Glasses on the bike

RickSkye

Active Member
Forum Supporter
So, just been to opticians and was told that I am just about at the point of having to wear glasses when driving/riding.
Curse the aging process.
So before I get a pair of glasses for the bike I was hoping that anyone who wears glasses on a bike could enlighten me on the problems/solutions that they have found.

Do I need drinking glasses as well?
 

Lutin

Administrator
Staff member
Forum Supporter
If you've never worn glasses with a helmet before then I would suggest taking your helmet into the optician when you go and select the frames. It can be quite tricky getting the legs of the glasses over your lug 'oles whilst wearing a lid - even with a flip front.

Besides, it'll give the staff and other customers a bit of amusement.

As to your second question - yes, of course. :whistle:
 

Whealie

Wing Commander
Staff member
Forum Supporter
I have to say that I spend all winter considering contact lenses. I have not bitten the bullet yet but in town, I have to have the visor open at least part of the time. Visors can have pinlocks but your glasses still steam up. I have never found a solution to stop that.

A flip helmet is much easier, but not necessarily the cure. For years I just took my glasses off, put my helmet on and put my glasses back on. And flips are generally noisier, but that won't matter because if your eyesight is fading you're probably going deaf too.

An internal sun visor for the sun becomes important otherwise you need to change to prescription sun glasses in the summer.
 

austin

Well-Known Member
I swap between contact lenses and specs every few years as over the longer term my contacts start irritating. However as specs are a right PITA in poor weather when I am on a specs phase I usually also have some daily wear contacts** for on the bike in the cold/wet and for other outdoor activities where glasses are sub-optimal. I am about to order some new specs so I can stop wearing my long term contacts all the time. Just something else to consider.


** daily wear contacts are wear once and chuck away lenses. As such they can be made out of very thin light material that would otherwise be too fragile for regular handling. This lightness and thinness makes them very comfortable to wear and as it’s a fresh pair each time they are even better. Cost about £1 per pair.
 

Lutin

Administrator
Staff member
Forum Supporter
I've been considering contacts for the winter. The pinlock on the visor's great - but when your glaases steam up you're back to square one, as it were.

Never tried contacts before, so not sure how I'd get on with them. And I have a rather complicated prescription as well.
 

dodursley

Active Member
I have worn glasses since childhood so I also have misting up problems on my glasses on cool damp days. Can open the (fullface) visor a bit and they will generally keep clear, but it is noisy. If helmet visor opens too much to its first stop I fit a small rubber flap (bit of cut inner tube) to flip over the the bottom edge of the visor opening too keep it open 2mm (ish) which appears to be a compromise between mist and noise, but varies with helmets. First damp ride with a new helmet is a testing session.
 

soho

Well-Known Member
It's a bugger innit ? I wear prescription distance glasses with polaroid lenses (all the time). Find it to be the best option with not so much headlight glare when wet (night vision is pretty good). Beware of looking over your shoulder at high speed with your visor open , on a couple of occasions the wind has ripped my specs away. Luckily I got them back safe ! I also need reading glasses, so seeing the speedo is TOTALLY out of the question but who give a ...............
 

RickSkye

Active Member
Forum Supporter
So got hearing test coming up soon.

Currently got bifocals for car, the divide lines up with the bottom of the windscreen.
So i can focus long distance with top and spedo/satnav with bottom half.

Had a static test run on bike and seems to workish.

Misting is the main problem from what you guys have said.

Contacts? The soft ones would be good.
Hard contacts would be a bit worrying in case of an off. I know glasses may break and injure but if you actually have glass in your eye already............
 

RickSkye

Active Member
Forum Supporter
The lakes......

Yes I am very tempted. Trying to get my shit together.

