Anyone not wear glasses?

Anonymous

In particular on club/group rides, or anything other than solo riding.

The helmet debate is one thing, but I have never actually need one of those
I have had stuff hit (chip) my glasses and general face area loads of times though.

Do not understand how you could cycle without any glasses and leave you eyes open to damage.
I would find the wind annoying, let alone a stone.

Is it odd/silly not to wear glasses while cycling, or am I just being fleeced by the manufacturers again?

eric_draven

I am about 50/50 on wearing glasses,sometimes like them off as i find it cooler on my face on the flat and always take them off on a good climb,i am one of those people who can sweat a lot and sometimes i get sweat drip inside my glasses,then when i go to clean them they are never perfectly clear,this goes for both mountain and road bikes

cougie

Protective kit innit. If you get a stone, wasp, bee, whatever in your eye at speed then good luck hanging onto the bike.

I'd say glasses are more essential than a helmet.

postie90

what about early evening as it begins to get dark? are there glasses to wear at night? to protect the eyes, i ask as i work nights and commute around 10pm but forever getting flys etc in my eyes.... any suggestions would be great...

dilatory

I wear sunglasses only because I have to wear prescription lenses and haven't sorted out contacts yet.

The amount of shit that hits my glasses is astounding. I have no idea how who don't wear them survive.

cougie

Clear glasses for night. Although I wear yellow lenses and they work fine for me.

slowbike

Sometimes yes, sometimes no ...
Blink when needed - never had anything hit my eyeball.

dandrew

No brainer. Wrap round cycling glasses are essential. By all means take off on a hill climb or in a tunnel. Cycling at speed you just have to compare your face with a car windscreen in summer. Don't want big flies etc exploding in your eyes!!!

pinno

In Scotland we have the constant hazard that is midges.

I got these, bootiful, never steam up. Had a stone hit the current pair following a car after the boys from the black stuff laid down tar and sprinkled gravel over it in one of those pointless cheap re-surfacing jobs they do far too often.

Bolle contour edge, clear lens (5 quidish):



Bolle contour edge, dark lens (9 quidish):



Great eyewear for next to nothing. I did buy the polarised version which reduces glare @ £27 and they are very good.



I would not go out without them on.

simon_masterson

Me. I agree with the reasoning, but evidently it's not enough to make me invest (though I accept that some cheap PPE type glasses like the ones above would be fine), because I don't. I wear a cheap pair of plastic sunglasses from Boots when it's bright. The older Kask that I wear has always caused problems with glasses due to the design of the cage, which doesn't help.

I'm a big fan of Greg LeMond, though, and would love a pair of those Oakleys he used to wear!

kingstonian

I now always wear glasses when on my bike mainly because my eyes water like mad when I don't

Ouija

Kingstonian wrote:

I now always wear glasses when on my bike mainly because my eyes water like mad when I don't

And your nose too, probably (the two things are connected).

ben@31

I'm not convinced..

Used to wear glasses religiously. Then accidentally lost them for a few weeks. Riding without them for a few weeks did not make much difference, even downhill at speed was do-able. If anything I had better visibility without scratched steamed up glasses and without sunglasses when it's now getting darker on a night.

Is wearing glasses only a recent fad?

I think certain posts are missing a point, car windscreens have a bigger surface area and airflow to catch flies. And not every part of Scotland has midges (here in Moray it's not a problem).

charlie_potatoes

Carbonator wrote:

In particular on club/group rides, or anything other than solo riding.

The helmet debate is one thing, but I have never actually need one of those
I have had stuff hit (chip) my glasses and general face area loads of times though.

Do not understand how you could cycle without any glasses and leave you eyes open to damage.
I would find the wind annoying, let alone a stone.

Is it odd/silly not to wear glasses while cycling, or am I just being fleeced by the manufacturers again?

It sounds like you have already carried out your own risk assessment and answered your own questions.

As for being fleeced by the manufacturers? There is a world of difference in price between a pair of budget safety glasses and Greg Lemond's Oakleys.

shipley

I have always used glasses, but just for something different I bought a "Dux Helm (black carbon)" helmet.

It is a totally different experience and give you much more flexibility, and you can wear sun or prescription glasses !

http://www.duxhelm.com/dux-helm-premium ... oesd5r5y61

kajjal

Like many things in road biking the more expensive glasses are just designed to hit a price point with little practical gain. There are plenty of glasses at reasonable prices that look good and work well. For road and MTB glasses are a very good idea to keep things out of your eyes.

chippyk

I was in Orlando on business earlier in the year, the Oakley shop had LeMond style Factory Pilots for about $200 IIRC. Was sorely tempted.

