Glasses:(
 

Well, the inevitable happened. At 55 I had to start using reading glasses on airplanes. My youthful vision prior: 20/14. Now at 66 I found myself using the reading glasses when driving to help read road signs. Went to the eye doctor and as expected eye glasses are in my future (diopter correction and some astigmatism) . Ordered a pair of sunglasses that should work for riding. Isn't aging grand? Good news is that the glasses should correct me back to 20/15. (Haven't looked into laser surgery yet)

Most likely your correction is not enough to do laser(lasik) surgery to correct. If you do correct it, you will see clearly either far away OR up close....not BOTH. Only way to see clearly at both distances is to have one eye corrected for far away and the other corrected for up close.
Those of you using just reading glasses, just go get some bifocals MADE FOR YOU and be done with it. It's like riding a Walmart bike and without without being fit. Yeah you can ride but...

I'm going with progressive lenses - we'll see how it goes, but it will certainly be a big improvement over squinting!

Here's what you will experience. At first you will see better but they will bug you a bit. The vision to the side will be blurry and that will really bug you. Then in about a week or two it will be like someone threw a switch and you will look at something up close and everything will be super-clear. then in about a month you will wonder why you didn't do this 5 years ago! Mark my words...

Im 73 and have been wearing lineless bifocals for 20 years. They are great, but they are still mainly for reading. When I ride I wear regular sun glasses. Fortunately for me anything beyond arms length is quite ok.

I like my progressive lens setup a lot. If I move my head to just the right position I can read at almost any distance. I have three pair: 1 pair of sunglasses, 1 pair of normal, and a backup pair that are transitions. Having lost about 30% of my visual acuity in my right eye (due to my helmet clad head slamming into the asphalt), I'm ever more thankful for the sight I do have.

I'm the same. Need nothing for far away. I wear my progressive lenses to see up close but also to keep from having to put reading glasses on 500 times a day. I ride with my bifocals on mainly so I can see the cyclo-computer and to help block wind. They are also Transitions, so they act like sunglasses. Basically I put them on in the morning and take them off at night. Much more convenient than putting on and taking off reading glasses 500 times a day or having separate sun Rx.
But I do also have polarized progressives that I use when fishing. No substitute for polarized lenses!

Although I've worn glasses since the 4th grade, and bi-focals since I was 39, it was only earlier this year that I made the move to progressives.

It was here on this forum that I learned that there are differences--sometimes significant ones--between different makes and models of lenses. As it turns out, by selecting among the various lenses, you can optimize your glasses for different uses, all from the same prescription. I confirmed this with my optician. We spent a lot of time selecting just the right lenses.

My regular glasses have a wider and taller "corridor" which gives me more area devoted to intermediate distances. I sacrificed some ultra-close and distance clarity for this, and I have to move my head a bit more for those regions too. The "corridor" lets me move just my eyeballs around the intermediate area, which is really nice at work. Most of my workday is spent in the "corridor".

My sunglasses are polarized and have a larger portion of the lens devoted to distance vision. I don't have much need for intermediate distances on the bike, and need only a small area for reading the cyclometer and maps (and fixing flats). I like these lenses very much for cycling. In the whole upper half of the lens I only have to move my eyeballs, not my whole head. This makes a difference on a drop-bar bike. Distance clarity and depth perception are the best of any lens I've ever worn. We also positioned the reading area--both power and "rotation" or crossing--for my usual distance from eyeballs to cyclometer.

In both cases I'm wearing high-end lenses, one Japanese and the other German. I'm glad I learned of the differences before I bought them. I know I would not have been satisfied with generic progressives from a bargain optician.

Progressive lenses, reading help at the bottom and distance help at the top, and pretty quick 'transition' from clear to dark for the bright sunlight here. I had an extra pair made in a wraparound sport style, as I used to use my all-day lightweight half-frames for cycling too, but my optician said that the really bright sunlight would glint in and cause harm. (Don't think that was a sales pitch as it was only the choice of frame style, the business offers a 2 for 1 deal!)

Happy with them.

One thing, though - still don't like going down staircases or escalators, looking down through the 'reading' part of the lenses! Often hitch them onto the top of my head for that!

Through the years I've worn out from the bottom up. My achilles' went first which ended my running career. Then my chest sagged down and made my stomach look bulgy. The eyes went next so now I need (bifocal) glasses. Then I lost my mind and, finally, my hair.

If needing glasses is a sign of aging, I've been old since I was 15.:eek:

My optometrist is still looking for the solution for me. I had perfect vision up to 50 years. t 50+ 1 day, I needed some help reading. I was using reading glasses until I changed airplane types and the overhead panel is now very close. The readers work great for the overhead and reading checklists. They work really poorly for viewing the instument panel and obscure eveything outside the window.

Tried 3 pairs of progressives and found I couldnt scan the full width of a single flight instrument without a head movement, peripheral vision was fuzzy and the straight vertical lines of the flight instrument distorted.

