Choosing between motorcycle visor types is the one decision that changes what you see on every single ride, and it is usually made in about four seconds on a product page. The tint names on a listing are marketing words, not measurements. Silver, Revo Black, Brightening Lens and Clear Blue tell you what a visor looks like from the outside, not what it does to the light reaching your eyes.
This guide ranks the seven visor types we actually stock, ordered from the most light reaching your eyes to the least. Two of them are not tints at all in the usual sense, which is part of the point. Every entry is described from our own live product data rather than from a generic tint chart, and where an option has a real limitation it is written down instead of skipped.
The short answer
- Best all-round choice: a clear visor. It passes the most light, it works at any hour, and it is the only tint you never have to plan a ride around.
- Best for changing conditions: a photochromic visor, which darkens in daylight and returns towards clear when the light drops.
- Best for flat, grey British light: a brightening lens, which is built to lift contrast rather than to cut glare.
- Hardest to live with: iridium and mirrored finishes. They look the part and they are the most restrictive option here.
- The ranking criterion: how much light each tint family lets through, most to least. Not price, not popularity, and not any rating.
How we ranked these motorcycle visor types, and what we did not measure
The order below runs from the most light transmitted to the least. That is the one attribute that applies to every option on the list, so it is the only fair way to rank them against each other.
Two honest limits on that ranking. First, we have not put a photometer to individual visors, so the order reflects how each tint family behaves as described on its own listing, not a laboratory figure we took ourselves. Second, the contrast and blue-filtering lenses are ranked on what they are designed to do to the light rather than on a transmission number.
We have deliberately left two columns out. There is no rating column, because the reviews on our product pages are imported supplier reviews rather than feedback from our own customers, and ranking on them would be inventing social proof. There is no road-legality column either, for a reason covered in full further down: the legal test is the marking on the individual visor, and we do not verify markings on individual items.
| Rank | Tint family | What it does to the light | Suits | Usable after dark? | Listings offering it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clear | Passes the most light of any option here | Any hour, any weather | Yes | 297 |
| 2 | Brightening lens | Lifts contrast in flat, low-contrast light | Overcast and dusk | Yes | Selected models |
| 3 | Light colour tints | Mild colour cast, small reduction in light | Bright but variable days | Marginal | Selected models |
| 4 | Anti-blue lens | Filters part of the blue end of the spectrum | Screen-glare sensitivity | Marginal | Selected models |
| 5 | Photochromic | Variable: near-clear indoors, darkens in UV | Rides that start or end in the dark | Yes, once faded back | 169 |
| 6 | Black and dark smoke | Large fixed reduction in light | Bright daylight only | No | 294 |
| 7 | Iridium and mirrored | Reflective coating over a dark base, least light through | Bright daylight only | No | 238 |
How to read that table
The last column counts products in our own catalogue that list that tint, taken from our product data on 31 July 2026. A single visor listing often offers several tints as options, so those columns overlap and are not meant to add up to our 647 published products. Where a tint is offered on a narrower set of models we have written “Selected models” rather than publish a count that a keyword search would overstate.
The “usable after dark” column is a question about vision, not about law. A tint that removes a large share of the available light will cost you detail on an unlit road whatever the paperwork says.
1. Clear visors: the most light, and the fewest compromises
A clear visor is the reference point for everything else on this list. It transmits more light than any other option here, which is why it is the tint that stays usable from a bright afternoon through to an unlit lane at midnight. It is also the only choice that never forces you to plan around the weather or the time you expect to get home.
The trade is glare. On a low winter sun or a wet road throwing reflections back at you, a clear visor gives you no help at all, and you end up squinting or riding with your head tilted. Riders who cover a lot of miles in bright conditions usually end up wanting something in front of a clear visor, whether that is a second visor or sunglasses underneath.
Clear is also the tint that shows every mark. Because nothing is masking the surface, fine scratches and cleaning swirls scatter light straight into your eyes, and they do it worst when you are riding towards a low sun or oncoming headlights. That is a maintenance problem rather than a design flaw, and it is fixable.
