Finally decided to buy some prescription Oakleys after a successful first ride in normal everyday specs today. No idea where to start though. Anyone got tips on which models, tints, finishes, suppliers etc etc? I’m in Calderdale, I’d like a clear lens I think (unless someone convinces me otherwise), and most rides will involve getting the glasses covered in rain and mud. Plus my head’s small and I’d rather not look like a fly if poss. I’ll consider other brands, although everyone seems to rate Oakleys very highly. All tips and advice welcome. Ta.

Just ordered some clear- grey transition lenses for my Jawbones from theinternetopticians. Seemed the cheapest of the Oakley dealers, although I’m sure someone will be along to tell me they’re not.

Been using the Jawbones with normal lenses for a couple of years & really like them & think they’ll give the peripheral vision you want.

Not sunglasses, but I got my everyday Oakley glasses from rxsport.com. They where very helpful on the phone, have decent website and where much cheaper than my normal opticians! I’m a happy bunny and will be buying some new prescription sunglasses from them soon!

I have allways used RX Sport and can’t fault them. I have two pairs of riding glasses both Oakley Flak Jackets one with clear lenses and the other tinted, both are fitted with Oakley perscription lens and are great quality.

+1 for RX Sport. I’ve had pair of clear prescription Whisker 6Bs and a pair of polarised bronze Straight Jackets from them. Very good they are too.

I use RX Sport for my prescription Oakley glasses. Very good service and price.

Crosswind is the frame I have. Haven’t tried riding in them but run sub 36 for 10km in them so they stay in place well even when sweating and moving relatively quickly.

Have used these for some driving glasses http://www.selectspecs.com/Glasses/Prescription/Oakley/d391/#tab_ids=1&colour_ids=&category_ids=46&offset=0&group=1&

I’ve been using prescription Oakleys for around 5 years now. I opted for the Transition lens and it works just fine in daylight and at night. I got my original set through Specsavers (there was a deal on) and more recently bought some Windjackets through RXSport.

I have Oakley Wingback varifocals and wear them all the time, incl riding. Very stable and they are titanium too 😀

This is great info, folk – thanks v much. I guess buying online means it’s best to try them in a shop first or use RXSport’s service where they send a few pairs out? Is peripheral vision an issue with some styles? And are there some coatings worth getting and others that aren’t? Things like anti-glare, toughened coating etc? Cheers again.

I have prescription glasses from rxsport with an Oakley Crosslink frame and rxsport lenses. I also have some prescription Oakley sunglasses from rxsport with Oakley lenses, they are Jupiter Squared and cost nearly 3 times what my normal glasses cost.

I use my Crosslinks with varifocal clear-grey transitions for everything except off-road riding. Only had them about 3 months but they’re great. The only reason I dont currently use them on the mountain bike is the fear the Calderdale grit/grime/slime will destroy them in a few rides. Once they’re a bit older I might relax a bit (and stop squinting quite so much)!

Got mine from Donovan Smith opticians in Brighouse. They had a very wide range of Oakley and other sports frames to choose from and although I had every intention of buying online, I was impressed by the service and happy to support a local business.

When my old eyeballs finally needed some help, I bought a nice retro pair of Oakley Minutes off ebay for about £20. A local optician put in Transitions prescription lenses for me for about £170 ~ so around £190 all in. I use them for everything…….riding, driving, motorcycling, day , night rain or shine ~ brilliant.

+1 RX Sports

Twice now, and I used their try out scheme thing to good effect last time.

I used selectspecs for prescription jawbone and they were far cheaper than could find elsewhere. From memory they did take 3or4 weeks to arrive but customer service was very good, they event sent them onto our holiday location in France at no extra cost when it became clear they’d not arrive before we departed for hols.

Crosslink wit RX Sport transition lenses in. Like the shape and the replaceable temples, but decided that although I’d like Oakley lenses, the chances of them getting wrecked at work, climbing or on the bike was quite high so cheaper would be less painful in the wallet to replace.

Bought some keel blades from spec savers , specs are good , service terrible.

Lense fell out within a week , the made mince of the screws refitting them , i refused to accept them. They couldnt get the screws out again they had made such a mess over torquing them…..

They ended up shipping me new frames and getting new lenses made the right size.

The nose pad on the new frames fell out within a week. Refited it my self and checked all screws , been good for a futher 18months with no issues.

All for the saake of doing things right the first time.

Then to top it off they got my prescription terribly wrong.

So id go anywhere but specsavers,

The hustler on this forum is the man for you. His shop is near Telford but you’ll get good advice from him even if you’re buying from somebody else

I have Oakley Crosslink for my normal glasses and fast jacket as my sunglasses.

I get them from vision express, which is probably as expensive a place as you can get them (although I always go for new sets when there is a sale on). Main reason I use them is the breakage guarentee. As I wear them for everything including riding, they take a bit of a battering and I ended up having my lenses replaced in both a few times with my last pairs. Although a pair of sunglasses you can pick up for around £100 (non perscription) ends up costing closer to £500 (perscription). Crosslink were much cheaper mind.

I used these people for lenses http://www.ciliaryblue.com. They can put prescription lenses in any glasses that have full frames (Jawbones etc).

I acquired a cheaper version of Jawbones from eBay and sent them off for lenses. Total cost was around £60.00 (as I went pretty basic) and they are spot on.