CiB

Boy am I glad I don't live on your planet, where cycling is so dangerous and risk-laden that you have to take all these extra precautions.

Glasses? Never. I've got some but rarely wear them as sweat drips down the inside and stops me seeing as clearly so they're counter-productive. And call me odd but I've always thought that the correct posture for riding a bike is with the face pointing towards the road ahead of the front wheel, which means the natural airflow is over the forehead and either down over the face or up over the head. If a bee comes my way it'll bounce of my head not burrow into my eyeball. Can honestly say that in 40+ years of tooling around on bikes things flying into the eyes has ever been an issue. Same with making them water - just doesn't happen, even on the blast down the Great Orme a couple of months ago (47mph reached) or the satisfying drop down some B road near Darlington a few weeks before that saw over 50 on the Speedo. Watery eyes? Not here thanks.

JackPozzi

I'm a contact lens wearer and have found on the few times I've ridden without glasses it causes issues with my lens later in the day, so for me they are a must wear.

Thinking back to the days when not many in the pro peloton wore glasses, weren't there quite a few riders who suffered conjunctivitis?

alihisgreat

Glasses are an essential bit of kit for the sartorial cyclist. How can you look Euro without a pair of Oakleys??

There is nothing more Euro than on a hot summer's day sitting up and perching your glasses in your helmet vents before a climb.


Oh and I wear contact lenses. Imagine how much crap you'd get in your eye on a 4 hour ride. It would be unbearable.

bernithebiker

Never really got on with any of the glasses I've tried, which is why I like the Giro Shield so much - protection from wind and bugs without glasses.

(I wear contacts too; had one fly out once on a descent....)

fudgey

My nose streams with snot if i dont wear glasses. I only use cheapo £5 bolle ones tho. Need some clear ones for this time of year tho.

frisbee

Interesting that people say their nose streams if they don't wear glasses, I had never associated the 2 before.

Not been wearing a pair since my last ones fell off and got run over, I had put the nose streaming down to the weather getting slightly colder.

Ouija

frisbee wrote:

Interesting that people say their nose streams if they don't wear glasses, I had never associated the 2 before.

Not been wearing a pair since my last ones fell off and got run over, I had put the nose streaming down to the weather getting slightly colder.

Wind dries out the eyeball so your eyes water to compensate (sometimes too much so if you've ever bombed down a hill and found your eyes watering like mad). The same glands at the top of the nose that produce the saline for the eyes also dump some down your nostrils (typically a clear, drippy, watery kind of mucus). The theory is if you stop wind blowing over your eyeballs so that they water you'll also stop the drippy nose.

cougie

ben@31 wrote:

I'm not convinced..

Used to wear glasses religiously. Then accidentally lost them for a few weeks. Riding without them for a few weeks did not make much difference, even downhill at speed was do-able. If anything I had better visibility without scratched steamed up glasses and without sunglasses when it's now getting darker on a night.

Is wearing glasses only a recent fad?

I think certain posts are missing a point, car windscreens have a bigger surface area and airflow to catch flies. And not every part of Scotland has midges (here in Moray it's not a problem).

Oakley certainly popularised sunglasses in the late 80s.
If you look back though you'd see riders in Biggles style flying goggles.

I wouldn't ride in scratched lenses - what are you doing to them ? And sure it's perfectly possible to ride without them - we know this - but just wait til you get an insect in your eye at speed.

DCI Gene Hunt

I use Caterpillar clear glasses as they are rimless design that doesn't place the frame in your direct eyeline which I find a right pain.

meanredspider

I've had a few things ping off lenses including stone chippings from passing cars. In winter, in particular, I get eye problems if I don't wear glasses. I'm sure not everyone will need to wear them - we are all (thankfully) different so no sweeping statements are valid (as usual).

chrisaonabike

I've been smacked in the face with stone chips several times, and that hurts quite enough.

And I've been smacked in the lens with stone chips twice, the loud click didn't half make me jump.

The idea of catching a stone chip in the eye based on those experiences is just awful - I'd rather go without a helmet.

Anonymous

^ Thats exactly how I feel.

I cannot see how we are different enough to avoid ever getting something fly up into our face.
I would feel like I was playing Russian Roulette with my eyes if I did not wear glasses.

desweller

CiB, is this you?:



I find that, in summer, specs are a necessity as getting hit in the eye by a bluebottle is bloody painful and hayfever is 100x worse. Winter, not so much; they're definitely not helpful in rain or fog.

phreak

I've ridden for many years without glasses and have never had a problem with things attacking my eyes.



Amazing how riders used to be able to survive just find riding at pace on something as mucky as Paris Roubaix.