We use a heads up display that has infinite focus but does not work with reading glasses.

I am now awaiting occupational lenses that will allow reading portion top and bottom, distance correction in the middle but they are old school trifocals. No progressives for me.

I tried progressive bifocals, several years ago, after my wife got hers. I was wearing regular bifocals but could never get used to the progressive lenses. Went back to regular bifocals and have been wearing them since. I went to my optometrist last Tuesday and found out that I have to have cataract surgery on the right eye. Have a February appointment to see the surgeon, then back to the optometrist for new glasses. Isn't this fun?

er uh, you skipped the most important part ... and it ain't the hair!

Been wearing glasses for distance since the 5th grade. Back then, you didn't have much choice. Plastic framed, "1950s bomb scientist glasses" was what males wore.

But, I'm lucky. For close up work, reading, sitting at a computer, I don't need them at all. Mostly, I wear transition bi-focals. My prescrip sunglasses are the distance glasses. I don't need the bi-focal for riding, luckily.

Fun, this aging is.

I don't think the glasses will bother me at all. I wear the "readers" several hours a day using the computer and often I have to go with the readers-on-the-tip-of-the-nose approach driving. Sunglasses without a prescription are a disaster. I see a big improvement on the way.

Judy uses progressive lens, and loves them except...she can't make a helmet mounted mirror work!
R&J

I needed glasses to correct a wondering eye as a kid, got the wondering eye from taking a header down some stairs, dropped those in grade 8, and survived nicely without any glasses, until I turned 40, :notamused:then about a week later my arms shrank until they were too short, and I needed readers. When I was 45, I found things like street signs hard to see, after dark, now at 50 I need one pair of glasses for seeing and another pair for reading, so I think bifocals are in my future. It pretty much means going to an optometrist and getting real glasses <sigh>

I'm 62 and have worn contacts since 13 although about 10 years ago upgraded to bi-focal gas perms geared for desk and computer work. I still need readers for the fine print and up close work. I also have progressive glasses for when I want to rest my eyes. I wear either clear or gray Tifosi glasses when I ride depending on time of day. This seems to work for me.

I wear progressives--never wore the lined bi-focals. I also have a second pair of glasses, single-vision, just for the computer. The computer glasses allow me to work on the computer without having to always adjust my head so that the part for focusing 18 to 24 inches is in the correct place.

I am now sporting a new pair of bifocals, and turned 50 a few months ago. I have a 2nd pair that are progressive, hate them as you have to turn your head to keep the focus in the right spot, I like moving my eyes. Just for curiosity, where do you get sunglasses at for cycling? Eye Dr wanted $300 for a pair of sunglasses, some off brand, not sure what is an average price, probably not as cheep as clip-ons, but I need a pair before summer gets here.

I've been nearsighted since elementary school, so always wore glasses or contacts. Hate them both, so about 8 years ago I had laser eye surgery ("no-touch"). Now I am slightly farsighted, so I must always carry around a set of reading glasses. But on the bike, I can wear any Oakleys I want without those stupid inserts. Or I can just hang the Oakleys off my helmet and go without eye protection in the rain, and see perfectly clearly without having to peer through the veil of raindrops clinging to the glass.

I highly recommend laser eye surgery, but be aware that eyes age naturally and lose the ability to focus up close sometime past 50, so even though the vision is perfect at 20 feet, you'll still need glasses for closeup work. I used the "no-touch" method, where one laser burns off a layer of cornea and the second laser shapes the lens of the eye. It is more expensive, and recovery takes longer than Lasik (3 days instead of 1) and there is some post-surgery pain, but I didn't like the idea of the doctor using a scalpel to peel off the top layer of cornea before the laser shapes the exposed lens, which is how the Lasik technique works.

L.

Huge advocate for Rudy Project Sunglasses, and I work in the Optical biz so I trust their durability and warranty. You can choose from many different lens options depending on your riding conditions.....among my favorite is the ImpactX photochromic clear laser lens & the 3FX Polar grey. I personally wear the Noyz, but they have many options for prescription lenses & frames.


http://www.rudyprojectusa.com/sungla...php?group_id=1

I also highly recommend spending some time with your optician. They will go over the lens options with you and show you how each lens preforms etc.

For those of you that are spinning your wheels in Minneapolis, Moss Optical is a great local shop that carries them!! They are independent, knowledgeable, and very friendly!

http://www.mossoptical.com/

They make glasses for that? Please don't tell Mrs. Grouch.

I didn't get glasses until I was 45, and went straight to bifogies, er, bifocals. My optometrist was a high school classmate. First thing he said to me was that I was about the last one in the class to come and see him. Guess that was about right as I was the youngest, my birthday being late in the year.
I bought two pair right of the bat, one pair of bifocals and one single vision for driving. I was doing a lot of mountain road driving at night in those days, and the single visions were indispensable.
Even now at 58 though, I don't think my vision has diminished too much since I first got glasses. I usually don't wear them for watching tv or playing on the computer. Not wearing them now.