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Bitter End Airsoft Goggles™ Review


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Just a mini-review:

 

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Got my SG1's yesterday, and I am very pleased with them. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast he worked on my goggles. I already own a pair of Wiley X Sg1's, so I only had to send in a pair of lens holders with the lenses (The piece I have popped out in the picture). I mailed the lens holders to him on Monday, and I received the finished product by Saturday. It cost me $20 USD + shipping to have the mesh installed.

 

One thing I really like about the Sg1 is it's modular configuration. The SG1 lenses easily pop out if you want to change them out, and the temples can be switched out for a goggle style strap. With the mesh conversion, I still have this modular capability. If I must, I can switch out the mesh for lenses.

 

While the mesh does effect vision slightly, it is exponentially better than fogged up goggles and I am still fully capable of sighting down my G&P ACOG. :)

 

Final Thoughts: I find these goggles to have all the positive attributes of Sg1's, while eliminating the fogging that is so characteristic of them. If I go to a site that absolutely does not allow mesh goggles, then I have my Smoke lens (with obligatory fog tech wipes) ready to switch in. A very worthwhile purchase. yaisse.gifyaisse.gif

Edited by Badly Browned
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I put in an order with some buddies for 3x Jammers and 2x Ground Zeros. They turned up exactly one week after payment ( bearing in mind he spent 3 days away from home as well) and cost the princely sum of 187 USD. The multi buy and postage discounts are awesome, so buy in bulk if you can chaps!

Anyway, I whipped out one of each eye pro and tried them on.

Jammer Pros: They look cooler due to being glasses, but at the same time are full seal. They're light, and very strong. The lenses are made of 100% pure win and hardness, and don't darken your vision a vast amount.

Cons: Without the big foam seal attachment... you lose the overwhelming majority of your eye protection from any direction other the the front. You have gaps you can stick a thumb through just below the ear stick thingies ( what the hell are they called anyway!). Not good at all! At the same time, the big foam seal things also ruin your peripheral vision. However, this may be a personal problem, as a quick few minutes with a file around the nose piece and they fit much better now. I also took away a sliver off the foam at the sides of eye, to provide a better fit. I feel lower profile foam would make the glasses fit FAR better when using them as glasses. The foam appears to be designed to provide the optimal fit when using them as goggles ( something I refuse to do, as I have big jug ears, and a black band just highlights them :D )

 

Ground Zeros Pros: Massive amount of vision available. Full seal again.

Cons: Makes my ears look big, you also look like a frakking Cylon.

 

With the Jammers, it's the foam seal that lets them down. If mesh ,to keep the peripheral vision intact, could be somehow placed at the four vulnerable points ( below and above the "ear keepy on your head sticks") they'd be awesome.

I'm going to try filling down the nose piece of the actual glasses, as I suspect they're designed for a smaller face... If I can make them sit close to my huge head, it'll eliminate the problem. We shall see! I've got acceptable results with a bit of filing and cutting on the additional seal, but as I say, I'd like more peripheral vision, so I don't particullarly want the additional seal blocking my vision!

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For me, it's mostly about safety. While I'm not keen on any loss of peripheral vision, I've found on the various pairs I've bought from BitterEnd that any reduction in peripheral vision is minor and necessary to maximize safety. When given the choice, I'll always go with some kind of strap system even if that means the side arms are still present but a strap is attached to them. Without the strap I'd be nervous that the eye protection may fall off when in motion or bounce around exposing my eyes.

 

That said, I've generally found that not all sun glasses are made to fit all faces. Often when in a supermarket, they'll have cheap sunglasses which I'll try on. Some are right for my face, some are not. The same goes for some of the goggles on the BitterEnd site.

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The Ground Zeros fit my face perfectly, in fact I'm thinking of getting a pair of those as well, simply so I've got the choice between my now perfectly fitting ( without the foam seal) pair of Jammers.

These are by no means bad. They are by all means, very good. I'm just extremely critical, as people would rather know why they SHOULDN'T buy them than why they should :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
any of you bitter end owners, whats the visibility etc like compared to the mesh on sensai masks? i find sensai masks make everything a bit too dark for my liking and i have great difficulty focusing on iron sights.

Visibility wise, the Sansei masks are about as good as it gets. The Bitter End ones are almost as good. So if the visibility on the Sanseis bother you, you probably won't like the Bitter End ones.

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Eyes can be tricked.

 

If you find the mesh on a sensei mask makes things dark there's a simple solution:- Give the inside of the mesh a light spray with silver spray paint. ;)

 

It tricks the eyes into thinking things are less dark.

Thing is, technically, if there's brighter light your retinas will contract and less less light in, thus making things even darker.

From that POV the silver paint should make things a bit worse.

 

However, psychology being what it is, if you feel good about something you're going in the right direction. I did this to mine and it felt a lot better to me.

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only thing i was thinking is with a pair of these you wouldnt have the big frame cutting out all of the precious light. lower profile frames would surely improve that problem.

the thing that really bothers me about the sensai mesh is how difficult it is to use iron sights, i have real difficulty focusing though the mesh onto those 2 points. that said i'm not keen on my AKSU's sights in general and find them a bit awkward, got a new woodland gun now though, should be a bit batter at least.

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*EDIT*

In other news, here's a gratuitous pic' of the modified SG/1s I've been using for the last 2 years.

