After using Endura Stingray's for a few years & wearing out the arm tips down to raw metal, I'm considering upgrading to some oakley Jawbreakers and am wondering if anybody has experience of using the photochromic lens.
What's the change / switching response like, and are they usable for night rides (the spec says 23% & 69% for the extents of light transmission). I'm hoping they might be an all year / all seasons option.
I have the grey Transitions and have been using them for night rides for about 6 years.
I have Oakley prescription grey transitions in a flak jacket. They are awesome for nighttime (I play floodlit tennis in them) as they go about 90% clear and the definition is great.
They are very slow at transitioning though, so not good for riding sunlight into dark woods.
Have the Oakley photochromics for road that I use most of the time. Don’t like them for night rides though and switch to a clear lense. I guess off road with the power of a small sun on your bars it might be a different experience.
I should have said; mine are prescription lenses and I'm too tight to be a clear set too 🙂
While ok for night riding, they do seem to get confused by winter daytime conditions e.g. in poor or fading light, they darken/tint I guess getting tricked by snow into thinking it’s brighter than actually is.
Probably only an issue on a few days a year biking, but would certainly stop me using for skiing.
I have Oakley Jawbones with a green transition lens from Cilary Blue. Been using them for all my riding day and night and they’ve been great - I also have clear lenses but never use them as the transition does everything well enough for me!
I've had prescription oakley photochromic lenses in Flak 2.0's for about 3 years and really rate them for about 70% of the mountain biking I do, inc night rides.
On really bright summer days or sunny winter road rides, when the sun is low and there's glare off the road I'll switch to darker polorised lenses.
Fine for me, use them all the time for commuting where it's light one way and dark the other.
Take a look at Rad8 MTB Glasses if you're after some photochromic glasses. Been using the 502 for the last year and are my go-to glasses for day and night commutes and general riding about. Lenses are practically clear out of UV light. The 504 frames are different styling but same spec lenses although the new Mudhugger spec errrr...specs, have a new,quicker reacting lense. Good price too.
I have oakley's but stopped short of they're own reactions lenses as my wallet reacted to the price. I had the lenses made to fit and work just fine at night as they're virtually totally clear.
Thanks for the comments & tips. I've been able to borrow a friend's Radar EV's for a couple of rides which were great but not enough coverage for mud flinging. Now have another friend's Jawbreakers to test but without going on the bike i can already see they're not a good fit: it seems i have quite a wide nose bridge which pushes the frames upwards & leaves enough gap for a finger or two, so am looking at Addidas Evil Eye Evo's which appear to have built-in adjustability.
Regarding Photochromatic etc lenses, my optician explained (duh) that as they only react to UV light then won't be a problem for night rides however bright the lights are, but depends how clear the lenses go when no UV present.
Will order a couple from RxSport who have a substantial range & free returns...