Importance of eyewear
 

I should have posted this a week or so ago when it happened, but I'll do it now.

I was riding along a long and widely divided two lane road (one lane, a large divider for passing and the other lane), and there was some construction for some new offices or whatever. (For all you ann arborites, this was off Scio Church road where the Ann Arbor Ice Cube is). One of those HUGE trucks that has two large trailers and way more than 40 wheels comes up behind me. I move over to the side, expecting the worst (the best way to ensure safety :) ). It wasn't that bad, though, besides the draft. Next, the same kind of truck from the same construction site comes up behind me and I pull over to the side as far as I can without giving up the lane. This time, the truck passes me at approx. 35~45 mph - wayyyy too fast taking into account the PILE OF SAND AND HARD CRAP AND STUFF IN THE TRAILER. Before I can pull over safely (there is no sidewalk, only tall grasses to the side of the road and it has a curb), three pieces of debris hit me. One on my helmet (leaving a scratch on that 80 dollar beauty :P), one on my leg (I was wearing jeans and it hit the leg, not somewhere else thank goodness), and one on the side of my Oakley sunglasses.

That was an OMG moment. I am glad I invested in those Oakleys (they are fine with a stratch on the top of them now), as they are tight fitting and didn't fall off. Also, I know that my eyes would have been protected if I was an inch left of where I was.

Thank goodness for eyewear - and good, well fitting, and well made eyewear at that.

Kill.cactus

I took a bumblebee in the eye while riding at night last summer.

Since then, I've worn eye protection :eek:

Had a gnat get in the same eye twice last year a week apart, had to use a Q-tip to remove it. Finally learned this year to wear eye protection on EVERY ride, plus it keeps my contacts from drying out when I'm riding really fast. Feels a lot better to hear things clicking off the glasses than flying in your eye.

I forgot my sunglasses on the way to work the other morning.... got hit in the eye with a bug :eek: ... it hurt BAD, and my eye was REALLY red all day long. People thought I got punched or something! Yeah, eye protection is GOOD.

A good pratice is to keep a pair in the car for driving and a pair in your helmet, seatbag, or any point on the bike. The ones for the bike have interchangeable lenses.

I used to only where them in the daylight hours to help with the sun. But when I started riding at night and got a few objects in my eyes, I started wearing clear glasses for night riding. You're right straightedge, nothing feels better than hearing objects hitting the glasses and knowing your protected. Luckily I learned quickly and never got anything that damaged my eyes.

my avatar is pretty accurate (well, maybe not in the winter); except i use full fingered gloves.

i have a pair of glasses that have clear or dark lenses, and though they are cheap (and aren't narrow enough for me wee lil head) they're better than nothing. i've learned that having glasses that don't have a frame on the underpart is much better for visibility.

any time i meet someone who is just getting into riding/communting i not only stress getting a comfortable helmet they'll wear, but glasses for day AND night for the reasons stated above, and gloves in case you do happen to bail. (oh, as well as lights and reflective stuff, of course!)

cheers

I started wearing sunglasses in april to keep bugs out of my eyes. Since then, they've found my mouth a far more attractive place to live in. :eek:

Trucks in Michigan are required to keep their crap from flying out and are liable for damage. I'd try to get them to replace your Oakleys at least.

Anyone got a source for safety glasses that will fit over small prescription glasses and aren't butt-ugly huge goggles?

http://www.technical-gear.com/sungla...sunglasses.htm

This is only one source--there are many! I'm sure you could find something you like, and something that fits without hindering line of sight. Use a search engine and type in any variation of cycling safety glasses.

My morning commute is in the dark, and I dig my clear lenses for my glasses. Not much is worse than catching a bug in the eye on a ride home. (Although the bee in my helmet a few days ago was a close second place.)

Lab Safety Supply.
Find them at www.lss.com
Click on safety glasses to see what they carry.
Good outfit. I've purchased from them a few times.
No affiliation, just a happy customer

It's not just about debris either...
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has descended sans spectacles, and had their eyes water so badly they found it difficult to see clearly.

Having a look around there isn't much. You can get those clips ons but they are still ugly. My advice is, when the time comes around to get new prescription frames, either....

-Get a pair that comes with a matching sunglasses attachment, a lot around these days have magnetic attachments that are the same size as your frames so they don't look horrible.
-Transition lenses (These piss me off)
-Separate pair of prescription sunnies.

All in all, talk to your optomotrist, they were a great help for me. The downside is of course, as you may have noticed, they all will cost you.

As a side note, I am planning on buying these
http://www.serfasoptics.com/2006/int...les/sike.shtml
when I next go to LBS. To wear with my contacts of course.