The doc signed me off for 19 work days in december for stress. It was a long xmas break for me [emoji38]
So my shit needs some gathering but the lakes would seem to be an excellent diversion.
I am watching the thread.[emoji41]

Got the shrink next week, I expect she will say "on your bike". [emoji6]
 

Philwhiskeydrinker

Well-Known Member
I seem to remember someone (who was the forum member who was an optician over Leeds way?) ages ago saying that plastic/polycarbonate lenses are less prone to misting than glass errrr glasses.

I wear plastic safety glasses as I like riding with my visor or flip open but I take them off in damp, drizzly, foggy weather - I don't envy anyone that has to wear glasses.

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk
 

austin

Well-Known Member
Hard contacts are plastic but unless you have a very complex prescription that requires them you will get soft lenses, or you are real tight-arse as hard loses are a bit cheaper than soft. You can get soft lenses in a single vision lens, bifocal, varifocal, toric (astigmatism) and AFAIK any combination you like. If your prescription is changing frequently contacts allow you to keep up without having to invest in new specs every few months. The latest materials for contacts are Silicone Hydrogels that are nearly as O2 permeable as the surface of your own eye which makes for long term comfort. They are also as soft and floppy as an old man's do-dah so no more chance of damaging your eyes in an off than in glasses, probably less chance actually. I used to wear my monthly disposables for one month - day and night, bin them and put in a new pair for the next month. Great for long term travel as I only needed to carry what I needed plus a couple of spares. These lenses were super comfortable but over longer periods of time some intolerance builds up so I now remove each night and put back in again next day, nevertheless after about 5 years of more less continuous wear it is time to give my eyes some respite from contacts for a while. Anne still mostly wears hers for a month at time with no problem.

Next time you lot see me I will probably be in my new specs.
 

Dee Dub

Active Member
What a pain. I personally don't experience fogging on my glasses very often; storing them indoors in the warm helps.

I found that the sun visor in most helmets will not clear over my glasses frame, but the Shoei sun visor works fine. Shoei design the visor to go outside the main helmet shell, which puts it a few millimetres further out!
 

RickSkye

Active Member
Forum Supporter
Hard contacts are plastic but unless you have a very complex prescription that requires them you will get soft lenses, or you are real tight-arse as hard loses are a bit cheaper than soft. You can get soft lenses in a single vision lens, bifocal, varifocal, toric (astigmatism) and AFAIK any combination you like. If your prescription is changing frequently contacts allow you to keep up without having to invest in new specs every few months. The latest materials for contacts are Silicone Hydrogels that are nearly as O2 permeable as the surface of your own eye which makes for long term comfort. They are also as soft and floppy as an old man's do-dah so no more chance of damaging your eyes in an off than in glasses, probably less chance actually. I used to wear my monthly disposables for one month - day and night, bin them and put in a new pair for the next month. Great for long term travel as I only needed to carry what I needed plus a couple of spares. These lenses were super comfortable but over longer periods of time some intolerance builds up so I now remove each night and put back in again next day, nevertheless after about 5 years of more less continuous wear it is time to give my eyes some respite from contacts for a while. Anne still mostly wears hers for a month at time with no problem.

Next time you lot see me I will probably be in my new specs.
How do they make a contact lense in bi focal? But great they do.
How to keep the bifocal bit at the bottom.
 

austin

Well-Known Member
Weight it. Actually not 100% certain they do do bifocal as I have never looked into it (ha-ha). Just that my optician always says whatever can be done with specs can also be done with contacts. They deffo do varifocal lenses. Why would you want bifocal when you could have varifocal?
 

Whealie

Wing Commander
Staff member
Forum Supporter
Right you lot. I went to the optician yesterday and am getting contacts to try.

On the bifocal question I was advised not to ride a bike with that kid of lens and it does not work the same way and they might make it seem more blurred on the bike.
 

RickSkye

Active Member
Forum Supporter
Right you lot. I went to the optician yesterday and am getting contacts to try.

On the bifocal question I was advised not to ride a bike with that kid of lens and it does not work the same way and they might make it seem more blurred on the bike.
Trouble is, i need the bifocal to see the sat nav.
 
Top