I've worn gas permeables for 30 odd years now with little or no issue. I went for my annual checkup today and the optician said that with my wearing profile – I don't wear them as much for normal stuff, more for sport and other activities and can go for days without wearing them – that I might be better off looking at daily disposables particularly as my prescription is now reducing as my eyes age.

What are others experience with daily use CL's and biking? With my GP's if I get mud in my eye I can whip it out, rinse in my mouth (yes, I know about hygiene) and back in no issues. What's the form with disposables? Or do you carry spares with you?

Any specific experiences with making the same switch as me? Anything else worth noting about general use.

ever thought of wearing clear glasses over your eyes to avoid the mud bit? What I do. I have a hybrid that is half GP and the outer edge is flexible – posh to cover my corneal transplant and it took a bit of getting used to get it in and out..cant wear daily use ones so no help there.

I wear disposables, always carry a spare set just in case.

Not really a problem, just make sure you wear some well fitting glasses as protection and you'll be fine. I find my disposables can be prone to drying out in the wind if the glasses don't fit well but that may just be my eyes.

rinse in your mouth!!!!! Euch!!!!! But yeah, keep a couple of spares in the car, at work, in my pack, I always wear my sunglasses when riding to stop mud going in my eyes too. I wear mine every day from when i get up till i go to bed and never have any issues with them.

yes, I do wear glasses as well but it's that moment when you stop and they steam up so you take them off briefly, then forget to put them on again for a nanosecond as you move off again which is the point that gets you.

Or similarly in ultra rainy conditions.

dailys for me normally have spare set, never needed them. i have got mud in the eye as you described as i do have glasses to. they were ok though a few blinks and a little bit of panick on not ruining my downhill blast, but they cleaned themslves of and were fine. on general wearing of them i dont think they are as good, at gigs or out in town they dry up pretty quickly for me.

and watching a film in them is ….eye on impossible! good for sports though,

use monthly disposables, don't carry spares. mostly don't wear glasss either, in 20 years I think I've done the mouth rinse trick once. It was fine.

find them fab & simple to use, tend to have some oakleys clamped in place most of the time tho…also used them extensive for some pretty grim caving trips, again no probllems.

p.s. you can get little tiny bottles of saline solution which make for a good eye wash if required

Rinse in your mouth? What if you got mud in that too?
Getting mud in GPs is absolute agony I find. I just carry around the contact lense pod with the solution in it and rinse it in that.

Why not get prescription glasses instead?

I've used soft lenses for about 25 years and have used dailies for as long as I can remember.

I always tend to wear glasses on the bike even if they are just clear lenses. I would if I had perfect eyesight to be honest as it only takes a stone thrown up or an overhanging tree to cause problems.

All the GP users I know have all switched to soft lenses. They are really comfy.

as a wearer of gas permeable lenses, i never ride without my glasses on, only did it once, got some muck in my eye and it watered for hours,spent too many hours in casualty having them checked out to take the risk, and nearly losing an eye to an infection, makes me wary of licking a lens clean, but each to their own.

I've used dailies for pasy 10 years, always wear clear lense glasses as my eyes stream with staring at the trails.

carry a couple for emergencies and have a tiny sample size bottle of saline in my first aid kit as an eye wash – belt and braces and all!!!

as a lot of people have already said i just wear glasses, clear if over cast and varying lenses depending on conditions,
however i wear monthly disposables mainly because they are cheaper, but having trialed dailies apart from the chuck them at hte end of the day did not notice any difference. tended to split them more often as they were a lot thinner than the monthlies.
most opticians will give you a weeks worth as a trial so give them a go and see how you get on with them.

Used monthly disposables for years. I just wear photochromic sunnies or clear lenses when riding and have had zero problems.

Cheers all. I've got a full eye test and 'fitting' in 2 weeks time and then will get a 5 day trial with them. GP's have been good for me but now I'm much less vain I only wear them 40% of the time and according to the optician that cycle of partial wear plus the main use for them being in mucky / dusty conditions, they're getting scratched and dirty quite quickly and then sit around in that state (whereas if I wore them every day they'd get cleaned every day) she reckons these might be better for me.

Nothing stops you in you tracks quicker than mud or grit in your GP's!! AGONY!!! I wear endura stingrays at all times now.

I wear daily disposables for mountain biking and don't like wearing glasses as they tend to steam up / get crap on them then I can't see.

I hate the mud in the eye thing but it can normally be sorted with a quick rub. Only once have I dislodged a lens which was a bit of a pain as it was at the top of the hill so I had to ride down hill – the best bit – with only 1 eye in focus. Hard to judge distances and the size of stuff.

I now carry spares. 😉

I've used dailys and now two weeklies. I found the daily lenses are too thin so they tend to move around on my eye when riding at high speeds. The two weeklies stay in place alittle better. I often ride XC without additional eye cover if its dry. For the wet I use clear glasses but often they steam up beyond use so I just cope without. Steaming up in the wet really annoys me and not found a solution yet.

Tried them a few years back, got on quite well wearing them, but had lots of problems removing them, after breaking one up in the eye it was the last time I used them.Apparently people who do manual labour have most problems, probably because the hardened skin on the finger tips won't allow them to grip the lens in the pinching action required for removal.