I've no choice but to wear eye wear on the bike. I've been wearing prescribed lenses for almost 30 years now. I tried contacts once for about a year, won't go back to them. The lenses I have now are Crizal Transistions & I love them. They help me see, with out everything is blurry, they darken in sunlight & they do a great job at protecting my eyes from debris while I ride. I've had insects, sand, dirt, pebbles, etc hit them.

That's where I got a couple pair of goggles from. However, as far as I can tell, they do not state on any of their safety glasses whether or not they will fit over prescriptiong glasses.
I'm not looking for goggles, I want some safety glasses. None of those at the local stores fit over, even though my glasses are about the smallest lens, flexon frames you can buy.
Apparently people who wear glasses don't use safety glasses very much.

I'm not interested in shading. I want safety glasses. Normal glasses do not really protect your eyes very much. I want SAFETY glasses, not a bit of plastic in front of my eyeballs so I can sort of hope that a rock will be nice to me and come in along those lines instead of from the sides, top or bottom.

My optometrist does have some sports safety glasses available. They're about $400. Yeah, eyesight is worth it, but I'd rather buy some $15 safety glasses and spend the other $385 on something else.

Yeah, again, $100+. And I'm not really looking for sunglasses, just safety.

It's kind of irritating that you can find really good looking safety glasses for $15 if you're not wearing glasses under them, but as soon as you need to wear them over glasses, all you can find is stuff that would only look at home on an octogenarian in Florida, or goggles that look like you should be wearing a lab coat and pocket protector.

I mean, I don't think I'm that concerned about my appearance, but I'm also not trying to look like as big a dork as possible.

Did you look at the site? Most I saw were $30..................including ones that fit over glasses. Oh well, can't please everyone.

This is as good as you are going to get.
http://www.heavyglare.com/catalog/br...e6a17a1d2f8c0a

Check Lowe's, Home Depot, Etc. for safety glasses that fit over prescription eye wear. I paid 19.99 for 5 pair of DeWalt brand safety glasses that are light and fairly stylish.

I use them for other thing, not cycling. Should I wear them over my prescrpt glasses while riding? No you got me wondering??

After never using any for decades, I started wearing protective lenses after getting LASIK last year. Over the years when I wore no protection, I've had crap and numerous insects get caught in my eyes and I've had quite a few things bounce off my lenses since I have started wearing them. But no serious injuries.

My gut reaction is that lenses are a good thing and I switched from a helmet mounted mirror to a glasses mounted one to force myself to wear glasses always (I won't ride without a mirror)

Despite the fact that I always wear them now, there are still times when I think they may be doing more harm than good. If you ride in the dark and the rain, having water droplets while dealing with headlights greatly impairs visibility. Most of my ride is far from town so there is no ambient lighting aside from my own lights and the headlights of passing cars so I really can't see well when the lenses are covered with grime kicked up from the cars. Likewise, heavy fog is a real PITA since it makes even clear lenses opaque. This effect is even worse in the dark. Lastly, I once had a bee somehow get trapped underneath my lenses but I didn't get stung.

To those who wear prescription lenses while cycling, I'd highly recommend contacts or lasik if you can afford it. Peripheral vision is much better than with regular glasses, particularly if your prescription is strong.

I have my Lasik Pre-Op appointment thursday :)

As to safe sunglasses.

http://www.wileyx.com/EcommSuite/Pro...V&ItemCode=70*

Get 'em on ebay for under $50. Interchangeable lenses. Saves your eyes from Roadside Bombs

"I am currently on iraq and 2 days ago I got hit by an IED (OP: Improvised Explosive Device) and I have shrapnel all over my face, but nothing happen to my eyes because I was wearing wiley x, thank you for your high quality product.
SGT ZUMARAN LEONARDO
HSB 2-82 FA 1CD
APO AE 09348 "

I've done contacts, but I don't like them. For one thing I've had them freeze to my eyeballs, or freeze to my eyelashes and pop out, during extreme cold. Also even though it's pretty unlikely, contacts do increase the possibility of disease in your eyes.

Lasik is still not good enough for me. As of last time I checked, which was less than a year ago, there was still a non-trivial possibility of serious degradation of night vision, including blurriness and glare increase, and I am an amateur astronomer so I won't take any chance whatsoever in that regard.

The new technique of waveform-guided lasik looks fantastically better, but I don't think many places are doing it yet. It increases the accuracy of the correction and reduces the chances of bad outcomes by quite a bit.

Besides, apart from not being able to get cheap safety glasses, I don't mind wearing glasses in the least, and $300 every 5 years or so is a lot cheaper than lasik. In fact, during the years when I was wearing contacts instead of glasses, I always felt quite vulnerable when walking around with naked unprotected eyeballs.

I looked through their entire catalog last year and found nothing short of full-sized goggles that actually SAID it fit over glasses. I saw some stuff that looked like it might but it didn't say, and maybe they have gotten new stuff since then. I'll take another look.