I'm gearing up for the rainy season. This will be the first autumn since I've been riding to work. So far, I haven't had much rain in the way except for some drizzling. Living in Seattle, I know I won't be that lucky in the coming months.

So my question to my fellow eyeglass wearers is, how do you deal with raindrops on your glasses? I've been told Rain X works well, but I'm not sure I want to do that on my prescription glasses. Others say putting a visor on the helmet helps. Does any of you do that? Is it actually helpful in fending rain off? What else do you do to minimize the visual distraction caused by rain?

TIA!

A visor definitely helps. I haven't found raindrops to be that big of a problem really. I still see better than when I take the glasses off :-)

2nd here. The drops were a problem when I rode w/o a visor. With a good visor the problem largely goes away. Even bright car lights in darkness can be tolerated.

I also us a visor, namely a baseball cap under my helmet. That provides longer bill than a usual cycling cap or helmet visor; same for sunny days instead of sunglasses. Also as a mental trick, I imagine the bill to be a canopy, and I'm underneath it looking at the rain, rather than being drenched by it.

Cycling cap under the helmet works pretty well for me.

I actually have an aftermarket visor on my helmet which is even longer than any I've seen that come on helmets. I assume it helps some. Sometimes, if it is windy or I am going downhill, I'll turn my head a little to the side and drop the visor a little so a corner of it is pointed forward and a little lower than normal. I feel like this gives even better protection, but obviously isn't sustainable.

RE: the bolded bit, I'd swear that most of the time in Seattle all we get is drizzling or light mist. I feel like it almost never really rains in the city proper.

My vision isn't terrible without my glasses, sometimes when they do get really hard to see through I'll take them off and tuck them in a pocket, but that is pretty rare. I keep expecting it to be more of a problem than it is, maybe this season I'll have to try something else, but for the past two and half years it hasn't been much of an issue.

I made a mini squeegee for my glasses. I used it until I lost it.
I managed to find a mini squeegee at a yard sale, for a quarter. I like it even better than the one I had made.

I take them off if water droplets are blocking my vision. I don't care to drive without them however cycling without them doesn't bother me.

Thanks, everyone! All the feedback is much, much appreciated.

Looks like a cycling or baseball cap under the helmet would be the quick and effective way to deal with rain. Taking the glasses off is probably another option, too. While my vision isn't great either (at 20/40 without glasses), it should be good enough to ride "naked."

I'd also suggest going to a runners' equipment store and checking out those hats. They've got a lot of them with very long visors that provide full, excellent coverage, lightweight synthetic materials that fit under helmets nicely and don't hold water, are constructed with low, unmolded crowns, and that are breatheable, for comfort.

Additionally, I carry a handkerchief in my pocket to wipe off my glasses when I arrive at my destination.

Last winter I began using a Dux Helm helmet which has an integrated, retractable visor lens that covers the eyeglasses. This worked excellently at keeping my glasses clear, and although the Dux Helm lens obviously got wet, it was much more comfortable looking through the drops with good vision rather than with the blur of my astigmatism uncorrected.

The trick with the Dux is to have eyeglasses with a wrap style frame; there's not a lot a space behind the lens for most face shapes, I suppose. Works well for me, though.

Seldom are my glasses completely covered in droplets. There's almost always space between them to look through. Mist is worse than rain in that regard.

The other thing to keep in mind is that vision is more than just an optical system. Your brain is involved too. Those of us who "just got used to it" have learned to use our brains to interpret what we see.

I honestly don't have any trouble looking through wet glasses. There's plenty of space between droplets. The real problem is riding through condensing fog or mist, where there are thousands of tiny droplets. Then I just wipe with a finger.

If it's properly raining, the droplets are big and fewer and not a problem.

Thanks guys. We will probably have quite a bit of mist here. I'll have a handkerchief ready. I am also considering buying this cap.

https://www.showerspass.com/catalog/a...ries/event-cap

I curse the skies, naturally.

Think about brim size; having water roll off a brim and trace onto your glasses isn't any good. I'm not saying the Showers Pass cap isn't good-- I haven't seen it-- but the classic cycling cap brim size/shape is not good for glasses in my experience, offering no side protection, scarcely any coverage for the lenses, and no coverage against driven rain.

I use a Salamander visor that attaches with velcro. Works very well and can be moved between helmets.

I have an old baseball style advertising cap with a nice long bill that fits tight against my glasses but the cap itself is on the shallow side so it doesn't stay on well if there's any breeze. Fits under a cycling helmet perfectly though. Best part, it was free.

Visor + Speed! Ok, well a visor then. It hasn't been much of a problem and last week saw some pretty heavy rain here every day.

I bought a pair of glasses for cycling from zenni.com for about $75, just one of their generic sports frames. I ordered the lenses with the hydrophobic coating and transition lenses so I could use them in the dark in the morning and in the bright sun on the ride home. The hydrophobic coating does a great job with sweat and rain, much, much better than my regular glasses with CatCrap on them. Sweat doesn't stick and attract dust, and the rain pearls up nicely and doesn't distort my vision. They also are very hard to fog up.

I take my glasses off. I'm not going fast anyway.

Get some Crizzal(SP?) coating, better than most places anti/glare for rain protection. DO NOT put rain x on your glasses! You can cause some perm. damage to them if they have any sort of anti-scratch type coatings.

Micah
(ABO certified Optician for 6 years)

That may be my best option. I do have transitional lenses, but the lenses are fairly small (them being for a regular pair of glasses) and don't cover a whole lot of area around my eyes. Is it prescription lenses that you have?

Thanks for the warning! I have heard about people using Rain X on their glasses but wasn't sure if it was a good choice. I'll definitely not do that.

+1, did the same thing but didn't buy the coating, they're just larger (more glass area) than my normal glasses. That way they protect my eyes from wind and I have no problem with rain drops.

Btw transition lenses are not polarized, so don't do much for actual glare. They just make things less bright for you.