Prescription cycling glasses

I’m after some prescription glasses for wearing on the bike. I used to wear contact lenses and have always worn whatever cheap Decathlon / Aldi sunnies are going and been happy with them.

Has anyone got any pointers? I’ve generally had glasses with swappable lenses to accomodate the weather, which I’m assuming won’t be at all cheap if I have direct glaze prescription lenses. Another option would be to go for some sort of transition lense – are they any cop? If I have glasses with an insert, am I going to notice it? Are they a pain in the neck?

As you might have guessed from the Decathlon / Aldi glasses I used to wear with contacts, I’m not right fussed about dropping £150+ on a set of Oakleys.

Can anyone point me at a good cheap place to get a set? I’m happy enough buying online or haggling with the optician etc…

your not going to get anything as cheap as the aldi/decatholon spec’s.

I’ve had a few of prescription cycling specs from the options. First was a pair of bolle with a prescrition lens insert and inerchangeable lenses – at the time they were about as good as you could get [Alex Zulle used to wear them] but they fogged a lot. Since then I’ve had a pair of clear lensed no name sports specs with a plastic frame that were ok but had a tendancy to slip down my nose when sweaty.
My current pair are Oakley’s fited with transition lenses. Wear them on every ride and can’t pick any faults with them – got them from vision express. [nb. don’t get the anti glare coating it scratches very easily]

Depends upon your prescription, if its low and simple then you can pretty much buy and use what you want, if its high and complicated then your options become really quite restricted.
I use Rudy Project Exception with impactx photochromic lenses which pretty much cover 95% of my riding, except when I’m in very sunny high altitude areas when I use smoke brown lenses. I’m waiting to find out from my opticians of the feasibility (and cost) of glazing a pair of the new Rudy Project Maya frames.

I just wear an opecspec 🙂

EBAY about $8 got a clear pair as well.

Boots are doing a £79 offer for two pairs of prescription sunglasses currently – get two pairs with different tints might be an option.

Prescription is -2.75 in both eyes, with a smidge of cyl. Not a complicated one.

Hadn’t thought of that option teef – noticed a few multibuy offers about but was struggling to find somewhere with a) decent sports glasses and b) decent normal sunnys. Will have a look next time I’m near a Boots.

Stan – what are the inserts like?

Specsavers are doing free reactions (transitions) lenses if you choose from £69 or above.
I use them in a titanium frame so £125 total.
Great in all conditions but not as dark in really sunny weather as full sunnies.
Anti reflective is fine, but shows up smears etc more, so takes more cleaning, so more likely to scratch.
Std reactions is hard coated.
Brown is better than grey as better contrast.
For high prescription can get 1.67 reactions (25% thinner and lighter) for sixty quid extra. Comes anti reflective as std.
Only 1.67 reactions recomended in rimless as std is too brittle.

I used to use bolle with inserts but the whole thing sits further away from face.
Also four lens surfaces to clean instead of two. Not that keen.

Sounds like direct glaze could be the way to go then. I generally end up using orange / yellow / bronze lenses most of the time (in fact, I think the grey / black lenses for my glasses are still in the packet), so I might be able to get away with some fairly straightforward lenses.

Transitions / photochromics would be another option – do they do different grades of transition like you get different levels of tint? They often seem to never quite go totally clear to me, and most of the time I don’t particularly want any tint.

I had a couple of pairs of Bollés with inserts, some issues with misting, but the ability to change the lenses was good. Then I had some Rudy Projects with inserts which were unusable as they made the lenses without accounting for the wrap-around – got my money back eventually. Currently using some Optilabs photochomic which are pretty good and I can’t fault Optilabs service.

I just have to stick with either my normal specs or the set of oakleys I had made. Oakley don’t recommend going above a certain amount of cyl with their frames, and seeing as my lenses are held in with sugru I can see why (and that’s after I got the optician to reduce the cyl).

I’d consider photochromics on the bike – but you can’t wear them on the street without looking odd.

Having had a look on the web this afternoon, it looks like Dixon glasses are the cheapest direct glaze option, and weigh in at just under £100. A few on here have mentioned looking at them but nobody seems to have bought them and commented on what they’re like.

I’m half tempted to go and see whether I can have have contacts again – if I had daily disposables I could stick them in a couple of times a week when I’m out on the bike.

Reactions go completely clear indoors. Outside, even when overcast you will have some tint.
Can’t tell when on, only looking from outside.
I use some standard plastic lenses with a yellow tint for really dull days.
You could always pay for the reactions £49 extra and take two for one offer and have a fixed tint in second pair. (£12)
Daily contacts also fine with protection. