glasses vs. contacts
 

I've worn glasses for many years but after a few rainy winters of bike commuting I'm starting to get tired of not being able to see very well when it is dark & raining. Fogged up glasses is no longer an issue, I simply pull my glasses down to the edge of my nose when I have to stop at traffic lights, then push them back when I get to go. What bothers me the most is the 10,000 tiny drops of water, each with a glare from car and street lights.

Have any of you switched to contacts just because of the issues of riding in the rain?

Were you bothered by the rain now hitting your eyes?

Was it worth it?

Did you eventually switch back to glasses?

Have any of you switched to contacts just because of the issues of riding in the rain?

I used to be a runner, and I switched because I was tired of sweat on my lenses, and my glasses slipping down my face.

Were you bothered by the rain now hitting your eyes?

I wear sunglasses when I ride, or clear lenses to keep junk from hitting my eyes.

Was it worth it?

Heck yeah.

Did you eventually switch back to glasses?

Nope. No plans to, either.

LASIK - you won't regret it. No glasses slipping down your nose. No irritated eyes from dust getting on your contact lens. No hassles with contact lens solution, cleaning, etc.

And you can wake up in the middle of the night and just SEE, without having to mess with contacts or glasses.

I wore glasses for 15 years then got Lasik. after getting some dirt blown in my eyes once or twice I wnet back to wearing glasses all the time.

When it's foggy or rainy i look over the top of the glasses. I adjust my helmet & glasses so my eyes are still pretty well proteted but I can see through the slit between glasses & helmet.

Not optimal (need wipers!) but best I've been able to do. Maybe I'll give rain-X a try... hmmm...

I researched LASIK procedures, and I'd still have to wear glasses afterwards. My eyes are just that freakin' bad.

Plus, somebody shooting me in the eye with a laser scares the poo out of me!

Almost eight years later, I still wake occasionally and think:

"I can see without my glasses".

I do wear clear lenses or sunglasses when I'm riding in the spring and summer, but when riding in the rain (and we do that a lot here) I enjoy not having to deal with the eternal wiping.

East Hill

This is the one part of riding in the rain that I really, really hate. I use a mountain bike helmet with a visor when I know it's going to rain, but when I'm caught in it and have the road bike helmet, I have a hard time seeing with my glasses getting covered in rain drops. I'm seriously considering LASIK as well. Costly though.

After a year, I still try to adjust my glasses. That was one of my poker tells taken care of.

LASIK then sunglasses.
+1

Oh Lord! It took me a couple of years to stop poking at my (non-existant) glasses. After thirty some years that was a hard habit to break :) .

East Hill

How bad are your eyes? A former friend had his done back in '98 or '99 - he started out with -9.5 in one eye and -9.75 in the other, and now has 20/20 vision, even after 8 years. It can also handle astigmatism, but it depends on the type. Shooting the laser into my eye wasn't what scared me - it was the blade cutting across my cornea. ewwww...

I was -11 in both eyes. Anything more than -6, and Lasik is sketchy at best. Works for some people, not for others, and recovery can be long and frustrating. There are better ways now.

I got the Visian ICL (http://www.visianinfo.com/) a year ago, and it's freaking awesome. Within an hour or two of each surgery, I was 20/10 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. I can't recommend it highly enough to my fellow high myopics. If you have astigmatism, they should have a special astigmatic version soon, too. It was a revelation the first time I rode post-surgery. Even good contacts don't get you the peripheral vision and naturalness that these lenses do. It's worth every single penny I paid, and then some.

I got contacts because of the problems I had riding in the rain. However, after getting them, I didn't like having the rain hitting my eyes (or the crap thrown up from the road), so I added clear safety glasses to the mix. The good thing is that I feel my eyes are protected and safe. The bad is that the safety glasses will still fog up some. The good (second) is that they clear a whole lot faster than my old glasses did, and I know that I can remove them and still see if I need to.

LASIK is something I've thought about off and on. I'm still too cheap, though. If my vision insurance covered it, I'd probably go ahead.

Glasses + helmet visor = no problem for me. If the wind is blowing, my glasses do get a little wet, but the visor takes most of the beating.

I refuse to switch to contacts because it seems like another thing for me to have to perform maintenance on, so screw it. I am facing the same problem though, I absolutely can't use my glasses in the rain. Even the fog is annoying - pulling them down on my nose is fine, but when I push them back it inevitably screws up my glasses-mounted mirror.

So I need glasses on which to mount a mirror, but I can't use lenses in the rain/fog. I'm actually ******** enough that I'm thinking of finding a cheap pair of frames or reading glasses or something and popping the lenses out so I'll have something to mount my mirror to. Might try Rain-X for the glasses too.

Fortunately, my vision isn't so bad that I absolutely can't see without them, so dumb solutions like the above might work.