I've just started wearing dailys. They are fantastic! So comfy and great for cycling and swimming.

The best bit is you have a whole wealth of cool looking sunglasses available to you that you could never wear before. It'd still wear some kind of glasses for cycling in though, whether it just be a pair of prescription glasses or some clearish cycling glasses. Saves a whole wealth of crap getting in your eyes.

I've never had anything really go into my eyes. I think some folk overstate the issue

licking a contact lens is about the worse thing you can do, it's actually safer to pi55 on tyhem than it is to lick them, not that I ould advocate the latter. Dailies all the way at least you can carry a few pairs in case you need to change, plus they should be more comfy and more stable than a RGP if properly fitted.

licking a contact lens is about the worse thing you can do

but it's spot on at getting rid of irritating dirt – and in my experience totally harmless 🙂 I never wear glasses over contacts unless it's very sunny – I like to be able to see stuff, and if you're going to wear glasses anyway they might as well be prescription ones – also contacts are better when using a camera – as I always do when riding.

Been using dailies for years now for climbing and biking. Tend to wear some kind of eye protection when biking, but if I DO get something in my eye it's not usually an issue. Just take a few moments to blink it out.

Have worn them without problem for some big (20 hours +) mountain days, but find that they dry out quite a bit if I wear them to pubs/gigs.

They're great for camping trips etc, as you don't need to bother cleaning them (and only really need to clean your fingertips to put them in if push comes to shove)

I've worn contacts for 15 years and just got totally fed up with them drying out, being sporadically blurry and generally being a pain in the arse. I just wear my normal glasses now and have a spare pair in my pack. Much easier. If you go for a style like mine, they have a slight gap around the lens that stops them steaming up. I did wear monthly disposables.

Simon, not really spot on and not harmless if you give yourself a corneal ulcer form the gazillions of bacteria in your mouth, if you think a bit of grit will sting, try an ulcer on for size, not nice and can potentially be sight threatening, improbable, but not impossible.

Simon, not really spot on and not harmless

but I've done it dozens of time with no irritation whatever – though I can see it might be an issue for those with a less robust immune system…

Immune system doesn't come into it, all you need is a break in you corneal surface, lets say from a scratch caused by a piece of dirt and some bacteria geting in, different kind of infection than a cut to the skin, but like I said improbable not impossible.

Immune system doesn't come into it … and some bacteria geting in

you do know what an immune system is for ?

I wear daily disposables. I wear glasses over the top when it's not too dark, or too rainy or too hot so they steam up. It can be a faff putting glasses on and off during a ride so sometimes i don't bother. Got a bit of grit in once which scratched my eye and irritated like a b'stard for a day. On the fastest blasts they sometimes dry out and then water like hell so it's a constant blink fest. Glasses are best used then!

Its all wrong but done it for years…

Daily disposables. I get three weeks out of one pair using standard solutions. Great cost saving. In the mouth often before puting them in, often put them in water overnight too. Managed for the last 20+ years and dont wear eye protection when riding except in very sunny conditions….

Stands back and waits for onslaught….

I wear daily disposables for road and MTB and they're great – I usually wear eye protection but they're usually fine off road without. They can dry out a little in high winds – so wear glasses on road. Carry 2 spare pairs just in case though!

I've worn contacts for 18 years. I've worn them for rugby, surfing, mountain biking and even extended periods in the desert under less-than-hotel conditions. I've never needed to put them in my mouth. I guess some people are just nasty in different ways.

Wearing eye protection whilst mountain biking is just common sense. Anything less and you're inviting that small branch to whip across your eyeball. Unless you don't even wear a helmet. They you're a karma-tempting hippy.

The only problem i've found with dailies compared to others is they tend to dry out a bit easier.
An optician told met that they're sometimes not as comfortable as monthly ones, for example, because the manufacturing method (stamping?) to cater for higher volumes, means they have a slightly poorer finish. No idea if that's true but I guess it could be…

I used to use daily disposables for mountain biking. I wear clear glasses over them so I've only once had grit in my eye and that time I just chucked the lens away and finished the ride with just one in.

I've since moved to the continous wear ones (although I rarely actually keep them in overnight) and have also found those fine for biking.

I wear GP contact lenses every waking hour of every day, my vision cannot be corrected by glasses,only by contact lenses

I used to get grit/mud in them when biking even when wearing clear glasses , the only way to stop it was to wear goggles.

A year or so ago, I got one of those neoprene things that goes on the forks and stops mud bring slung forward by the wheel, and a plastic mudguard that attaches to the frame.Since getting these, the mud/grit problem has gone away.

Never really had a problem with dailies on the bike, mud in the eye doesn't seem any worse than without the lenses. I do carry a spare just in case, but tbh most of the time I find it's better to wear protective glasses anyway- stops my eyes watering with the wind too.

On the issue of licking contacts to clean them. The bacteria species in your mouth are different from the rest of your body. If I get dental work done I have a course of penicillin as I have a suspected bicuspid heart valve which is more easily affected by bacteria than a normal valve. However every time I've had an operation on another part of my body- even a vasectomy when I've asked the question about antibiotics the medics have said its not necessary as its a different set of bugs to the ones in our mouths.