Boudicca

I've been riding (and living) with contact lenses up to now, but I've had problems with them recently and am falling back more and more on glasses for day-to-day life. But the glasses, expensive things with graduated lenses, don't work for the bike -- in a riding position I just peer over the top of them, which means all I see is blur.

Anyone got tips on prescription sunglasses? And do I need the expense of graduated lenses if all I'm really going to do is ride my bike? (I fear the answer is yes. How else can I read directions, or see the figures on the bike computer?)

10 Wheels

TriFocals for you...

RonH

Try these. I used them for about a year. They worked great.
I had cataract surgery this past summer and now I don't need glasses to see the road or the computer.

Boudicca

I am scary short sighted, with astigmatism to boot. Can those lenses work for something like that?

RonH

Sorry, I thought you needed glasses to see the computer clearly.

Never tried them but maybe these will work.

TomD77

The progressive lens glasses needn't be that expensive. I've used the same online group for my glasses for most of the decade that I've needed glasses. In that period I've had glasses locally that, frankly, offered nothing over or above what I get online for a fraction of the cost. My current main set is progressive, titanium flex frame, and Transitions lenses (photo reactive) that turn dark outside. Total cost for these was less than $200 though I can get the same glasses in standard lenses for less than the $100 co-pay on my insurance for the local stuff.

BTW: I find myself riding so head down that I can't see but it is my head position at fault, not the glasses. Maybe your style of glasses is contributing to the problem.

CraigB

Thanks for the link, RonH. That's the first place of its kind I've seen that offers bifocals. I may have to budget for a pair.

Paul01

I wear regular prescription sun glasses corrected for near sightedness and astigmatism from these guys
https://www.eyebuydirect.com/?SR=sr3_...FRQcnAodhHsAZw

Looigi

I wear progressive bifocals in general and also while riding. I have three; my normal pair, dark polarized sunglasses for driving and other outdoor activities, and glasses I use for riding. The riding glasses are photochromic (lightest shade). They don't get very dark, but are virtually transparent when out of the sun so can be used at day and night.

Boudicca

Those look worth exploring, although I don't know they go up to my severe shortsightedness. I wonder if they ship to Canukistan.

Let me clarify.

If I am going to ride with glasses rather than with contact lenses, I will need prescription sunglasses.

My debate is whether these prescription sunglasses need to be bifocal/progressive, and whether it's even possible.

The joys of getting older.

jdon

Tough one! Flying aircraft, I have 3 focal ranges required. I tried progressives but found they messed up peripheral vision which doesn't work for my job. I ended up going with trifocals so I could read close up and overhead, read the instruments and still see long distance out the window. They work well enough. No perfect solution I guess.

Rather than rx sunglasses, how about your regular glasses and something like the Dux-Helm?

https://www.duxhelm.com/shop/

Nightshade

Better to have a pair of prescription glasses fitted to your eyes then use a pair of "Solar Shields" to solve the sun glasses & road debris issues.

https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Shield-F...ield+fits+over

https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Shield-F...ield+fits+over

Boudicca

I have (expensive) prescription glasses, but they don't work for riding because they are fashion glasses (of sorts), so when I ride I have to raise my head painfully high or I end up looking over the top of the glasses and seeing blur. So the solar shields wouldn't work either.

Just as well. They are just soooooo ugly, not to mention the raccoon look they would create.

I guess I just have to bite the bullet and buy a second pair of prescription eyeglasses that will be my sunglasses and that will cover more of my face and are better suited for riding.

But can I get away with not having them graduated/bifocal/trifocal?

Sigh.

Looigi

That's a question only you can answer. I could get away without wearing progressives on the bike, but I much rather have them to see the computer, etc..

Boudicca

I think that's the deal.

jimmuller 

I wear prescription sunglasses and like them very much, but here's the issue. My non-sunglases are progressive. For cycling I prefer larger aviator-style lenses to give me wider coverage laterally and vertically so I can see my helmet mirror. Large aviator lenses don't do well as progressives, so I opted for my distance vision. (I nearsighted though not "fatally" so. I can ride without them if necessary, and occasionally take them off if they keep getting fogged up with rain.) That means I can't see the handlebar-mounted cyclocomputer or GPS easily. If I really needed to track distance in real-time that might be a problem, but it is really just a minor inconvenience.

Fishmonger

I always get glasses from zenni or coastal - Coastal is more expensive normally, but the first pair you only pay shipping - There's no reason to pay ridiculous prices on glasses anymore. I have a pair of sports sunglasses with different colored lenses I can switch out. I usually use yellow because I ride a lot before sunrise.

qcpmsame 

Boudicca,
I wear bifocals in both my everyday glasses and in my Rx sunglasses. I have much better luck with regular "lined" bifocals and trifocals as opposed to the progressive lens in every use. I am going to insist in going back to my trifocals next time new lens are due, I let them steer me away and I don't like the bifocals as well.

