J_Dada

..

Raiyn

Ten pairs of sunglass style safety glasses from Home Depot.

Coyote!

Raiyn spake truth, saying. . .

>>>Ten pairs of sunglass style safety glasses from Home Depot.

One of the best kept secrets in biking! For under $8, you can get a set of safety glasses with a choice of lens color, so you can afford clear, gray, and yellow. They seal out the air around the edges. They're even distinct enough from street shades that many folks assume you got 'em at the LBS. Home Depot/Lowe's. . .no doubt others.

LowCel 

The safety glasses are greta but if you wantlike to spend a few bucks extra check out Optic Nerve. They make some great glasses and their prices are very reasonable for a quality pair of glasses. I will be wearing them this season. I like riding in them just as well if not more than my Oakley half jackets.

C Law

I go with the cheapest nashbar has to offer with the three lenses. I'll buy a couple pair when they go on sale and nashbar offers a discount too. After about one - two months the lenses are scraped up anyway from branches, pebbles, etc...for me, no need for fancy eyewear off road.

On the road is a different story for a different forum......

Flak

I have an old pair of Oakley straight jackets that never fell off when i used to ride.

Cant beat them for comfort i dont think.

cryptid01

Full disclosure - aren't you sponsored by them? (They are nice specs, though )

I wear Oakley Racing Jackets because mtnbiker66 wears Oakleys too and he's my hero.

LowCel 

Yup, therefore isn't it pretty much my job to endorse them? Just so ya know though, if I didn't like them I wouldn't use them. I'm not going to be riding or racing with anything that I don't like unless there is actual money involved.

free_pizza

Its probably not the safest thing to do either, especially when you dont like your eyewear, or if its really un-comfortable, it could probably really distract you.

I wear smith toasters, they are lightweight, they fit really close to my eyes, and i dont feel any air coming in, plus you get 3 different colored lenses with them

dminor 

You don't have to spend that much to get something good. I personally love my Dirty Dog 'SPIN' glasses. Check them out at dirtydog.com. They're polarized and they retail for around $70. Dirty Dog is a Downunder eyewear company that makes stuff every bit as good as (if not better than) Smith or Oakley or any of those and at a lower price point. If your face is normal-to-narrow, the Spins are perfect. If your face is a bit broader (wider), check out the Buzzer. All have awesome wrap to keep the wind off your eyes.

You can purchase straight off their web site or from a dealer. They're a little hard to find in the States, because their emphasis here has been more toward water sports up until recently. Definitely check them out.

EDIT: And yes, they are one of my sponsors

Ymmie

Smith sliders. Come with 3 sets of interchangable lenses. Cost about 70-90 bucks. Or Tifosi are good as well, cheaper than Smith and come with 3 sets of lenses as well. Both are very good quality and do not move when worn.

jameyj

I got a 12 pack of Safety Glasses from Sam's Club for like $20 or something. They are very comfortable and cheap. They last just as long as a $100 pair.

bandregg

I wear Rudy Projects Raydon SX. I have a smaller face and it's nice to have something that fits right. They're also basically guaranteed for life and even lens replacement is cheap ($15). I find that most hardware safety glasses either don't come with the optical quality that I want, or the color rendition, and if they fit well then they don't breath well and they fog like crazy. No matter what, at least wear something, as one author put it, "The human body comes with eyes, two, no return or exchange."

willtsmith_nwi

Safety glasses wrap around the eyes and fog up too easily. At least they do for me. I buy cheapo i-goggs at Menards, they have enough room on the sides.

Having said that, on nite rides I use a pair of safety glasses that I've drilled lots of holes of in the peripheral areas. Nobody SELLS clear sunglasses ... go figure ? ;-)

But for the original poster, if you want good quality at a reasonable price, you could get a couple pair of NICE Tifosi sunglasses complete with multiple lenses.

willtsmith_nwi

Ohhh, there IS money involved!!!! When you get a scratched cornea, the optometrist will want to be paid for the creams and perhaps the vision correction. And if it's really nasty, the opthalolagist will want some SERIOUS cash to stitch your eye up, fill it with saline and pop it back into your skull.

Even with EXCELLENT insurance, a cheapo pair of safety glasses is still cheaper than a glass eyeball.

EJ123

How bout an all metal 300 dollor oakley

dminor 

What on earth for, other than to prove one can spend entirely too much on a pair of glasses? At that price, they should be RX and be able to stop a .30 cal. projectile.

iamthetas

Tifosi glasses have saved my eyeballs more than once, are about 1/3 of your max budget at retail($40-60, but I got some Tyrants on ebay for $25), and dont have the distortion probability of cheap safety glasses, are vented and dont slide unless you want them to. optically correct is another thing to factor in. I was a safety glasses man until I found the Tifosi Slip.
I also cant see spending all the $ on Oakleys , Smiths etc. when I am very likely to lose them or they get stolen. inexpensive glasses dont get stolen usually.

rasheed

Quote:

Originally Posted by EJ123

How bout an all metal 300 dollor oakley

no thanks. i'd rather stick to my $40 optic nerve chandoos. i'd rather spend that $300 on bike parts.

