vinuneuro

I got caught out yesterday and rode in the rain for the first time. I stopped being able to wear contacts many years ago, so there's no other choice for me. How do you deal with glasses getting wet in the rain?

tarwheel 

I haven't found a good solution to the problem with eyeglasses spotting and fogging up in rain. If it's not raining hard, I periodically pull over and clean my glasses with a bandana that I carry in my jersey pocket. However, if it's raining harder, I often just remove my glasses. Fortunately, I can see well enough to ride without glasses, and certainly better than I can see with glasses that are fogged and spotted from rain.

Nachoman

cycling caps help.

WalksOn2Wheels

Though some find it either dorky or pretentious (or both), I find the traditional cycling cap helps quite a bit to keep light rain off of the glasses. In a downpour, nothing really helps.

mpath

I live in the Pacific Northwest. Rain is a significant part of cycling life. One thing I did a few years ago without regret was laser eye surgery. But that being said, I still wear sunglasses or protective glasses in the rain more to prevent road debris than rain.

dabac

You can try to treat them with a water repellent chemical, make it bead kinda more concentrated.

RPK79

+1 on cycling caps

Gasser5.2

Under a helmet I presume?

RPK79

Unless you can find one big enough to go over a helmet.

79pmooney

Glasses are the worst when first wet with distinct droplets. I wipe the lenses with my finger to smear the water. In light rains, I may have to do this repeatedly but in harder rains, the flow stays in sheets and my vision isn't too bad. For daylight riding, polarized sunglasses work very well. It helps to have a clean finger for the wiping. Licking works (as long as you haven't just eaten).

Ben, an eyeglass weared forever. (I trained my blink reflex out to play ice hockey goaltender. Still don't have a reliable blink reflex I would trust my vision to. Getting scored on every time a puck hit my mask and I blinked got old.)

Carbonfiberboy 

I don't understand this thread. I don't need prescription glasses to ride a bike. OTOH, I wear cycling glasses 100% of the time I'm on a bike. I live in the PNW and ride year 'round, meaning that I ride in the rain a lot. Yes, one's glasses get wet. No, visibility through wet glasses is not as good as through dry glasses, but that's just how it is. Yes, they fog up when I stop, so I drop them down my nose and they clear up quickly. If they fog while I'm riding, I'm overdressed. No one should sweat that hard in the rain, even climbing hard. I carry a 6" square of real chamois with me all the time. It comes in especially handy to clean glasses at a lunch stop, etc.

The real problem is having to scrape ice off one's glasses with one's fingernails while riding in an ice storm. Now that's a real problem.

velociraptor

Cycling cap + RainX

mvnsnd

I find RainX helps for a ride or two. It doesn't work so well for sweat though and will need to be applied often.

Jseis 

A bit over a week ago I spent a day in a typical NW rain. I happened to be wearing those Costco special "Head" brand gloves and discovered that the fabric (despite being soaked) was pretty good at clearing the lenses with an occasional 1 finger swipe.

fastturtle

I've always cycled with my corrective glasses, and in the rain I just look harder through the droplets. If there is a lot of water I may wipe them once in a while with one finger. And yes, a cap does help in light rain.
But the worst thing rain ever did to my eyes has been when I was wearing a dirty bandana and helmet. The downpour dissolved all the salt accumulated and poured that into my eyes. It was horrible, but nothing to do with glasses.

WalksOn2Wheels

Generally speaking, sport specific sunglasses tend to have a hydrophobic coating to shed water much better than any prescription lenses I've ever had despite them insisting they have 2 different special coatings on them when I see the bill. My transitions branded RX lenses do okay, but my non-RX Oakleys shed water like crazy.

Wildrat

I've never worried about. It would have to be a torrential downpour before my sight was obscured enough to worry with it. I think it's something you get used.
Also, someone above suggested rain repellent. Some of the repellents will ruin your plastic lens. So be wary of this.

TimothyH

I just slow down a little, or a lot, depending on how well I can see.

Works most of the time, if not every time.


-Tim-

popeye

As does the Kaenon kore. Made for the water, not cheap.

cthenn

Caps actually work? If you are moving, the rain is essentially coming at you sideways, so how does it help? What I do is just hope it rains harder, so the water keeps dripping off. If it's just a light rain or mist, water tends to accumulate.

In any case, is it really that big a deal? I just wipe them with my finger. Yes, that doesn't dry them, but it moves enough water off so I can see adequately.

chaadster

I'm a lifelong eyeglass wearer and all-season cyclist of 30 years, and I've not found a bullet-proof method for dealing with rain, so "+1" to imperfect vision is something you just get used to up until the point where removing the glasses makes more sense.

That said, cap visors do help keep things manageable, and when starting out in the rain, I've even thrown on a full sized visor cap. I've had a great, ultralight Pearl Izumi cap for years which fits under a helmet comfortably, has a large, shapeabile brim, and is fully synthetic so doesn't get soaked or hold water. I think it is a runner's hat, so check a running supply store for this type of hat.

Of course, if you get caught out in the rain, you probably didn't pack a cap; at least I don't like wearing a cap, or like having to remember to always pack one out, so I migrated to visor helmets, and know have two different types which I use, a Dux Helm and a Giro Air Attack Shield.

A visor ahead of glasses makes riding in the rain much more comfortable, both because you can see better, and because it keeps your face warmer and drier.

I prefer the Giro for lighter, cooler rains because of its fixed visor; it's magnetically affixed and not something you want to futz with while riding, because it has to be held in hand and is easy to fumble. The Dux Helm has a retractable visor which is great in humid, foggy conditions and in very cold weather where fogging is an issue because with one hand, the lens can be slid up into the helmet, away from the nose and mouth, clearing fog. I even ride with lens partially retracted sometimes for this reason, still enjoying some protection and deflection of rain.

The Dux Helm would be my go-to helmet all the time where it not for a few issues, mainly poor head cooling, slight bulk and heft, lower quality lens, and annoying, non-locking strap guides. It also offers a little less eyeglass frame clearance, but either helmet will require more low-profile glasses to fit, primarily out at the temple pieces. Think wrap type frames and you'll be okay in either.

I like that the Dux Helm has a variety of lens colors for all condition use. The Giro is nice because it keeps the head drier. Both suit different conditions.

Casco's Speed Airo has been on my target list for awhile, primarily because it offers a visor which affixes at rhe leading edge of the helmet for more glasses clearance, but is attached and rotates up out of the way for venting. I imagine the position is infinitely adjustable by hand on the fly, bit I don't know. It's the priciest of the bunch, which has kept me from getting one to date.

I've used lens visor helmets since '12 or '13, and they've really improved my rain riding experience. I recommend all eyeglass wearing cyclists consider the various options in this type of helmet for not just rain, but general use as well.

CliffordK

kbarch

Don't give us that. You understand just fine, you've just figured out how to deal with it.

For my part, I've found that if conditions are such that I can't see through my glasses, they're such that I do just as well to go without them altogether (like you say, push them down my nose for a bit); it's not like I'll be blasting down a hill at 40mph and need them to keep the wind out of my eyes....

bleui

cycling cap really does make a difference for me, and no it's not pretentious

Carbonfiberboy 

I guess I just couldn't believe that everyone wouldn't figure it out on their first rain ride. As was mentioned above, wiping the lenses with gloves works great.

I've ridden in rain with my mild prescription glasses, too. They are coated and photochromic. They worked OK, except that the lenses are much smaller than those on my bike glasses. Bigger lenses better. So I'd say that if you ride in the rain a lot, get prescription cycling shades.