Fogged up glasses? - Not anymore
Nick Lilley, Friday, 6 March 2026
Cold weather can be the scourge of the spectacle wearing rider as some attendees on recent social rides have learnt. As soon as warm breath leaves your cosily cocooned body, condensation clings to your lenses. Over the years I’ve tried several remedies.
The simplest is to leave your visor open; just a smidgeon is usually sufficient to create a bit of airflow. However, as I’ve discovered waiting an unconscionable length of time at 4 way traffic lights, unless you are capable of holding your breath for lung bursting minutes, there’s no option but to lift your visor fully. Once, when out on a mentoring session with Jim Sampson on a particularly cold morning, (long before the 5˚C rule came in) and keen not to be handicapped by anything other than my lack of ability, I had my visor open just that bit too far. I was force fed a sub-zero gale through my nose and had frost coating the inside of my lungs. It took me the best part of a week to stop sneezing and snuffling, So, as with all things, moderation and common sense is the order of the day.
Some ten years ago, my wife was seduced by a stall holder demonstrating “Sparklebright”. He rubbed a piece of glass with the product, polished it off and held it above a steaming kettle. Triumphantly he held aloft the totally transparent piece of glass. My wife was sold and we walked away with a very small tub of the pink paste (of course it was pink, it was a craft fair). To be honest, it gave excellent results and because such miniscule quantities were applied, lasted for several years.
Having scraped the last of the pink stuff from its tiny tub, it tried washing up liquid. A drop is too much and a molecule too little, something in between is just right. Just smear it over with a fingertip and polish it off until there are no smears. It does the job both adequately and economically.
A couple of years ago I was given some Muc-Off Premium Anti-Fog Treatment. It’s supposed to last for five days although I’ve no idea if it does. However, it does the job although quite a bit dearer than Fairy Liquid. Again, one should use it sparingly on both sides of the glass and ensure all the smears are polished off.
So, there we are. Four options equally efficacious. Sparklebright and the Muc-Off spray are both available on the internet. Just remember to treat your flip-down sun visor or you could find yourself looking through tinted frosted glass.
