chefisaac

I have been loving the commutes so much. Its like a double workout in one day!

I have not ridden much in the rain this winter because, well, there has not been much rain at all. So I had a meeting this whole week in another part of town and I rode the route on monday and did pretty well with the exception of getting lost on the way home. But Tuesday morning was raining. I wear clear safety glasses a lot of the time but when it rains, I have a hard time seeing and now that my mirror (Take A Look kind) is mounted on my glasses, that means I lose the ability to see behind me which is important on this route because there is no bike lanes. So I just toughed it out but my questions are:

- what do you do with your glasses when it rains? Do you keep wearing them and wipe them as you go or just take them off?
- How about if your mirror is connected to your glasses? You take both of them off and just go without a mirror?

thoughts?

SlimRider

Whenever there's any kind of problem, disturbance, or irritation, just remove the problem. Your undivided attention and focus should be on your environment, exclusively. The traffic, the people, the weather, obstacles, potential obstacles, the street, the trail, or the road....

....If thine right eye offends thee, pluck it out!

AdamDZ

The only thing that works for me to some degree is Jaws Spit.

There is also Cat Crap, but that doesn't work as well as Jaws Spit.

In very cold, snowy weather decent snowboarding goggles work well, if you can deal with narrow field of view, but not much of use in warm rain as the water sips through the foam and vents around your face.

I tried other types of goggles and they all fog.

Jim from Boston

For rain I wear a baseball cap under my helmet, with a longer bill than a cycling cap, and usually don't need to wipe the glasses or the mirror. With the mirror I just need to see large moving vehicles, so I can tolerate some obscuration on it.

Snow is usually not a problem, but a "wintry mix" is the worst, and then I often do need to wipe the glasses with my finger every couple of miles or so.

chefisaac

I guess the question is what others do. Take off their glasses when it rains? The issue would be easier if the mirror was not attached to the glasses. I tried to attach it to the visor but I have it bent in a way that it fits my glasses. Perhaps another mirror on my visor that I can put on when it rains will help. The issue is that I needed to mirror to see the traffic behind me but had trouble with the glasses seeing in front of me.

chefisaac

Good suggestion Jim.

Adam: I have goggles for the really windy and cold days but have no needed them in the rain. I think the solution, for me, is to get a second mirror that I can attach to the visor of my helmet only when it rains. Then I can still see behind me and have the glasses off. Even though the mirror sorta sucks on the visor (for me at least), it is better then nothing.

tarwheel 

I have a Zefal strap-on mirror that you can easily attach or remove from a bike, typically the handlebars. That might be an option. Like you, I need to wear glasses but they are useless when it's raining. If my visibility gets impaired, I take off my glasses because I can see better without them than when they are fogged and spotted up from rain.

tsl

I've worn glasses for over 45 years. My vision is such that I don't have the choice of removing them just because it's raining.

I've learned that there are two parts of our visual system--optical and mental processing. I've needed to train the mental half for those times when the optical half is compromised.

Our first reaction to raindrops on the glasses is to look at them. Then we wish they weren't there so we could see what we saw before. As long as our mental focus is on the annoying raindrops, we can't see past them. It's a forest for the trees matter.

But raindrops don't cover the whole lens. Ever. Optically, rather than try to look through the raindrops, I look through the parts of the lens where they are not. Mentally this means I take my focus off the annoyance and put it on the parts I can see. I don't even have to move my eyeballs to do this. I shift my mental focus around the visual picture to get at what I need. It's the brain equivalent of lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness.

There's also the matter how much acuity do you actually need in order to navigate safely. When things blur together, I can still tell them apart based on color and contrast. (I'm hoping no1mad, who is legally blind but rides his bike anyway, will chime in here.)

Do I need to be able to identify the make, model, and year of the vehicles I encounter? No. All I need to know is that the big thing that's moving is either a) safely out of my way, or b) on an intercept course. It doesn't matter what color it is, the shape, the plate number, or who is behind the wheel and whether or not they're texting. I can take action simply because it's a big thing heading for me.

Can I discern whether there's a stick in the road or not? Yes. But I can't tell you what kind of tree it came off. I don't need to. It's a stick. I don't want it in my spokes or drivetrain, so I go around it. Can I see gravel? Sometimes. Does it matter? No. Can I see glass? No. The road itself becomes shiny sparkly in the lights in the rain. Not a glasses issue at all.

So see what I mean? Just because I can't see the same way as when the glasses are dry, doesn't mean I can't see. I just see differently. I have to use my brain to compensate.

Same thing for the mirror. Have you ever worried about these very same things with regard to your outside car mirrors? Is there even a forum where you'd ask, "My outside mirrors get raindrops on them, what can I do?" Probably not.

You drive the car anyway, and use the mirrors, just working with what you can see. I do the same with my mirror. I've never been able to use a glasses or helmet mounted mirror. Apparently I'm not coordinated enough to figure it out. My bar mirror gets pretty wet in the rain. I deal. Again, all the information I really need is there, with or without the raindrops.

This is all something you have to train yourself to do. It's not natural. The natural reaction is the one you're having--annoyance at not being able to "see". Put the annoyance away and work with what you *do* have and suddenly, it will become clear.

chefisaac

good advice tsl! Thanks.

I would say the only thing is that, for me, I need the details. It might just be me but it was a new route and I was worried I would miss a turn or something like that. My normal route, I feel ok about it but not this route. Might just be me.

I will work on this.

sm1960

I wear a baseball hat under my helmet, the visor keeps the rain off of my glasses. A minor adjustment to the mirror and it is still functional.

KCnoobie

I am wanting to ride to work but I work strange hours. I start work at 10:15 and get off anywhere from 20:30-00:00. The commute would be around 12 miles each way. My only real reservation is the ride home. Most of the miles will be on roads with very little to no light other than the moon and stars. What headlights and tail lights do people use? I've looked at Dinotte lights but they cost a fortune! Any suggestions on good bright lights that will enable crazy four wheelers to see me?

tarwheel 

Check the Electronic forum here. There are many options these days for inexpensive LED lights that will provide more than enough lighting. You can buy LED flashlights for $15-20 that will put out 250-500 lumens with decent run times using 18650 batteries. Or you can buy self-contained lights such as the Light & Motion Urban 500 or Lezyne Super Drive for about $100-125 with the same output. Lots of great options for inexpensive but bright taillights, such as the Radbot 1000 or Planet Bike Superflash.

Keep in mind that the darker it is, the better your lights will functions. It seems counter-intuitive, but it is true.

mtalinm

I have a Specialized Air Force 3 helmet with a removable visor. I'll put the visor on when it's really sunny, or when it's raining. as long as I'm spending a fair amount of time in the drops, it does a nice job of catching the rain

tonyjaja

i also want to know what to do with glasses when it rains? i think do not riding in the rain is best

enigmaT120

I make sure to wear my contact lenses if I think it might rain. I can understand tsl's points in his post above, but my prescription is very strong, my lenses are therefore small, and water all over my glasses definitely impairs my ability to see. Dunk your glasses in water and put them on, that's how wet mine get.