Yellow lenses for night riding
 

Currently on nightshift and just tested out my new yellow lens glasses for nightriding and they do work by cutting down on the glare of oncoming traffic, I no longer have to stare at my own light beam to stop from getting blinded by car headlights. Wish I'd tried these years ago. Clarity is a little worse and everything has a trippy yellow/green glow to it but the fact that they also cut out the cr*p that the cattle trucks throw up is also a bonus. I would recommend them to any regular night cyclists.

I use yellow lenses at dusk, but I don't like them, at night. After wearing them for 20 minutes or so, my eyes adjust to the yellow tint and the world looks normal again.

I'd personally go with clear lenses at night.

I use yellow lenses for the simple reason that I'm too lazy to go find clear ones for my glasses. One thing I have noticed is that yellow lenses and HID of LED light sources don't mix 100%. Even factoring in the 13% loss of light transmission, the slight blue shift of the HID/LED means I don't see as much as I could with the yellow lenses. The center of the light pattern is always bright, but as I look to the periphery, it's darker than it should be. If I ride without glasses, it's very bright. Maybe too bright...

I also thought clear and was looking for a set of glasses to use at night, mainly to stop the muck that is chucked up by oncoming cattle trucks. Found a web page for shooters/hunters and truck drivers, (strange combination), that advertised a selection of yellow lenses which they said cut out the glare from traffic. I had seen a really cool pair of yellow lenses from an internet cycle site I regularly hand over large sums of my money to that were reduced in price. Tonight tried them out and the glare reduction appears pretty significant, they are a very light yellow in colour though so I wonder if that has anything to do with not really effecting clarity. I ride alot of my commute along a country cycle track with no street lighting. SUV full on headlights are a killer.

I only use clear at night, Yellow under heavy cloud cover, Red in partial cloud cover or shady MTB trail,
and the dark blue in bright light. I mostly just leave the dark blur in since Im lazy about it.

Hmmm... My clear glasses went MIA a couple days ago and I just did without for my one dark commute since then. I didn`t like it. I have a yellow pair that I normally use for overcast or dusk/dawn and never considered using them in DARK dark. Might turn out to be a good thing- my commute is also without streetlights and the occasional car really screws me up. Anyway, I think I only have a few more weeks until it`s light enough in the mornings for my "*******" and it`ll be a long time until it`s dark in afternoons again.

Someone posted recently about using sunglasses that fade from tinted on the top to clear on the bottom.
He said the street lights were dimmed by the dark section but he could still see the road through the clear.
If a car had lights too bright. He'd tilt his head down so the tint would block it.

Ok just so it's not all in my head I have another 2 commutes to work at night and will experiment further. I'll leave a little earlier and try a stretch with and without. I'll post tonight.

I use yellow lenses when riding in the dark and low-light conditions. They actually seem to brighten up the view.

My yellow lenses were fine for low light conditions (dusk), but for dark of night riding they dimmed my view too much for me. My clear lenses are better, but even they dim my vision a bit in total darkness.

I would prefer not to wear any glasses at all at night, but then I get "road funk" or bugs in my eyes.

OK stopped the bike on the cycletrack tonight and watched the on coming traffic. The yellow lenses did soften the glare or more acurately the corona of the headlights, although I am unsure if they actually lessened the intensity. They change the light from white to a yellow green which tends to take the sharpness off. Draw backs is although they are very lightly tinted they cut a little bit of clarity down.

I had to stop after a little bit as I was getting seasick with taking them off and putting them on again and staring at headlights:o:D

I need to head to the hardware store at the weekend so I intend to grab a pair of clear safety glasses to compare as its years since I had a set of those interchangable lens setups.

Interchangeable lenses sounds like it could be a good idea for some folks, but I can`t even manage to keep track of the whole stinkin frame. If I were trying to maintain the frames plus a set of various small pieces I would be running around with 3D glassed in no time- each side a different color because I couldn`t find two to match! I think I`m much better off sticking with $15 shades and the above mentioned Hardware store nightwear.

I briefly had a set in around 1997, never lost any of the lens, just snapped the frame trying to fit the lens in, far to annoying for me. Lol though I like the idea of the 3D glasses look:D

For the three lenses I use, each has its own frame. It's quicker to switch glasses at the side of the road that way. I use safety glasses so they're inexpensive enough.

I did use Yellow lenses and found that between the city lights glare and car lights my vision diminished especially at twilight.

I now use clear lenses at night.

You can purchase safety glasses which I get for $3.99-$10.00 in various lense colors and shades and look cool from directsafety.com.
They also sell vests not bicycling specific, but at a good value.

Once the glasses get scratched up, I trash em.

Rob

Yeah I intend to do this. But I'm really intrigued that some glasses manufacturers state that yellow is good at cutting down car headlight glare and my first experience of this backs it up, just the second time was not so good:(

I've used both - I have to say that in a well lit area at night - the yellow work better, but I'm generally more comfortable with the clear. I've alternated based on whichever lenses were cleaner.

I have a couple pairs of Uvex safety glasses; one tinted, one clear. They are cheap like borscht, provide good protection and I don't have to worry if I get mud or grime on them like I did when I wore Oakleys.

My hours are from noon to 8:30PM. On overcast days I use the yellow lens glasses, but otherwise it's the clear safety glasses I got at Home Depot for 5.00 per pair. Suffer from SAD realy badly, so I never use any kind of sunglasses anymore and haven't had a flare up in about four years. I used Oakleys for years until I found out about the SAD disorder.

I use Uvex cheapo glasses as well. I had a set of WileyX glasses, but I found myself worrying I'd get them scratched up. I can toss the safety glasses in my bag without worrying about them too much.

For my next set of cycling glasses, I plan to buy some sunglasses with prescription "transitional" lenses -- the kind that change from clear to dark, depending on light conditions. I think that would be the perfect solution for commuting because it's usually dark when I ride to work in the morning, but bright in the afternoons. Right now, I carry a couple sets of eyeglasses with me each day, but I could get by with one pair with the transitional lenses.

Hmmm how much would those transistionals set you back? Basically the same as a new pair of glasses or are they cheaper?

I was wondering if anyone had tried the Oakley Hydrophobic solution that you can put on lenses that make water/oil form into balls and so run off as opposed to sitting on the surface, obscuring view? Would be heaven for heavy spray if it works that is.

PS. wore the yellows again, hardly noticed them on tonight, but I was a bit preocupied though.

Somebody told me that certain prescription lenses have anti-glare coatings that help a lot for night driving. I wonder how they`d do for biking. Also thinking that maybe glass lenses would be better since they aren`t as prone to scratching. I used to buy glass sunglasses that weren`t too awfull heavy but I can`t find that particular style anymore- all the glass ones I see now are fairly expensive. Might be a bigger problem with fogging, too. Anybody know how the glass/plastic deal works with reguards to fogging?

This hydrophobic stuff that Oakley coat on their sunglasses/bike/extreme sport glasses stops fogging apparantly mind you the coast of them put me off and I don't normally mind paying for good kit. Might be cheaper in the USA though.