So after 33 years of good sight my astigmatism has now meant I need to wear glasses at all times.

I can’t wear contacts due to having an issue with dry eyes so I’m wondering what I should do.

Should I opt for something like an Oakley Crosslink?

I’d not even considered this when I picked up my glasses last week 🙁

Few bespectacled mates have the RX inserts for their evil eyes. Great solution by the looks of it.

I used to have no issues with contacts, think age has changed something… I manage with dailies (tend to be a bit easier on the eyes) and regularly use eye-drops to deal with them feeling dry.

Wear glasses whilst riding. I did it for years before it was considered a fashion faux pas and one had to purchase riding-specific specs.

I often wear normal specs for riding. May not be cool but I can see where I am going.
Have prescription sunnies for when required and just a normal pair when not.
Riding specific ones? Not for me thanks.

“Wear glasses whilst riding. I did been doing it for years before because it was considered a fashion faux pas….”

Fixed that I choose not to ride with people that think what your wear or ride is that important

contact lenses for continous rain – use some sort of liquid eyes stuff because have low tear rate

I wear specs all the time and have done for 40 years. I wear them on the bike as normal, and carry spares in car.

Currently Oakley varifocals

Woah, riding in varifocals is way beyond me. Struggle to walk in them never mind riding.
You are a better man than me IANC…

Oakley transitions specs for riding here. They get a bit scuffed, and I got sick of that happening to my nice/work glasses.

Worn glasses full time for 40 years but don’t wear any when cycling (I don’t need to read or see things in great detail or far away etc,. when cycling)

uphillcursing – Member
Woah, riding in varifocals is way beyond me. Struggle to walk in them never mind riding.
You are a better man than me IANC…

🙂 it took a few months to get used to them ! I started a thread about it a few years ago, was surprised just how many people wore them riding so persevered and all settled after a while.

Mines a low prescription but quite high in terms of astigmatism.

I live my everyday glasses but I just don’t see them staying still whilst I ride.

I also can’t believe I’ve been quoted £367 for some Oakleys 🙁

id give the modern dailies a bash, new contacts are much lighter, softer and more porous so you will probably be fine for the duration of a ride.

I wear safety glasses from vision express. £60 all in. Not as flash as Oakley but safer and bigger than normal specs for wind and crud protectipn. Well worth the money.

If your prescription is low, can you get by without them while riding?

Or try contacts, not for permanent use but in at the start of a ride, out as soon as you finish?

Why not just wear your normal ones? If they fall off go back and have them fiited properly. They will be fine. Fancy ones look cool and may do certain things better but are not needed. Get used to what you have first.

I either wear soft daily contacts or my normal varifocals.

I only wear contacts for riding, not for everyday, so as before just take them out after your ride.

I took to my varifocals straight away, loved them before I even got out of the opticians. No problem when riding in them at all. And it is easier to read my garmin when looking at the map.

Hmmmmm, ok well I’ll have a go first this weekend and see how I get on.

Cheers for the advice.

I wore my ordinary varifocals for MTB, motorcycling and cricket for many years – never had an issue. It can take a while to get used to them, in my case 1 day but Mrs Patagonian took weeks.
The plastic lenses are tough enough to deal with whatever is thrown up in your face.
There are plenty of sports frames to choose from nowadays and plenty of deals to make a 2nd pair affordable. I certainly wouldn’t pay Oakley prices and then repeat it every two years when you need new lenses.

I’ve ridden in normal ones for years – if you do mental stuff then get a sports strap (goes round glasses legs and tightens on back of head – as that stops falloff)

I have mine adjusted so they sit normally and can be pulled down so bridge is further down nose – as in pissing rain I can then look over the top of fractal land

top tip – when taking glasses off always put them inside helmet etc – so you can’t stand on them

my everyday glasses, varificals, are Oakley Wingbacks. They stay put fine on the bike, although I do try and keep my wheels on the ground when riding 🙂

prescription -6.5 plus astigmatism, so I am pretty blind without them. I wear disposable contacts when swimming, but don’t like them on bike.

