Ok, time to roll out and see what the gear could do. It was 9am on October 5th. The coolness of the air made it abundantly clear that fall was in full swing. The ride was originally slated to tour from Baldwin to Bethpage, Bethpage to Cedar Creek, and then return to Baldwin. But a last minute change had us doing an all out sprint to Babylon instead. After a few quick turns, we were cruising at a good clip down Sunrise Highway heading east. Lots of trucks and other vehicles make heavy use of Sunrise at its busier hours so our equipment would have to protect our eyes from dust and debris as well as the chilling winds.

We set up a pace line with an informal rotation with each of us taking our turn at pulling the line. First Gary pulled at about 21MPH. Then when he sank back it was my turn. It was fairly chilly out so, I wanted to build up some internal steam, so I hustled the pace up to 25MPH until we hit a traffic light. Our line had spaced out a bit but it closed back up at the light. Orville said sarcastically, "You warmed up yet?" and then he proceeded to tow the line.


We barreled down the pipe for a few miles and came to a halt at another traffic light. I said, "Fellas, any comments?"

Orville spoke up, "These glasses are light, they disappear off of your face."

Gary interjected, "This helmet is also very light and its quiet. No noise from the wind."

Hmmm, interesting. We spun on forward. Rolling deep into Massapequa where we split off of Sunrise Highway and rolled on toward Amityville. Ultimately we arrived in Babylon via what was really Old Sunrise Highway, although it changes names repeatedly along the way. One of those names being Trolley Line Road. Our pace slackened slightly as we toured some of the back roads of Babylon to the LIRR Stationhouse. Our group paused momentarily at Argyle Park Pond for a photo op. We reached our destination, the Babylon LIRR station. Where Marie (the stranded football fan) graciously joined us in a photo op of our ragged group.



It was now time to face the music. It was a fast paced haul getting to Babylon but we all knew what was going to happen next. THE HEADWIND! As is customary for Long Island riding there is no escaping a headwind throughout some portion of the ride. This headwind was cutting deeply into our 19 MPH average speed. We still held our pace line but of course it was much slower in spite of our working together. In the winds face we pushed home with only minor incident... PAIN!

Then we gathered to pool our feelings about the Rudy Project gear. Below are the first impressions of the reviewers. For the in-depth critique of each product see the full review, in the Reviews section on this site.

Initial Assessments:

The T-Rex Ferox Helmet: Well built. The materials making up the pads that sit against your head are comfortable and nicely constructed. The straps seem to be made from a high quality material that feels good strapped in around your face and neck. The helmet is light weight and the outer casing gives the appearance that a great deal of effort has gone into its design. The fit adjustment system has a good range of fit and a fine tuned adjuster allows for very customizable and easy fit.

The Rydon sunglasses: High cool factor. Nice design and appearance. Sharp looking yet low key. Very solid construction while maintaining a light weight. Feels extremely comfortable on your face. Crystal clear optical qualities and custom fit. No lense distortion in any part of the field of view.

The Ekynox SX sunglasses: Bold design, flashy and adventurous. Extremely comfortable with great wraparound eye coverage. Dialed in fit and great adjustability. Light weight and again excellent optical qualities.

The Jekyll sunglasses: Subdued, funky design. Looks sharp with solid tint lenses. Clear lenses with fade tint was not so sharp. Slim line design is sleek and works for a person with smaller eyes. Very light weight and comfortable. Lacks the adjustability of some of the other frames. Again, great optical qualities. Zero lens distortion.