 2/2/2014 @ 1:47 AM *

The strobe light effect you get when going through the trees often makes me wonder the same thing. Suddenly, it's like you're riding through a disco hall.

my 2 cents is always rock a clear and wear sunglasses, it works 10 times better and when the sun goes down just put the sunglasses in a pocket and your ready, no extra shield to carry, anyway thats just how I like to do it.

I have not seen a polorized face shield yet or even a polorized internal shield visor (for helmets that have those). I have read that there is some sort of rainbow distortion effect when wearing polorized glasses under a helmets face shield. Found a polorized overlay that was originally made for snowmobile helmets :

polorized sun shield

A good (yet expensive) alternative to both options is a transition (photochromic) face shield that'll darken in the sunlight, might not work for small areas of shadows though.

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/shoei-cw-1-photochromic-pinlock-ready-face-shield

I have it even worse. I wear glasses and a dark shield. I found when I wear sunglasses,( I use clip ons) then I have 3 levels of plastic in front of my eyes all of which throw glare when looking into the sun. Some times I feel like I am just guessing which way the road goes when I hit the shadows. I wear just my glasses and a smoke shield now. Works ok for me.

Mad

I've noticed that a dark smoke sunglass lenses and face shields seem to narrow the range of tones that are perceivable. When the sun is low, it is impossible to see into the shadows and when you get there, it takes a couple seconds for the eyes yo begin to adjust. Everything looks very black. The poser in me always liked the mysterious appearance of a dark smoke shield but as I grow out of that faze, I think a yellow shield may be something worth investigating.

I have an iridium shield I ride with most of the time, but there's always a clear shield in the tankbag for low-light occasions or rain. Always used to wear sunglasses under a clear shield, but now that i need prescription glasses for clear distance vision, I rarely use the sunglasses. Had some photo-sensitive lenses in the glasses, but they wouldn't change while driving due to the anti-UV coating in all car windshields these days. Tree strobing when the sun is low is something you can't deal with any other way than just slowing down.

I've been using an amber shield for years. It cuts the glare, and increases contrast and details. I used to wear contacts, and didn't need sunglasses. Now that I only wear glasses, I like it even more. I wear amber clip ons in the car too.