Biking with contacts
 

I'm new to road biking and also new to contact lenses. The combination is killing my eyes. When traveling for extended periods of time (20+ miles) at 20+ mph, the wind kills my eyes. Even with sunglasses my eyes can get very dry and irritated. What does everyone recommend? I've been looking into padded sunglasses, but not sure about which brand/style would be best for road cycling. Any advice or a website someone could point me to? Thanks!

Proper riding glasses? I'm a longtime contact wearer. If I use normal street shades It's hell. Oakley,Rudy Projects, and many others are made for cycling. Helps keep the air blast off the eyeballs.

As said, Oakley's and Ruby's are both good, as are a lot of other cycling glasses.
As you wear contacts more, you'll get more used to them being in and you'll be able to wear them for longer/they'll feel like they don't get as dry as fast.
Visine makes some contact re-wetting drops too.

don't do padded glasses...they'll look dorky :P

Maybe it's the type of contacts that's bothering you. I use Acuvue contacts, and I rarely get dry eyes.

This is true. I remember when I just started wearing contacts back in high school, it was awful. After a couple weeks my eyes got used to it and all was good.

In the last couple of years I started wearing glasses again because I spend the majority of my time in a woodshop and getting dust in my eyes with contact lenses is the worst.

I have been wearing contacts since the 1970s. The lenses available today are amazing compared to what was available even 20 years ago.

I always wear sunglasses and this is enough for me. You might try wetting solutions as others have suggested. Other than that, make sure your glasses completely cover your eyes which will reduce the amount of wind that can get to them.

sunglasses with interchangeable lenses are what you need (preferably with a set for strong sunlight, overcast, and night riding)

You should give yourself some time to get used to contact lenses. New wearers tend to blink less. As you get more comfortable it'll probably be better - trying out different contacts also helps immensely. Torics will always feel less comfortable than standard lenses. I've had really great experience with Acuvue oasys - whereas I had dry eyes before.

I have contacts and have had success with most sunglasses. Just make sure they are comfortable for your face and cover your eyes better than old raybans :-)

I've tried: Oakley, Tifolli (sp?), performance brand, pbk brand

+1 on getting wraparound glasses, this works quite well enough for me... though nothing will probably be 100% comfortable. i like the torics that you can wear for a month better than acuvue oasys, but that's just me.

I wear contacts without Sunglasses and I dont have too many problems

NOTE: My eyes/contacts REALLY irritated me a few years back so I went into my eye doctor and he ended up switching my brand of contacts. They have worked BEAUTIFULLY. If your contacts dont work out (like your eyes get dry and irritated all the time even off the bike) then you should go into your doctor and talk about it.

I go old school Laurant Fignon style and wear my glasses.Works for me.

How long ago did you start wearing contacts? I agree with others who have said that it takes time to get used to wearing them in general. If I haven't worn them for a while then sometimes my eyes will get dry more quickly than if I've been wearing them on a daily basis over a couple of weeks or a few months. The right glasses will probably help. If they don't, I suppose you could look into a different type of lens with a different composition. I switched contact lens types a while ago for a related reason - my eyes had fewer dryness problems with the new brand compared with the old ones I had.

If you have been wearing contacts for a while, then second, third or twentieth, the above recommendations for wrap around sunglasses. Also, if you are getting down into the drops make sure that glasses sit high enough on your face that you are not looking over them. Some of the Ruby glasses have an adjustable bridge that allows you to, push them up higher. For bright afternoons, when the light isn't going to change over my ride, I have found that 3M safety glasses work well for me... yes you heard me safety glasses. They are a dark smoke tinted safety glass that is a full wrap, with a edge thing on the top that prevents them from slipping down my face as I change positions. They are too dark, for morning or evening rides, but work quite well during the day.

HTFU and get used to the contacts - it gets easier then.

You don't have to spend hundreds on sunglasses that will help. I got a pair of foster grants at WalMart for under $20. But, they are riding glasses and have a very similar "wrap around" shape similar to Oakley Radars, so they really help keep the wind off my eyes and my contacts stay moist during my rides.


Or, you could just ride slower...................... I'm just sayin.

I agree with full (wraparound) glasses that are cycling-specific.

If all else fails, try LASIK.

One other thing to consider, is the comfort of your contacts to begin with (regardles of riding).

If you're using a multi-use solution to clean and disinfect, and your eyes are dry/irritated at all, switch to a Hyrdogen peroxide cleaning system like Clear Care. I switched years ago, and never looked back. The only drawback is if you put them in the cleaner you can't put them back i your eyes for at least 6 hours. So sometimes I end up having two pairs of contacts in use at once.

If you're worried about switchign, ask your eye dr. I didn't...just switched. No big deal.

I just use some eye drops when my eyes get dry. Little bottle in my jersey pocket.

Remember when there was no internet and people figured things out for themselves?

I have been using contacts since the 1970's....back then we had to make our own saline solution with distilled water and salt tablets! And we liked it that way!

I never have an issue with dryness but do sometimes get salt in the eye which is a pain.

Halo FTW

I switched to silicone lenses because of issues with dryness and wanting the ability to keep lenses in longer and have been way happy with them. They're called B & L PureVison. Awesome but I also always use wraparound sunglasses as well.

http://www.bausch.com/en_US/consumer...on_lenses.aspx

Hi,

I use Panoptx glasses that have a breathable foam going around entirely each of the eye cups. This works well for me in both road and mtn biking when there is lots of dust flying and also in springtime when the heavy pollen seems to aggrivate contacts. Good luck.

Give yourself some time to get used to them. I've been wearing contacts for a little over a year now and I can ride very comfortably even without glasses. Give it a couple of weeks and you'll be fine. In the meantime, like everyone else has suggested, try some wraparound sunglasses.