Practically, a clear visor is the one to own if you are only going to own one. It is also the sensible base for an anti-fog insert, because you are starting from the maximum available light and giving nothing away before the insert takes its share. Our clear replacement visors cover the widest set of helmet models of any tint we stock, at 297 listings. If you are unsure which one fits your lid, the visor finder narrows it by model rather than by guesswork.
2. Brightening lens: built for grey light, not for glare
A brightening lens is the least understood tint on this list, largely because the name sounds like marketing. What it is designed to do is lift contrast in flat light rather than cut the amount of light coming through, which makes it close to the opposite of a sun tint.
Flat light is the specific problem it addresses. On an overcast day, at dusk, or under a canopy of trees, the issue is rarely that there is too much light. The issue is that everything arrives at a similar brightness, so the edge of a pothole, a patch of diesel and the surrounding tarmac all read as the same grey. Anything that increases the separation between those tones gives you more warning.
The limitation is that a contrast lens is not a substitute for a dark tint when the sun is genuinely in your eyes, and it is not a substitute for a clear visor at night. It occupies a narrow, real band of conditions, and British weather serves that band up more often than most.
Because it is offered on a narrower set of helmet models than clear or smoke, this is a tint worth checking availability on before you plan around it. Search your model in the full visor catalogue and read the tint options on the listing itself. If a brightening lens is not offered for your helmet, a photochromic visor is the closer substitute of the two remaining options, because it also spends most of its life nearer the clear end.
3. Light colour tints: a small cast, a small cost
Light colour tints, sold on our listings under names such as Clear Blue, Clear Red and Clear Green, sit just below a plain clear visor in the amount of light they pass. The colour is a cast rather than a block. You notice it for the first mile and then largely stop noticing it, which is exactly what a mild tint should do.
What you get is a modest reduction in glare and a change in how certain colours separate from one another. What you give up is a slice of the available light, and the size of that slice is the whole question. On a bright day it is invisible. On a dark, wet evening it is the difference between reading a road surface and guessing at it.
These tints suit a rider whose miles are mostly daytime but not reliably sunny, and who wants something gentler than a smoke visor without going fully clear. They are a genuine middle ground rather than a compromise nobody asked for.
The honest warning is that “clear” appearing in a tint name does not make the visor clear. Clear Blue is a tinted visor with a blue cast, and it behaves like a light tint after dark, not like the clear visor its name suggests. Read the tint option on the listing rather than the word, and if you ride home in the dark, treat these as a daytime choice. Our guide to tinted visors and UK law covers where the line sits.
4. Anti-blue lens: a narrow tool with a narrow job
An anti-blue lens filters part of the blue end of the spectrum rather than dimming everything evenly. It is the most specialised option we stock, and it is the one most likely to be bought for the wrong reason.
The case for it is glare comfort. Blue light scatters more than longer wavelengths, so filtering some of it can reduce the hazy, washed-out quality of glare from wet tarmac and from oncoming lights. Riders who find bright screens and headlights particularly tiring are the ones who tend to get something from it.
The case against it is that it changes colour rendering, and you should know that before you fit one rather than discover it at a junction. Anything that removes part of the spectrum shifts how colours appear relative to each other. Most riders adapt quickly, but “most” is doing real work in that sentence, and a visor is not a good place to find out you are the exception.
Treat this as a comfort tint for a rider who already knows glare bothers them, not as a general upgrade. If you are shopping for better vision in poor light rather than more comfort in bright light, the brightening lens above is the tint aimed at your problem. As with the other specialised options, availability is model-dependent, so confirm it on your helmet’s listing before committing.
5. Photochromic visors: one visor that covers most of a day
A photochromic visor changes tint according to how much ultraviolet light hits it. It sits near clear indoors and in the dark, darkens through the middle of a bright day, and fades back as the light drops. That behaviour is why it earns its place above the fixed dark tints despite spending part of its life quite dark.
The practical appeal is that it removes the decision. You do not have to guess at 7am whether you will be riding home in daylight, and you do not have to carry a spare visor to cover being wrong. For commuters whose journeys straddle sunrise or sunset for months at a time, that is the single biggest quality-of-life improvement available in a visor.
