bakes1

I am new to the sport and have been trying to purchase only what I need for budgetary and practical reasons. I am not so restricted that I cannot purchase more accessories. I just wanted to ride awhile to get a better feel for it so I could maybe make better decisions when upgrading.
That being said, one of the items I have not purchased yet is a decent pair of glasses and after todays ride I will be getting them asap! Like before my next ride tomorrow lol.
I have read the recent threads and knew I needed a pair ofc but just didn't know how badly until I had the misfortune of riding by a landscape crew today using leaf blowers at the edge of the property near the road. Even though they saw me coming and stopped blowing towards the road, the debris already in the air was enough to damn near blind me.
Lesson learned and I hope this little piece of rookie advice helps someone else in the future

trailangel

Wait until you are out on the road and a log truck passes... you ain't seen nothin' yet.

bakes1

Hopefully I will not have to experience that in my densely populated area but good to know
Today was a real eye opener though(no pun intended lol)
I had even ridden a few times in steady rain no problem without glasses

Mindcrime

Your first bug in the eye at 20 mph is also not an experience you want sans eyewear.

MRT2

The worse is in spring when you ride through a swarm of gnats. Yuck. You don't necessarily need anything fancy. Just something to protect your eyes from water, road debris, bugs, leaves, branches, etc...And the sun. In sunny weather, inexpensive wrap around sunglasses work OK. In cloudy weather, clear lenses work well. I bought a pair of photochromatic sunglasses from Nashbar for about $25. They work well in almost all weather. On really cloudy days, I use a pair of clear protective glasses I bought on Amazon for about $10 for two pair. Gifted one for my son who rides a lot of singletrack in the woods.

highrpm

I usually wear my glasses instead of contacts. I've gotten used to them being my eye protection. Sometimes after a ride, I'll find a dead bug or some dirt/mud on my glasses or forehead. I always think that it's good I am wearing the glasses or else that could have been in my eye.

Looigi

Duh.

Ray9

I wear glasses with fit-overs on top of them. Good thing. In 2008 on a group ride some idiot forgot to tighten his front wheel quick release and lost the wheel in a double pace line at 30 mph. I did a header over his frame and face planted on the asphalt grinding both the fit-overs and the glasses nearly through the glass. I can still see today because of what I wore.

BobbyG

I wear my current or an old pair of glasses when riding (with a strap). While nothing has hit me in the eye, once in a great while something will hit me on the cheek or eyebrow. Maybe wrap-arounds are a good idea.

Leebo

Yup, cheap safety glasses for me. Bugs, dirt, rocks, mud. They work well.

pdlamb

And remember to keep a look out for those clouds so you can shut your mouth!

Mvcrash

Cycling through a gnat swarm is not fun....you can shut your mouth but not your eyes.

CliffordK

Hmmm...
And in school, some thought glasses weren't cool.

I hate to break the news to you, but dust in the air can still bother someone wearing glasses

But, perhaps there are a few things that they will keep out.

Goggles?

JanMM

Sites like SafetyGlassesUSA have a wide assortment of inexpensive glasses. I wore ten dollar tinted or clear safety glasses for several years, then cheap bifocal safety glasses, and now wear tinted Dual bifocal glasses, which are in the fifty dollar range. (My prescription progressive lens glasses don't keep the wind and bugs and bits out of my eyes.)

mightymax

I used to put my glasses on only occassionally until one ride I got hit square in my left eye by a bug. I swear it felt like I was punched and it hurt for two days. Also the watering eye and pain took awhile to subside. Now I try to wear them at all times. There have been a few more times I would have taken hits in the eye but luckily my glasses intervened. Those times the bugs/object pinged of the glasses and the hard sound it made at contact made me very glad I had them on!

Max Bryant

BikeLite

I did the Katy Trail ride recently and at one point a gnat swarm felt like somebody threw sand in my face. Luckily my prescrip glasses didn't allow any in my eyes.

HtownTREK

Road cycling withou eye protection probably not a a good idea. We were just commenting after our morning ride today how much grit was coming off the tires of passing cars and trucks. Even group rides on the shoulder will kick up a lot of grit from the bike tires in front of you. Protective eyewear will keep most of this type of debris out of your eyes.

Johnny Mullet

I ALWAYS wear some kind of eye protection when riding. Learned that very early

bakes1

I hear you about the dust thing but in my case it was more of the small debris still in the air from the powerful leaf blowers and I am thinking that most any type of glasses will keep out the bulk of that.

KZBrian

I wear contacts, and never ride without safety glasses. I prefer the "Crews Storm" from abcsafetymart.com. ~$6.00