EJ123

I got to try that oakley on once They are so sweet! Hey the lenses block UV a/b/c and blue light 100%. Theyre iridium

santiago

I used to use the safety glasses until someone asked me if my smoked pair had UV protection. There was nothing on the glasses that confirmed that they did/didn't. There may have been a sticker I removed but that was long gone.

Anyway, i was due for a change and came across a set of branded Mountain Equipment Coop glasses (https://mec.ca) that are very reasonably priced and are very comfortable to use.

gurp13

Here's my take on the sunglasses question. I own three pair of Oakleys. I bought a pair of Straight Jackets back in '00. Jet black frame with gold iridium lenses. I wore them all the time. They fit great and I knew my eyes were protected. They were light and comfortable. Still are, really. I replaced the earsocks this last month, though. Last year I bought a pair of Minutes because they were marked down at the Oakley outlet to $70. They have a multi-colored frame, mostly blue and black, with a cool lens that is red, purple and blue but looks grey from the backside.

For Christmas my wife bought me a pair of Half-Jackets XLJ. These glasses have a "carbon fiber" (they just have that pattern on them) frame with gold iridium lenses. But, the cool thing is that the lenses can be popped out and replaced. So, when it's dark, I put in the clear lenses. They are great for riding. They have only fogged up when I stopped moving and I was sweating like crazy. They cost about $120 and replacement lenses cost about $40.

Why do I pay so much for glasses? Because I value my eyes. Oakley lenses are impact resistant and shatter-proof. If I'm in a crash or catch a rock in the face, I want to know that my eyes are either going to be protected or at least not endangered by the plastic on my face that's supposed to be protecting them. The last thing I'm going to be cheap about is the lenses in front of my most important sensory organ. The other thing is that since I know how much I paid for my glasses, I take care of them. I put them in a case and I keep them with me. I don't sit on them, toss them where they don't belong or leave them places.

My dad, being a little goofy, but well-intentioned, bought me a pair of those safety glasses from Home Depot. Those are great for stopping sawdust and other stuff from getting in your eyes when you're working. But, I think they are completely unsuited for long periods of time, especially riding. First, the lenses are completely distorted. They are heavy and they slide off my face easily. I don't remember the package saying anything about impact resistant or shatter proof. Maybe they were, but I doubt it. Those things are made to stop sawdust, not pebbles and branches. I like that Oakley tests their lenses against metal spikes and steel shot going 102 mph. The tests show that not only does the projectile not impact your eye but neither does any part of the frame or lens. The Half-Jackets are light, comfortable, and hardly move. I forget I'm wearing them sometimes.

So, that's why I choose to buy expensive sunglasses. I'm not trying to argue with anyone. If you choose cheap sunglasses and eye protection, more power to you. I believe you get what you pay for. I don't know how anyone who has never owned a quality pair of sunglasses can comment on them. I have owned cheap sunglasses and expensive pairs. The cheap ones always broke in half a year. If I bought a new pair of $20 glasses (which is what ANSI standard impact resistant glasses cost at Lowes) every six months since '00, you know how much money I would have spent? $200. I'm not very good with math but I know those $85 Straight Jackets have more than earned their keep. And, in 2011, when I'm still enjoying my Half-Jackets, I'll be saying the same thing. I love my Oakleys. Sure, some of their glasses are outrageously priced. I don't buy those. But, there are some that are worth every penny. I recommend the Half-Jackets (and prefer the XLJ lens). And, no, they don't sponsor me.

Flak

Wait you had the minutes AND the straight jackets? The minutes are the smallest full frame o-matter they make, and the straight jacket is the biggest. They both fit you?

I have straight jackets for my big melon (to house my giant brain ) and XX's as well, and the XX's are ALMOST too small. The minutes were a joke for me.

Oakley are the best for comfort and clarity, for my head anyway.

gurp13

Yeah, they both "fit" I guess. I mean, the Straights were just a tad large, to me, and the Minutes a bit small. So, if you mean by "fit" that both sat on my ears and covered my eyes and didn't flop around, yes, they fit. If you meant aesthetically, did they fit, then I guess. I mean, I've gotten compliments on both, so...

If you have as big a brain as you say, then it's probably much larger than mine. I never found the Straights to be that big, really. I wore them yesterday and the Minutes today. Both are comfortable. Is there some kind of standard for "fit" that I don't know? I just put the glasses on, see if I like them and if they look good. Truthfully, I always thought the Minutes were a bit small, but the price was right.

Flak

They make similar styles that are different sizes. Some are for people with narrow melons, normal melons, and big fat ones like mine.

https://oakley.com/brochures/eyewear/omatter/

Theres no right or wrong answer, if they work for you thats cool....just odd that the smallest and the biggest both fit.