Bought fancy cycling transitions things. They live in a drawer, just wear my normal transitions specs now.

For a low prescription, I’d go with some cheap glazed sunglasses. My prescription is +5, so I have Rudy Rydons with Rx inserts. Aside from fogging in really bad conditions, I think they are wonderful.

If your prescription is that mild you have only just started to need glasses, then you should be fine riding anyway?

I have a mild prescription, and a mild astigmatism – I use a daily moist contact. I also had a pair of prescription Oakleys I had for years. They wern’t cheap, even 10 years ago, but a lot of the money is the lense I believe.

They lasted a long time to be fair.

Ive got some Oakley Crosslink and they are great for riding in.
Go for a photochromic lens and you don’t need to worry about changing to sunnies. I use them for night riding too, since they go as near as damnit clear.
,ime are from Opticsplanet (or something like that) with their own polycarbonate photochromic lens which is a fair bit cheaper than Oakley.
I have in the past just found something I like the feel of that hasn’t got too much curve to the lens and sent it to Ciliary Blue to be reglazed.
The only times I really struggle with glasses are in the rain. Either at night when the drips and drops on the lenses refract the beam of my light and I struggle to see through the resulting blurry rainbow or when it’s wet but warm and I can’t either clear the rain from the outside or the fogging from the inside enough.

The glasses that are on my face all day long stay on my face when I’m riding my bike or running. They’re only removed for swimming, showering and bedroom things.

I wore my glasses on Saturday and they ended up steaming up, covered in crap and the scratched trying to clear them. Absolutely ruined after 25 miles.

Interested to see where this thread does.

I wear glasses for daily stuff as I’m blind as a bat. My usual problem is them steaming up, rain and stuff, for the three mile commute. But recommend the daily contacts (-6) for riding offroad. I use some clear glasses for riding to keep wind and grit out of my eyes, and a tinted lense for when the sun shines. No issues.

Worn specs since long before I rode MTB and short sighted enough that riding glasses/inserts can’t take prescription.

Now take advantage of deals that opticians offer to get a pair of variable density sunglasses with as much coverage as I can sensibly get given my prescription and use those for riding.

As above. I hav4 a roughly -6 prescription for both eyes so blind as a bat without some correction. Ridden for years in glasses but first sign of rain or warm muggy weather and they are useless. Plus, if they get muddy water on them offroad it is a matter of a couple of rides before they are scratched to buggery and in need of new lenses. I now wear daily disposables whenever the weather dictates. However, I still prefer to ride in glasses because I think wearing them constantly you get used to the slight change in perceived distance & distortion they give. I always find it marginally more difficult to ride technical terrain wearing contacts if I have not had them on for a while.

I use them too. Had a few pairs over the years. Currently got some icberlin ones (very nice stay out well) and some oakley marshal. both used on and off the bike.

Get the frames then get them glazed by cillary blue. id go for photochomic brown if you can as they are great going through trees and at night. Make sure you tell them that you want them to go clear as they can make the tint very dark if you need it but i dont think its needed for cycling.

get them scratch resistant. the cheap lenses (non scratch resistant) dont seem to last.

Ive had every sort of anti fig treatment (biggest issue imo with glasses) and non work well.

Having used inserts for years, I can say that they are OK but not a patch on a proper pair of prescription glasses.

I have Oakley Jawbones that were criminally expensive but they have lasted well and the after sales service I got when I had a couple of issues was first class.

If they fit your face shape then Crosslinks with non-Oakley lenses would be a less expensive solution.
http://www.rxsport.co.uk/products/Oakley-Crosslink-Sweep-%252d-Satin-Black-%252b-Black-%252d-Everyday-Prescription-Lenses.html

I have bad astigmatism on top of bad long sight and age related presbyopia! I managed MTB without glasses until last year when I when to RX Sport for some prescription riding glasses. The were a reasonable price, very good quality and quite thin lenses. I opted for the Oakley crosslinks.

However it improves things a bit but is still a complete pain, steamed up glasses, mud and rain. That’s why I am having laser surgery later this year are you aware they can correct astigmatism now?