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/_st...er/DSC_0909.jpg

Quick question Stealth... the mesh you're using... is it Sansei Mesh or some kind of ACM goggles mesh that you adapted for the SG-1s? I'm asking because after testing the ACM stuff (see pic 01, pic 02), I honestly can't recommend it to any fellow player for safety concerns.

 

only thing i was thinking is with a pair of these you wouldnt have the big frame cutting out all of the precious light. lower profile frames would surely improve that problem.

the thing that really bothers me about the sensai mesh is how difficult it is to use iron sights, i have real difficulty focusing though the mesh onto those 2 points. that said i'm not keen on my AKSU's sights in general and find them a bit awkward, got a new woodland gun now though, should be a bit batter at least.

I have less of a problem seeing the irons than I do being able to trace the BBs in flight. That said, it's a lot easier to do with this type of mesh than the Army of Two Masks' mesh.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a side note here, Bitterend is a great guy, both in person and over the web. Only good things to report when dealing with him. I picked up a pair of his "ground zero" goggles at my last OP, and I've been very satisfied with them so far.

 

Cheers!

 

- CapaciousZepher

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Quick question Stealth... the mesh you're using... is it Sansei Mesh or some kind of ACM goggles mesh that you adapted for the SG-1s?

 

TBH, the mesh in my glasses came from, ummm, an old spot-light shade. It's steel mesh rather than aluminium.

In its defence, I reckon alu' mesh would be OK in smaller lenses such as the SG1s.

Because the lenses are so much smaller, the mesh is held far more ridgidly so there's less potential for it to bend and fail.

 

The stuff that gives me the heeby-jeebies is the woven mesh. I worry that BB strikes could deform it and cause it to come unwoven enough that a BB could get through.

If the edges of that stuff aren't secured, it's only the paint that's holding some mesh together!

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Sorry if this has been covered.

 

Never used a pair of mesh goggles, but I'm wondering if they cut down on visibility at all? Seems like it would darken everything a little with less light being able to get in.

Correct. It's similar to wearing sunglasses except with a little less clarity... but with zero fogging issues.

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  • 1 month later...

Very interesting. I don't speak Tagalog so translations were done through online software. It seems that Sykes is trying pass off the BitterEnd conversion (foam inner padding and mesh) as his own. Those pics are stolen DIRECT from BitterEnd's own website!!! That REALLY infuriates me. As much as I initially liked the Sykes face mask, it quickly became extremely evident that: he had MAJOR quality control issues, that his masks could not consistently protect against 500+fps hits, the harness system sucked and didn't hold the mask securely to the face, and it was impossible to find a set of eye protection that effectively gave you a full seal. It's because of these issues that I had BitterEnd do the modifications to my mask, which it now appears Sykes is pathetically trying to pass off as his own. The last three pics in his post are even of BitterEnd himself!!!

 

I can't tell 100% from his post, but the last paragraph of his post seems to imply that BitterEnd may have copied Sykes' mask... which if that really is what Sykes is actually saying, shows how completely incompetant Sykes is, as BitterEnd is simply showing his capabilities of converting various different masks to accept his mesh, including the Sykes Face mask.

 

Personally, I would NEVER buy anything that Sykes has made ever again. I have found the few Sykes masks that have passed through my hands, including the two I still have possession of, to be sub-par and a true waste of money. I can't imagine that anything he's producing now will be that much better or more reliable than his current offerings, and from the few vendors I have spoken to, he's more interested in making a quick buck than the protection of people's faces. All these factors just leaves an icky feeling. No thanks, Sykes. If I can do any of you one favor here and now, it would be to tell you to avoid buying the Sykes Face Mask and save your money for something much more deserving.

 

 

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wow you were quite supportive of them before when I rubbished them ,you've changed your tune :rolleyes: .Indeed they are rubbish. Hows your mask coming along anyway :)

 

I understand your point. Allow me to elaborate...

 

I'm supportive of Cactus Hobby who was a US vendor for Sykes (they've since discontinued selling the Sykes Mask as I and several others have urged them to drop the mask due to poor QC). I was generally positive in opinion of the Sykes mask when I first reviewed it. My Sykes mask was decent although I did state at the time it was far from perfect. That said, I do believe that it can withstand everything it would encounter in the fields I play at. However, as I started seeing more of the Sykes Mask that others had bought in the months following my review, I realized that the QC for the Sykes mask was all over the board, and while I had been lucky, some others I knew had received lemons. The fact that there isn't any consistency in their products, compounded by a less than perfect product to begin with is their major downfall. Along those lines, I was telling another manufacturer the other day that reviewing as many products as I have, it's really hard to tell if the sample/product I have in hand is a true representation of what will actually hit the market. Sometimes the product I've received was awesome, and the consumer product sucked, sometimes it was the other way around and the sample I had was unusable whereas the consumer level product had all the kinks ironed out. You've generally got to go on factual analysis of what you have in hand and gut instinct. Which may yield accurate evaluations, but is hardly a perfect formula.

 

Looking over my original review for the mask, I still stand by what I said about it given what I had in hand. Having seen many more of them over the following months, I realized that there were more short comings beyond the ones I had initially noted. It saddens and disappoints me dearly to see the product devolve as much as it has.

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