First Optical Prescription

Hi folks,

At 49 just been diagnosed with needing prescription glasses for driving Sph -1.0, cycl -1.50 in each eye.  Told I am legal to drive without specs but as I keep hitting potholes will wear them for driving particularly at night.

Optician said wise to wear for skiing or biking but not short sighted so particularly blurry when reading with the sample specs on.  I am a big fan of Oakley having a load of non prescription glasses for day to day, driving, skiing and mtb with various lense tints including prizm trail.

Has anyone had any issues with near sight when wearing distance lenses whilst riding trail tech?  Also thinking of getting inserts which I can swap between my EVZero and Radar glasses.   Anyone any experiences?  Glazed from SVED in the US or unglazed from Saucer in the UK and then a prescription lense inserted.

Saucer plus glazing seems to be best value.

Help.

Thanks

Alan

Yep I’ve worn contacts at -1 for 25 years now I either need to wear them as usual and put up with fuzzy reading or wear contacts and then glasses for reading or glasses for long and onto forehead for reading.

Old age does come itself.

Optician said wise to wear for skiing or biking but not short sighted

A minus prescription says you ARE short sighted. It’s a very mild prescription though and as the optician says you are OK for driving without glasses I would suggest you ought to be OK to ride without glasses.

I have clip in inserts (much stronger prescription) and they work fine for me.

Which insert company did you use and what glasses?  I am planning on wearing Oakley Radars or EV Zero with the inserts from Saucer..

Mine are a pair of old Adidas Evil Eye which I got because my optician stocked them. The inserts (Adidas own) were glazed by the workshop they use. I’m currently looking for a new pair of specs and having a bit of trouble determining who does inserts to take my -10 prescription.

I’d be surprised if you are legal to drive TBH.

I’d be surprised if you are legal to drive TBH.

I wouldn’t be.

I think my prescription is similar strength, I’m certainly legal to drive without (the required standard is piss-poor) but I do keep a pair in the car, which is the only place I regularly wear them. Noticeable difference in how easily I can read signs etc. Also wear at things like lectures (scientific graphs projected on a distant screen etc) and maybe cinema etc, rarely go to either though. Guess I could wear them a bit more, the world is a clearer place for sure, but some things are better in soft focus especially as we get a bit older 🙂

Never considered for cycling, but my wife is a little worse and uses contacts a fair bit, which she prefers these days over prescription cycling specs (having tried numerous pairs of the latter over the years).

Sph -1.0, cycl -1.50 in each eye.

Cyl -1.5? That prescription is mostly for astigmatism, so I’m not sure that others’ experience with plain spherical only prescriptions will be directly applicable. (There should also be an angle figure to go with the cyl correction.)

@slowoldman at a mere – 8 I feel for you.

Do you have issues with the weight of the inserts at – 10 or fugging up? I always wear contact lenses which has been great until I go on a multi day bikepacking trip

That’s mild short-sighted, close to my prescription.  I wear prescription lenses for riding and skiing and the like, finding the inconvenience of removing them for map reading preferable to squinting trying to make out distant landmarks and signage.

What about contact lenses for riding?

I wear one in my right eye; nothing in my left.

Works a treat and riding 4x / week costs me £12/mo.

Otherwise I use prescription glasses only for driving. I am legal without them but it’s scary at night.

Do you have issues with the weight of the inserts at – 10 or fugging up?

No not at all. The Adidas inserts are quite small and I have 1.67 index lenses in them. They are much lighter than my normal specs with “full size” lenses. Other makes seem to have larger inserts which although being arguably better for field of vision makes for bigger lenses with thicker edges making them more difficult to squeeze in behind the lenses or shield on cycling glasses.

I have worn contact lenses in the past but I find they dry my eyes out and vision simply isn’t as good as specs.

I’m a wee bit.more short sighted than the OP and this needs them most of the time, I quite like the look of the inserts you can get for the Radar path EV but I can’t afford that sort of spend something I’ll probably break one day.

Instead I have a pair of Tifosi ‘Rail’ with a colour changy lens and ‘Podium XC’ with swappable lenses, both of which take the same insert, which was also silly cheap.

Generally there’s no issues with fogging unless it’s very wet and I go from furious activity to standing about like a great steaming lemon (so group MTB rides). I would assume Oakleys are way better though because expensive.

What about contact lenses for riding?

Nah, poke myself in the eye then head out to mix a bit of grit in with the lenses and/or maybe bounce them out? Happy enough with specs cheers.

I am legal to drive without specs but as I keep hitting potholes will wear them for driving particularly at night.

Unless you’re driving on low-speed urban roads, potholes are almost impossible to spot and avoid at night, especially when roads are as badly damaged as they are now. Especially when it’s raining, because they’re full of water and the road is wet. Even if you might spot a pothole at 50-60 mph, you’re going to be so close to it swerving to avoid it, unless it’s close to the verge, is almost impossible. Having trashed two alloys on the same nearside hole that extended out nearly a metre into the road in the dark.

Thanks folks, went with the Saucer insert from Amazon, £29.99 and then needs glazed.  Told it would be circa £45 for a set of basic lenses with anti scratch and anti reflective.  £75 to experiment isn’t too bad compared to £400 for prescription Oakleys.

@Monster101 Have you got the Saucer inserts yet? If so how are they? Do they fit well in your Radars?

Got clip-in RX Inserts that nicely fit some Chinese ‘Choakleys’ made by In-Bike. Minus 4.5, so can’t see without them.

I’m mildly short sighted with a -1.5 in one eye and -0.75 in the other.

I used to wear prescription specs for riding but have stopped and haven’t noticed a massive difference in speed etc.

I used to have inserts then had proper prescription oakleys. Had issues with fogging being double glazed…

I still were prescription glasses/sunnies for driving though.