FWIW the first set of lenses were not quite right so they were returned and replaced free of charge.

Personally I’d agree with the transitions lens call above, I’ve an older pair of metal X with solid colour lenses and a pair of flak jackets with clear and transitions prescription lenses and a pair of transitions non prescription.

For me the transitions lenses are much better than clear or solid lenses allowing me to see under tree cover but also in the open when it’s sunny.

As for frames is go with one of the interchangeable lens types, flak work for me and my head shape.

Personally I wouldn’t now get clear lenses on prescription, and for the odd days when I do want them Id swap out for non prescription clear lenses and contacts in my flaks.

In practice I’d say I used my clear lenses about twice a year out of guilt at spending on them, I use clear/bronze prescription transitions 60% of the time and yellow grey non prescription transitions (revnant optics ones for a fraction of the price of the Oakley points)

I have a pair of Flak Jackets with Transition lens and my distance prescription. Do the job very well and seem very robust; in a couple of big crashes they “fell apart”, you collect up the bits and click it all back together.

I don’t use them that much in winter preferring a pair of clear varifocals in Tag frame, frame is expensive but very good at staying put on my head without having to push it back up my nose. I am lucky to have two pairs courtesy of some Vision Express generosity, I keep one set specifically for riding.

Top tip for any of these expensive lens options, do not rub the trail crap off with the back of your glove, napkins, tissues, jersey etc or they get trashed. I have forced myself to clean mud etc off with fluid (typically squash from the Camelbak) and dry with a lens cloth or buff.

It should be an edit – accidental post, darn touchscreen.

…The rest of the time.

As mentioned above though also expect a big price hike, I scratched one of my prescription transitions lenses and replacement lenses are £360 a pair -I’ll live with the scratch. Expect to pay in the region of £450-500 for a set of sunglasses (new pair of Oakley rx with more expensive frames (225 frame only) cost me 300 yesterday as a point of comparison).

As for where to buy mine are from my normal local optician so I won’t recommend them as a source.because of geography

Jawbones (they’re now called Racing Jackets) with transitions lenses have been about the best thing I have ever bought for cycling.

I got mine from The Internet Optician, I think. Service was fine but not spectacular.

Thanks again, all. These fancy lenses then – are they very prone to scratching? Is there a coating you pay extra for and, if so, is it worth it? What’s the deal for clearing them when you get them plastered in crap? Ta.

They will scratch if you don’t take care of them. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not fragile but I see people stick their £100+ sunglasses in their camelbaks with their keys and wonder why they get scratched…

I’m not aware of any options that Oakley offer for extra scratch resistance. IME they’re plenty scratch resistant if you take even reasonable care with them. If you need to clean them when dirty, wash/rinse with water first to get the worst of the crap off and then clean with something that’s not gritty (your fingers if necessary).

Oh and in true STW style, not considered contacts rather than prescription lenses?

Mine have scratched a bit (little scratches due to grit), but to be honest not enough to notice when they are on your face.

Top tip: fit a front fork arch fender to keep mud off your face and protect your investment!

nemesis – thanks for this, more or less what I expected really. I’ll be happy to take good care of them after shelling out a small fortune. I considered contacts but the hassle of getting them in and out puts me off, especially since I won’t be wearing them often enough to master the technique in seconds. Also, I’d defo need to wear specs over contacts anyway, to keep the crap out.

BillOddie – got one already thanks. Good tip though.

Are you on a very low prescription then? I was really recommending them on a performance basis rather than cost. I reckon contacts are so much better than glasses that the benefits massively outweigh having to learn to put them in / out which comes round soon enough.

FWIW. I’m not particularly short sighted – when I started on contacts I only got them for doing sport but I found them so good that I ended up wearing them all the time.

Most companies do free trials too so there’s the chance to try for free.

nemesis – not sure what my prescription is, to be honest. I wear glasses for driving and watching TV, but for years I’ve not bothered for biking. Now it’s getting a joke though – the trail is very blurred, especially in low light, forests etc. How come the benefits of contacts are so big? Is it better vision, less hassle, cheaper? I could still be persuaded to give them a go.

It’s just that they basically give you perfect vision, not just perfect vision in the bit you can see through the glasses.

I certainly wouldn’t go back. The only time I wear glasses now is for really long flights when I’d want to kip and even then I usually put the contacts back in straight after.

Anyway, as I said, there are free trials. I’d give it a go before you shell out for expensive glasses as you’ll have lost nothing if you really don’t like them.

Hmm – food for thought. Might give the contacts a go with some cheapo safety specs on top. Anything’s likely to be an improvement on my current system, which is basically riding by braille. Cheers.

I’m probably going to end up soon with some Oakley Crosslink Switch glasses – you get two sets of ‘frames’ to mount the lenses in and whilst they’re obviously not frameless they haven’t got the thick frames my old Jawbones had which I didn’t link (got in the way looking over my shoulder for cars whilst commuting).

Then any optician can fit the lenses or Ciliary Blue can do them for pennies, at their prices it’d almost be a consumable item.

The hustler’s profile name is the-hustler-2 and he’s active on here. His email is in his profile.

+1 for rxsport.com here – just about to buy pair #2

Had a problem with my first pair (missed the custom part of my order) and they put it right straight away with no fuss at all.