I asked my Optometrist about Rx sports sunglasses last February and he said that he wasn't carrying any of them at that time. He usually has his patients use the aviator style frames, in the larger of the lens size options, this is what I have had since 2008. They work well when I need sunglasses while riding, my frame mount mirror fits right on the left arm. I am interested in the recommendations you get from this thread, I would like to find some wrap around Rx sunglasses to prevent any unwanted insect intrusions like I have had recently. They are expensive compared to regular frames.

Best of Luck in your search, hope someone has a recommendation that suits you well.

Bill

CraigB

Maybe my eyesight is worse than I thought, but I didn't see anything about prescription lenses on the Coastal site.

Looigi

I have fairly large Ray-Ban frames I use for riding and there were no issues with progressives with them. I use a Take-a-look mirror with them too.

rm -rf

You should see this thread: My body is still ok but my eyes are going. from Feb 2012.

Since you wear contacts and non-prescription sunglasses, maybe you just need a bifocal stickon or non-prescription "reading" sunglass to go with your contacts. My eye doctor looked at my prescription and told me to get +2.0 bifocals to go with my existing distance vision glasses ( and I used stick-on bifocals, about $12)

Wraparound sunglasses are very good for bike riding, since they keep wind out of your eyes. Before I got wraparounds, my eyes would really water when it got colder in the fall and winter. They really help me.

If a large lens can't be made in bifocal, you can use stick-on bifocals. They work great, and don't fall off.

I like my Rudy Project Rydons, but they are expensive. I have interchangeable dark and clear lenses(for night riding). And I have a clip-in prescription insert. So I can get the insert re-done, and keep the different lenses as-is. I originally got a single vision insert some years ago, and later added the stick-on bifocals, trimmed way down in size, so just the handlebars are in close focus.

I wear progressive lenses when not bike riding. It took about 1 ride to get used to the bifocal blob in my vision. Now I don't notice it at all.

campngolf

I've been wearing progressives for about 5 years and just been wearing fitovers for my sunglasses. Yeah, I look like an old man, but I am over 50. Anyway, back in Feb I got prescription sunglasses and thought I'd save a few bucks so I didn't get them in progressive. I figured I'd really mostly be using them for driving as I hadn't got back into cycling yet.

What A MISTAKE. I didn't realize how much close up stuff I did with sunglasses like reading text messages, looking at the dash instrumentation, reading printed map pages, reading seed packages. So I'm looking into getting some wraparound progressive sunglasses sometime next year. I'm checking too see if the Nikes (Skylon, Show-x2, Impel) are available in my prescription. I may try them in Transitions too.

waldowales

Doesn't somebody offer stick-on reading lenses for sun glasses?

tsl

My optician dragged me kicking and screaming from lined bi- and tri-focals to progressives about two years ago. There's a thread around here somewhere where I asked about using them on the bike.

I'm also an avid reader (occupational hazard, I guess) and at work I use my middle vision a lot. I'm very myopic (-6.something diopters) and have quite a bit of astigmatism too (I don't recall the numbers).

What I learned is that every progressive lens has a different "lens map", that is, where and how the prescription changes across the face of the lens. No two makes and models are alike. They all make the compromise differently.

With that in mind, my optician directed me to Seiko Surmount lenses for my everyday glasses. They have a wider and taller "corridor"--the reading and middle-vision area. They don't do quite so well at distance, but for work and reading, it doesn't matter greatly. When cycling with them, I can't make out street signs very well.

My cycling glasses (new lenses in the frames in my avatar) are Carl Zeiss GT2, in polarized. These lenses give me the best distance vision I've ever had in any lens in my life. The astigmatism error induced by the progressive nature of the lens is minimal at distance. In other words, for distance vision I don't have to point my nose. The reading area is fine for the cyclometer and most paperback novels, but at my computer with a pair of 24" wide-screen monitors, I have to point my nose a lot more than with the Surmounts.

I don't think I'd be happy with either lens if their roles were reversed. (For the record, they were made to the same prescription, the same eye measurements, and at the same lab.) And who knows what I'd think of the myriad other progressives available.

I also don't think I'd be happy with one or the other of them, and then using clip-ons or fit-overs. For me, the extra expense of two different top-quality lenses--each optimized for their primary role--is worth it in the "joy of seeing" value alone.

I tell the story to make the point that all progressive lenses are not created equal. It pays to have as thorough a discussion with your optician as it does with your eye doc.

tsl

Check your glasses, and go back up a couple of posts to rm -rf's post. It was completely about stick-on reading lenses.