A question for those of you who wear glasses (I'm talking prescription)

[42906]

I wear light weight plastic lense progressives in half frames. Except for the first few days of wearing glasses ( I didn't need glasses until I was 42 ) progressives have never given me problems on or off the bike. I buy frames that come with clip on sunglasses so I don't need a second pair of prescription sunglasses.

What turned out to be a major problem for me at least are polarizing sunglasses. All the lense manufacturers polarize their sunglasses. In both my car and my bike I have found that when the sun is in front of me, the polarizing makes it impossible to read guages. Also, polarizing lenses make LCD readouts such as the K bike clock look all black. For months i thought I had a clock that was failing intermittantly when the only problem was the polarizing sunglasses. There was other weirdness such as black granite rock looking green or purple depending on the angle of the light, and white cars looked pink. It was like wearing psychodelic glasses.

The worst problem with polarizing sunglasses was that under certain conditions when looking almost at the sun, traffic disappeared. You are basically blind. On two occasions, once on the bike and once in the car, I pulled out from side streets directly in front of cross traffic I simply could not see. Both times the car drivers saved me from tragedy, and I felt like a dolt.

Now I have my optometrist order clear, unpolarized lenses for the sunglasses and he tints them on site to a neutral densitiy gray like that used in military aviation glasses. I think polarizing lenses are dangerous and should not be worn to drive. Ever.

[arsprod]

Interesting thread! I have transition, progressive bifocals and wear a modular helmet (N-103). Like someone else mentioned, the lenses don't darken because the shield doesn't allow UV rays in, just like car windows. I have a pair of custom clip-ons for my glasses that I wear on the bike plus the flip down visor in the helmet for glare.

One thing I've just started experiencing is ear ache. I just bought a set of iPlugz and apparently they put just enough pressure on the inside of my ear to push the back of it against my eyeglass temples. I gotta say, I'm stumped on this one. My glasses are Oakley's with straight temples that aren't really very thick. One solution begets another problem!

[lkchris]

Here's a question ...

For whatever reason, i.e. I wasn't paying attention, it's taken until just the past year or two for me to recognize that photogray lenses don't darken behind car windshields or helmet visors. It's not a large problem with helmet, as it's pretty easy to temporarily flip up the visor to stop filtering UV. Still, there can be long stretches.

I wear the 7-eye windsealing frames when riding and always had lenses made up in photogray, but last time went for permanent tint. Don't ride much at night, but it happens, and this is a problem. Tunnels an adventure, too.

Now finally have helmet with internal flip-down dark visor and will likely get next riding prescription in clear lens. Are the internal visors really good enough for this? Belt and suspenders would be to go back to photogray, I suppose.


PS: some trivia: Worked at national nuclear lab and of course lots of internal training on radiation. Common household items that are radioactive include coleman lantern mantles and photogray lenses. Perhaps both are by now old news, don't know.

[arsprod]

Now finally have helmet with internal flip-down dark visor and will likely get next riding prescription in clear lens. Are the internal visors really good enough for this? Belt and suspenders would be to go back to photogray, I suppose.

I find the visor on my Nolan works well but I've read about others whose visors don't come down far enough to fully cover their vision.

[Bobmws]

Interesting thread! I have transition, progressive bifocals and wear a modular helmet (N-103). Like someone else mentioned, the lenses don't darken because the shield doesn't allow UV rays in, just like car windows. I have a pair of custom clip-ons for my glasses that I wear on the bike plus the flip down visor in the helmet for glare.

One thing I've just started experiencing is ear ache. I just bought a set of iPlugz and apparently they put just enough pressure on the inside of my ear to push the back of it against my eyeglass temples. I gotta say, I'm stumped on this one. My glasses are Oakley's with straight temples that aren't really very thick. One solution begets another problem!

The interference is from your helmet, even though to pressure is on the outside of your ear, not in the canal. The following should help.
From my website:
A few words about custom earplugs and helmet use. These earplugs are a full helix design, which basically means they fill the outer ear and extend into the ear canal past the second bend, a deep mold. Helmet manufacturers make a helmet quieter by adding foam padding to isolate your ear from wind noise. If this padding causes your ear to deflect it can "rock" the earplug and cause a pressure point where the plug extends into the ear canal. This is easily remedied by pulling down the helmet liner and removing some of the foam rubber padding from around the ear area.

[arsprod]

The interference is from your helmet, even though to pressure is on the outside of your ear, not in the canal. The following should help.
From my website:
A few words about custom earplugs and helmet use. These earplugs are a full helix design, which basically means they fill the outer ear and extend into the ear canal past the second bend, a deep mold. Helmet manufacturers make a helmet quieter by adding foam padding to isolate your ear from wind noise. If this padding causes your ear to deflect it can "rock" the earplug and cause a pressure point where the plug extends into the ear canal. This is easily remedied by pulling down the helmet liner and removing some of the foam rubber padding from around the ear area.

