glasses !

fat daddy

ok, I wear eye protection .. Dark in the summer, clear in the winter

this morning though, torrential rain, pitchblack ... I cant see censored through my glasses, the water on them, mixed with the glare of oncoming traffic and I am struggling to see out the glasses, some of the parked cars I went past (the black ones) were practically invisible. .... I stood no chance with drain covers and whitelines

I tried taking the glasses of, but at 20mph the rain in my face meant I still couldn't see.


so what do you guys do .... does Rain-x work at a mere 20mph ? .... do you have magic wipers ?

The Rookie

I only use glasses in summer, when its cruddy I don't wear glasses for the reasons you give, I use the mark1 "squint just under the rim of the helmet" technique, have considered using an MTB helmet with a visor but not tried it yet.

fat daddy

ahh, sounds like it might be a universal problem .... I am already using an MTB helmet because of the visor, it really helps .. just not enough

Long_Time_Lurker

No magic formula for me - I go without and squint or wear them and stop every 10 minutes to wipe them with a cloth.

fenix

I always wear my oakleys - never had issues really - rain rolls off quickly.

In the rain I find a peak will keep a lot of the rain off your face - so you can either get a normal cycling cap under the helmet or in the winter an old school winter cycling hat like Prendas sell.

oxoman

I have to man up as a fulltime glasses wearer, have tried various coatings but nothing really seems to work for long. As mentioned a peak helps, I normally end up lowering the glasses slightly so I can peer over the top in really bad rain. Luckily not totally blind without glasses. I found that just wiping with soft edge of glove is normally sufficient, bright lights help as well. I found when first commuting into work with censored lights in rain or after rain I was riding pretty much blind, fitted decent lights and was a lot better. Slowing down helps a bit as well in censored weather.

ManiaMuse

I was going to ask a similar question a while ago for what glasses to wear in the dark. I've been hit in the eyes by pieces of grit when it's windy enough times to know that it hurts. Also hate the feeling of wind and rain in my eyes.

I wear sunglasses for as long as I can before the dark evenings kick in. Then clear glasses for winter (must look like a right dork).

It's a pain though as they steam up and can make visibility worse when it's raining, I have to wipe them at every set of lights. And when it's really bad like a couple of days ago in that monsoon, I probably would have felt safer ditching the glasses as I was trying to negotiate the rivers of water with a monster tailwind.

HeyJoe

It definitely helps to have plenty of lumens lighting your path. I use a fairly powerful, focusable headlight but you have to be careful not to routinely dazzle oncoming traffic; I do flash them on narrow beam when they they don't dip their headlights though down dark country roads when they are a few hundred yards away; works a treat. Best to wear a peaked cap under the light so it doesn't get behind your glasses causing glare.

mugensi

I use Rain-X on my cheap foakley Jawbreakers. It works well and I usually apply it again after coming in from a spin so that they're ready to go next time.

froze

Rain-X works pretty good especially on car windshields where once the speed reaches around 40 mph (depending on the rake of the windshield) and above the rain just starts to bead right off and you literally turn off the wipers and watch the magic; even some bugs will hit and slide off without leaving their goo behind. However on a bike you won't be reaching those sort of speeds so the rain won't do that, plus bugs won't fling off either, and neither will the crud, but it will allow you to wash any crud off easier.

There is one caveat with using Rain-X on plastic lenses...it can take coatings off since it is a solvent. I wouldn't use Rain-X on any plastic coated lenses.

cougie

Try the oskley nanocare system. About 16 on wiggle.

HeyJoe

Maybe wearing cap with a visor might help to give better control of shading oncoming light glare.