I started wearing glasses about 15 years ago in my late 20s. I haven’t got a strong prescription, but I need them for riding with. I got some prescription Oakleys early on (Straightjackets) and they were great. I didn’t change those as often as my day-to-day specs, but when they were a bit too far from my current prescription I got some Halfjackets, which are a bit long in the tooth now. So that’s about £500-600 over 15 years of riding, so maybe 40 quid a year. I avoid riding in my normal specs for a number of reasons…

1. Many years ago (probably 25!) I had to call an ambulance for a riding mate who’d crashed in his specs – which had sliced a large gash across his cheek. A lot (but not all) everyday “non sports” specs probably aren’t that safe to ride in.

2. Riding specs get covered in crap and will get scratched. That’s annoying enough, but if they’re not also my day-to-day specs at least I don’t get reminded of the scratches all the time.

3. I hate contacts.

4. The wind protection you get from decent riding specs is really noticeable. When I do ride in my normal specs (usually after hunting around and realising I’ve forgotten my riding glasses) I find it quite irritating and if it’s cold and windy my eyes water a lot more.

5. Good “sports” glasses will grip your head, don’t bounce about and don’t fall off easily.

I can’t use the insert type glasses as my eyelashes are too long, but they do mean you can change lens colours more easily/cheaply. Suspect not as good as good full prescription glasses.

I’ve got Oakley Crosslinks as my day-to-day glasses, with non-Oakley sports lenses in them. They’re good and they’re OK for riding/running in if I’m without my Halfjackets. The optics aren’t quite as good a proper Oakley lenses though

Oh – and another thing. The only ways I’ve managed to deal with steaming is to start with super clean glasses (warm water rinse, gentle sponge with diluted washing up liquid, rinse again, soft cotton cloth wipe/dry) and then avoid touching them at all. With grippy arms you can push the glasses away from your face to help them clear a bit.

Wiping glasses when riding is an absolute last resort. If they’re really mucky I squirt them off from a bottle (or a mouthful from the Camelbak) and just shake them off.

ratadog – Member
Worn specs since long before I rode MTB and short sighted enough that riding glasses/inserts can’t take prescription.

My prescription is -11, I can get prescription cycling glasses.
I started using them when my day-to-day frames were glazed with high index glass lenses, I’ve since gone to 1.74 bi-aspheric plastic lenses for everyday use, but still have cycling glasses for, well, riding in.

I just wear my normal Oakley specs if it’s not sunny. Got some Oakley fives with prescription transition made by rupp and hubrach. They’re awesome. Git some Raybans with prescription polarised too but they are poor quality polarised and patchy.

Interested in the Adidas evil eyes. Spoke you Could buy them cheap off eBay then go to a decent optometrist for the inserts?

For fogging the best is nikwax visor proof ime- works better than washing up liquid, bob heath, cat crap, anything else I’ve tried. Better’n any factory treatment, yep they’ll still steam up at times but so will anything. Helps water run off too in rain (we don’t go fast enough usually to get the best of this though, it’s like voodoo for motorbike visors)

With Ciliary Blue, can you take it as read that they can do lenses for any removable lens glasses? Or is there a chance that you find something you like and they say nope? I keep meaning to get a prescription pair for short rides.

I wear contacts usually but I’ve had no luck with toric lenses for my astigmatism- the lens moves around more when riding so I got a lot of distortion. I just wear a plain lens now, I get a bit of defective vision but at least it stays put. YMMV o’course.

As a fellow astigmatism sufferer I feel your pain as I am not short or long sighted, just everything is blurry. I have finally got round to getting some glasses that I can use for riding as I am able to look over the top of my day to day ones. It has made a real difference to what I can see on the trail and added a bit more confidence as I can see stuff before I hit it.
I held off for ages as I have never worn glasses or contacts for sport, and even just kicking a ball around in the garden was difficult because of the astigmatism and the glasses. Nothing was quite where it should have been so things like keepy ups were virtually impossible.

I use daily disposables, put them in just before, take them out just after. Had click with monthly lenses so have to be very careful but it’s fine and much better than when I’ve ridden in normal glasses.