Excellent! Thanks Bob - removing or altering pads is a lot easier and cheaper than new glasses... duh!

[PittsDriver]

It used to be the case that you couldn't get wrap prescription glasses. No more. I've got Rayban wraps that I can't tell I'm wearing. Can't see them at all. They fit fine under my C3.

[71243]

I've tried progressives,....were not dark enough for me.

For riding I have a prescription insert in Aviator goggles, they are bi-focal, and very dark. Too me it is the best,I've had them long enough that i think, I'm needing a new exam. I have clear lenses,..but seldom ride at night any longer,..just don't need to

Ron

[racer7]

Some comments from a guy who wears mild prescriptions, hs spent a lot of his professional life using precision optical instruments and has a keen appreciation for good tools. Bike used for longer runs is my 08RT and helmets are full face without built in sunscreens bhtut with gradient shields.

1) Light is important for comfort if you wear glasses a lot and starts with frame selection. After looking at many many possibilities I've setled on Mykita "James" model frames for my regular glasses and Mykita "Collection 1 Fanny" frames for my sunglasses. These are high end, ultra light, extremely rugged frames hand made in Germany. They protect lenses much better than the monofilament types I've had previously (lenses get edge chips if dropped) and have screwless spring hinges that are virtually indestructible. Mine get new lenses every couple years and the frames never need adjusting or replacement. I was a bit dubious when I bought these on my docs recommendation years ago but they have turned out to be so superior to everything else I've ever owned I recommend they to anyone who can afford them. Over their lifespan they will be cheaper than alternatives.
Both frames have fairly straight earpieces and are easily put on through the helmet eyeport and are fine in my track car and motorcycle, the former at speeds up to about 170 and the latter to about 130.

2) Lens are obviously important both for weight (comfort) and clarity of vision. I use no line trifocals obviously custom fitted for me. To keep weight lowest possible, the best material is high refractive index polycarbonate- then coated on all surfaces to reduce reflections and prevent scratches. Highest refractive index means thinnest lens in any prescrition and lower end glasses just like low end binoculars are often not anit-reflective coatd on all surfaces. I used to insist on glass lenses forclarity and scratch resistance but after a few years of using the best available polycarb types I find that plastics are now superior in all respects. Because I do a bunch of stuff on water, I prefer brown polaroid sunglasses to cut glare and these are also very good on the road. They're also trifocal and polycarb. Only disadvantage to polaroids is that gas pump screens and some lcd stuff acts as cross polarizers and is unreadable without removing sunglasses but this is more than compensated by the improved contrast and glare reduction.

Like any of my professional optical tools, you get what you pay for when you buy glasses, And the very best are a whole lot more costly than very serviceable items that can deliver 80-90% of the performance at maybe 30% of the cost. I've had both ends of the spectrum and have found from experience I prefer the best available.
Your choice and opinions might be very different. To try to compare this to something else- in binoculars I consider the high end Nikon models and Steiners, etc as the lower end of acceptable to me for serious use but have no problem spending for Swarovski or Zeiss- the best currently available with color correction and clarity that is noticeably better to me. In microscopes, there is really only one maker of top quality lenses and that's Zeiss- no Japanese or American stuff has ever been in the same league- like many I've fitted Zeiss glass to Japanese microscope bodies to get the best of both.

[amtoro]

I wear prescription sunglasses during the day; they wrap around and provide almost the same range of vision as if I didn't have them on.

At night, I wear my regular prescription glasses which doesn't sacrifice much as what I can, and want to see is almost always directly in front of me.

[gfspencer]

I wear my regular glasses with progressive lenses. The lenses aren't very big but that doesn't seem to matter. I have a pinlock face shield with various pinlock inserts. I switch out the inserts depending on conditions (clear, light tint, dark tint, yellow tint).

[tinboatcapt]

For regular day-to-day use, I wear progressive lenses. They allow me to focus close up (for reading), medium (computer use), and further (movies!). For me, they're very satisfactory.

But they don't work on a bike. The difference in focus as one moves one's head side-to-side or even up-down is disorienting. Eventually, I had made a pair of tinted glasses specifically for riding: bifocal with the top much larger segment focused at infinity, and the bottom really small segement focused for the distance from my eyes to the instruments. I set the close-up segment's top boundary to just cover the instruments when sitting on the bike.

These glasses work superbly; I actually have a similar pair (difference instrument distance and segment height) for the car.

+1
jim