Advocacy & Safety - Affordable riding eyewear

I've been using "Cudas" for riding. These are polycarbonate-lens saftey glasses that are available for under US$10, and I get them at an industrial-safety place locally. I did a quick Internet search and found a place that shows what they look like, along with many others:

http://www.empireglove-safety.com/protective_eyewear_glasses.asp

They are available locally in clear, amber, dark smoked (note: quite dark) and mirrored. Even the clear tint blocks ultraviolet, and they are good for riding on roads or trails where you need protection from bugs, as well as flying gravel, air-rifle pellets, whatever.

If you can't afford fancy name-brand glasses, see if your local safety-supply merchant has something like these. Two eyes per lifetime, maximum... make 'em last. :)

I've been useing safety glasses for riding for many years now and I wouldn't have it any other way. I spend about $20 bucks a year on glasses - it doesn't matter if I lose, scratch or break em. Good thread mechBgon.

Good idea Mech. But I have to try on the glasses before I buy them. My face is small and I have a hard time with glasses fit. Most will look just huge on my face.

I was wearing a pair of Wilson safety glasses, which look like the expensive sun glasses, the day in May that I had my accident. I credit them with keeping me from having an eye injury, as I had a scrape ~1/2 inch from my right eye. The scrape probably occured after my helmet had disintegrated, and I apparently planted my right side into the pavement. I ride with them often, and they cost under $15. They were in a Fred Meyer store, which has a hardware department. I had bought them the day of the accident.

John

What about those of us who need corrective lenses? The best price I have found for prescription safety sunglasses is $100.

Yes, the frames of one's glasses can definitely threaten or protect one's eyes in a crash. The 3cm scar across my left cheekbone was caused by the hinge of the broken-off earpiece of my glasses, as was the small scar above my right temple. $100 for protective eyewear suddenly doesn't sound bad at all ...

JohnE, good point. Have you seen any particular brands you'd consider buying? Could be useful info to other readers :)

In the collision that totaled my racing bike, I happened to be wearing a pair of my clear $7 polycarbonate Cudas, and the left lens did end up with a grind mark after the left side of my face hit the pavement (including the left temple of my helmet too).

I actually got started using the glasses as a bicycle mechanic, after being sprayed in the eye with a few too many backfiring cans of TriFlow, not to mention the occasional randomly-whipping brake or derailleur cable. When it came to using the bench grinder, I usually doubled up the Cudas with a full Huntsman face shield and tried to stand out of line with the grinding wheel. A shattering grinding wheel is Not Nice... my dad had a co-worker who lost an eye to one, and still refused to wear face protection, and later lost the other eye in the same way! :eek: :rolleyes: :confused: :( Crazy... One of my own former co-workers had his arm broken by a shattering grinding wheel, too.

For those of you who work for someone and require safety lenses on-the-job, it is possible that your employer would pay for the prescription eye wear. It surely doesn't hurt to ask. As an EHS Engineer for my workplace, I know that we do this.

John

Originally posted by sscyco
I've been useing safety glasses for riding for many years now and I wouldn't have it any other way. I spend about $20 bucks a year on glasses - it doesn't matter if I lose, scratch or break em. Good thread mechBgon.

ME TOO!!!:beer:

I saw an advert for Sunwrap, from USA Sport (www.usa-sport.com), which is located near my workplace. Since my new job includes VSP insurance for eye exams and glasses, I am going to see whether these would be covered.

Does anyone else in the forum have experience with USA-Sport? They bill Sunwrap as a "great new bicycle model in TR-90 flexi-plastic."