Hey you folks with Lasik... how's your near vision. Do you use reading glasses when you read? Anybody over 50?

I had to start wearing reading glasses, but I think I would have past 50 anyway, damnit.

For some people, the LASIK procedure can be modified a bit so that one eye is slightly overcorrected and one is slightly undercorrected. This allows for reading without glasses. Unfortunately, in my case, I don't use both eyes equally and so I was not a candidate for that.

Regardless, I'm very glad I had the LASIK. After 40+ years of glasses and contacts, I'm happy to not have to deal with the damned things.


However, I may need to go in for a LASIK tune up at some point. I'm 7 years post surgery, and I think I've noticed a slight degradation in my distance vision (along with a slight improvement in my near vision). So, at some point it may be necessary to get some additional work done. Thankfully, the technology keeps improving.

I've got horrible vision and plan on going for Lasik sometime in the next year (if they can even do anything) because my contacts run $600-700 per six-month supply. Glasses are out of the question unless I want to go for the coke-bottle look; even the thin ones that they make now look really thick in my prescription.

That being said, I wouldn't mind a correction in my eyesight that required me to wear glasses afterwards. The safety factor of being able to see better without any sort of correction is too great, and if I lost a contact while on the road/driving I'd be completely screwed. It's a nondescript mess without.

+1 for lasik.

Had it done in 2003 and am now 20/10 in both eyes. Wife was irritated because I can see better than her now :D.

Would have it done again, if needed, in a nano-second.

I liked the rain-x idea for glasses though. I have thought of it before, but haven't needed it very often.

I always wear glasses when I bike. Clear at night, ski goggles in the winter, and obviously sunglasses. My eyes are very dry and always have been. Plus the "crud" in the eye factor.

I've worn contact for 20+ years. I don't ever recall being bothered by rain. Your body has a wonderful item called eyelashes that help keep things like that under control.

I do have a problem sometimes on longer rides with my contacts drying out.

I have a visor on my helmet but it doesn't do much to shield my glasses from the rain. What kind of helmet do you have?

and uh, how many pennies did it cost you? If you don't mind me asking?

Can't wear contacts and won't do the Lasik. I'm too old anyway, I'd still have to use reading glasses. I've worn glasses full time for 40 years (yikes!). I always get anti glare and aquaphobic coatings put on my lenses. The aquaphobic coating makes the drops just fall off so the lenses are as much a shield as a vision aid. I also have a visor on my helmet, which helps a little. Besides, if I was afraid of a little water I would take the bus.
Never heard of Rain-X before so I looked it up. No thanks, my glasses are more important than my windshield and the less crud on the lenses the better.

I used contacts for a few years, but went back to glasses. The contacts are too much hassle. Glasses don't bother me. Also, IMHO even if you're wearing contacts you should be wearing some eye protection anyway, so why bother with both? One piece of sand or road salt in the eye with contacts will make you think twice.

Lasik still (probably always will) have problems. Night acuity is somewhat decreased, and I won't accept that. If you do get it, make sure you get waveform-guided lasik; the traditional type is just guessing at your prescription. They usually guess pretty well but sometimes they screw it up. Waveform guided takes out the guesswork.

Also, as aubimg says, all Lasik would do for me would be to change me from needing distance glasses to needing reading glasses.

Helmet mount your mirror. I wear glasses but prefer the mirror on my helmet. It's less shaky there, and I don't forget it as I do with glasses mounted mirrors where I take them off when I get there. You should be able to put the mirror in exactly the same location as you do when mounting on glasses.

+1

best money i ever spent.

I've got a Giro Encinal. The visor is pretty generously sized.

http://www.giro.com/usa/cyc_encinal.html

I suspect different people have different results. Contacts just get better and better. I forget I'm wearing mine. Only take a moment to get in and out. Simple these days.

I don't wear glasses when commuting. At high speeds on my road bike I will. In the rain, no trouble. Just wear contacts and blink. Glasses are a pain. Contacts are a minor bother twice a day. Even in my dust filled shop I have no trouble with them.

But others are sure to get different results.

Honestly, glasses don't bother me at all, even in the rain. Also, I'm really cheap. Glasses cost me $350 or so, and last me 4 years. They'd last longer but the last set started losing their coatings then and I had to replace them.

Also, I had a few bad experiences when I got something in my eye and the contacts caused it to scratch my cornea. Also I had some trouble once while watching movies until early in the morning, had some drying, and caused some damage taking them out. Contacts may get better every year, but they'll never achieve the level of eye safety that glasses have.

About $5,000, all told. Money well spent.

i only go contacts. If snow and rain getting in your eyes is your concern, you can buy bike-specific glasses with clear lenses to keep the gunk out of your eyes...