There are two real limitations. The transition is not instant in either direction, so a tunnel or a sudden bank of trees will find you darker than you want for a short while. And because the reaction is driven by ultraviolet rather than by brightness, anything filtering UV between the sky and the visor reduces how far it darkens, which is why the effect behind a tall screen can be weaker than expected.
They also cost more than a fixed tint, which is the fair trade for buying two visors’ worth of coverage in one. We list 169 photochromic visors across the helmet models we cover, described on our listings as auto-tint for day and night. If your model is not among them, the practical alternative is a clear visor plus a dark spare, which is the same coverage split across two items.
6. Black and dark smoke: a daylight-only tool
Black and dark smoke tints remove a large, fixed share of the light. On a genuinely bright day that is exactly what you want, and there is no substitute for it when the sun sits low and directly ahead of you on a summer evening.
The word “fixed” is the whole problem. A dark tint does not know the sun has gone in, and it does not care that you are twenty minutes later than you planned. Every rider who has been caught out by this has had the same experience of arriving somewhere later than intended and riding the last stretch with the visor cracked open, which solves the light problem by creating a wind and debris problem.
Dark tints of this depth transmit too little light to be legal for road use in the UK, and that is as true at dusk as it is at midnight. They are sold widely for track days and for off-road use, and that is the context in which they make sense. If you buy one, buy it as a second visor rather than as your only one.
Used the way they are designed to be used, they are excellent. A dark visor on a bright track day is a genuinely better experience than squinting through a clear one. The mistake is treating a daylight-only tool as an all-day one, and 294 of our listings offer a smoke option precisely because it is a popular second visor rather than a popular only visor.
7. Iridium and mirrored visors: the least light, and the most planning
Iridium and mirrored visors put a reflective coating over an already dark base, which is why they finish last on a ranking ordered by light transmitted. They are also, by a distance, the best-looking option on this list, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest about why people buy them.
Iridium finishes transmit too little light to be legal for road use in the UK, and that applies day and night rather than only after dark. Our separate guide to iridium and mirrored visors sets out the position in full, and it is worth reading before you buy rather than after.
Beyond that, there is a practical point that gets less attention than it deserves. The mirrored layer is a surface coating, so it is more vulnerable to poor cleaning technique than a tint that goes through the material. Wiping a dry, gritty mirrored visor with a glove is the fastest way to ruin an expensive item, and the damage shows more than it would on a plain tint.
We stock 238 listings offering an iridium option, in finishes our listings describe with names such as Silver, Revo Silver, Revo Black, Dark Gold and Dark Blue. Bought as a track or show visor and kept alongside a clear one, they are a reasonable thing to own. Bought as a daily visor, they are the most restrictive choice on this page. Our iridium visor range lists which finishes are offered for each helmet model.
What UK law actually tests, and why no tint column can answer it
The single most common misunderstanding about visor tints is that the law works on colour. It does not. The Motor Cycles (Eye Protectors) Regulations 1999 prescribe eye protectors by reference to grades in British Standard BS 4110, and they require the protector to be marked with an approved certification mark of an approved body.
That single word, marked, is the whole test. A visor is only road legal in Great Britain if it carries the marking the regulations prescribe, which is a property of the individual item in your hands rather than of the tint name on the listing. It is also worth knowing that BS 4110 is the visor standard, while BS 6658 is a helmet standard, and listings that cite the second one for a visor are citing the wrong document.
One further detail comes up constantly and is worth stating plainly. The offence created by these regulations is non-endorsable, which is not what a good deal of second-hand advice on the subject assumes. Everything on this page describes the position in Great Britain, and the marking remains the test in every case.
The Highway Code adds the practical layer on top of the legal one. Rule 83 asks you to check before each journey that your helmet visor is clean and in good condition, and rule 84 notes that scratched or poorly fitting eye protectors can limit your view when riding, particularly in bright sunshine and the hours of darkness. That is a fair description of what a neglected visor of any tint actually does to you.
