Where and when to use certain lenses in cycling glasses?

lukebennett

Hi,

I am thinking about buying myself some nice Oakley sunglasses, as I like the design, and I'm young and have the money. I was also wondering about the different lenses that you get with glasses, Do you get one lens for sun and another for dark, poor visibility? I am utterly confused at when I am supposed to wear certain types of lens, I used to use clear for poor and dark conditions, but I'm pretty sure I heard many people use a certain type of lens. Could anyone shed any light on this?

thanks,

Luke

imposter2.0

nope - I think you've got it already...

monkimark

Red ones on your red bike, blue ones on your blue bike.

sungod

fwiw i've got a polarised dark lens for when it's light, and a clear one for night/winter

in the uk that's all you need

tinted lenses in low light simply degrade visibility, stick with clear

you could get photochromic instead of dark, personally i prefer polarised

cougie

If I had to go with just the two lenses - then I'd go yellow for night and dull winter rides, and a dark lens for brighter days.

You could splash out on photochromic if you fancy it.

I don't see the need for polarised lenses unless you ride a lot by the water ? I'd rather see the puddles than see through them.

Calpol

I have Oakley Jawbone's. I ordered them with Fire Iridium lenses and a set of clear also. Since then I have added some Revant yellow and Jade Iridium. I use the yellow quite a lot as I feel it boost contrast in grey, dull conditions. The revant ones from Ebay are fine although not as robustly made as genuine oakley but at £16 then who cares as I can change colours depending on my want. I barely ever use the clear ones, I think twice on MTB night rides.

Tjgoodhew

As above.

I have a pair of salice with a dark lens for day riding and then a cheap pair of glasses with yellow lenses for night riding. I feel the yellow works much better than clear in the dark

sungod

i was waiting for these, let's apply reality to slay some misconceptions...

I don't see the need for polarised lenses unless you ride a lot by the water ? I'd rather see the puddles than see through them.

clearly you're not experienced with them, otherwise you'd know not only that puddles are perfectly visible, but also that there's improved visibility of what's under the surface

also, when the sun is low, reduction in road glare without needing darker lenses maintains better visibility

I feel the yellow works much better than clear in the dark

in which case you'll be able explain how reducing the number of photons reaching your visual receptors improves night vision, which you'll have trouble doing as it doesn't, if it did, you'd find pilots, police, soldiers etc. wearing yellow lenses in the dark, which they do not

there is an increase in perceived visual contrast in conditions where scattered short wavelength light is present, but in low light the net effect is still to impair vision

rolf_f

I thought yellow was for dark, gloomy days. I tried mine for the first time this weekend and it did make things look less dreary - albeit the day looked like sunny Californian smog through them rather than properly nice!

Ouija

Rolf F wrote:

I thought yellow was for dark, gloomy days. I tried mine for the first time this weekend and it did make things look less dreary - albeit the day looked like sunny Californian smog through them rather than properly nice!

Should try orange lenses instead. Make things look brighter, just like yellow, but with a much warmer glow to things. Adidas do a LST lense that's mirrored and smoked over a orange base and, while it only allows 13% through and is classed as a cat 3 lense (dark), actually makes everything seem brighter when you put them on compared to an ordinary grey, brown or mirrored lense of the same category.

racingcondor

I use Positive Red Iridium Polarised and Clear. I prefer letting through slightly more light than the really dark lenses (Black Iridium for instance is 9%, +Red Iridium is 18%). I used to have some Light Grey Polarized (35%) which were excellent in almost all conditions in the UK.

Yellow / Amber are great in low light (streetlighting) but not so good in darkness so worth considering.