How to choose, in the order the decisions actually matter
Start with fitment, not tint. A visor that does not fit your helmet is not a visor, and the tint question is irrelevant until that is settled. Our visor finder resolves this by helmet model, which is faster and more reliable than matching by eye.
Then answer one question honestly: do you ever ride in the dark? If the answer is yes, and for most riders in Britain it is yes for a good part of the year, your primary visor needs to be clear or photochromic. Everything else on this list is then a second visor rather than a first one.
If you only ever ride in daylight and glare is your main complaint, a smoke tint is the direct answer and a light colour tint is the gentler version of it. If your complaint is the opposite, that grey days feel flat and you are missing detail on the road surface, a brightening lens is aimed precisely at that and a darker tint will make it worse.
Buy the second visor before you need it rather than after the ride that taught you why. Swapping a visor takes a couple of minutes on most modern helmets, and a spare clear visor in a bag is the cheapest insurance available against a plan that changed. Shipping is free on our orders, and delivery runs 5–10 business days, so the spare is worth ordering alongside the first rather than in a hurry.
Fogging is a separate problem, and tint does not solve it
It is worth separating two problems that get confused constantly. Tint controls how much light reaches your eyes. Fogging is condensation forming on the inside surface, and no tint choice prevents it.
A dark visor that fogs is not more usable than a clear one that fogs, and choosing a tint to address misting is solving the wrong problem. What addresses fogging is an anti-fog insert, ventilation management, and keeping the inner surface genuinely clean. We list 165 Pinlock-compatible anti-fog inserts across the models we cover.
An insert can be fitted to a tinted visor as readily as to a clear one, provided the visor is prepared for it. What matters is whether that specific visor has the pins to take an insert, which the listing states. Our guide to stopping a visor fogging compares the approaches in detail.
The other half of the job is cleaning, which is where most visors are damaged. A visor is optical equipment that lives behind a wheel throwing grit at it, and the technique matters more than the product. Our guide to cleaning a visor without scratching it covers the method that keeps any tint usable for longer.
Frequently asked questions about motorcycle visor types
Which motorcycle visor tint is best for night riding?
A clear visor, without qualification. It transmits more light than anything else on this list, and after dark the amount of light reaching your eyes is the entire question. A photochromic visor is the reasonable second choice, because it returns towards clear once the ultraviolet light drops away, though it will not be quite as clear as a dedicated clear visor.
What does UK law actually test on a visor?
The marking on the individual item. The Motor Cycles (Eye Protectors) Regulations 1999 prescribe eye protectors by grade in BS 4110 and require an approved certification mark from an approved body. Colour and tint name are not the test, which is why no honest comparison table can carry a legality column. Check the marking on the visor in your hands.
Do photochromic visors darken properly behind a screen?
Often less than you would expect. The reaction is driven by ultraviolet light rather than by how bright the day looks, so anything filtering UV between the sky and the visor reduces how far it darkens. Riders on bikes with tall screens sometimes find the effect weaker than on a naked bike, which is worth knowing before you buy.
Can I fit an anti-fog insert to a tinted visor?
Yes, provided that specific visor is built to take one. The requirement is the pins, not the tint, so a smoke or iridium visor with the correct pins accepts an insert exactly as a clear one does. The product listing states whether a given visor is prepared for an insert, and it is worth confirming before ordering the two together.
How many visors do I actually need?
Two covers almost every rider. A clear visor handles darkness, rain and anything unplanned, and a smoke or iridium visor handles bright daylight and track use. The alternative is a single photochromic visor, which covers most of that range on its own and suits riders who would rather not carry a spare or swap in a car park.
Getting the tint choice right for your helmet
The ranking on this page is deliberately ordered by light transmitted, because that is the attribute that decides whether a visor works at the hour you are actually riding. Looks are a real reason to buy a visor and we have not pretended otherwise, but they are the second question rather than the first.
Once you know which tint family suits your riding, the remaining job is matching it to your helmet model. The visor finder is the quickest way to see which of these seven tints are offered for your lid, and shipping is free on every order.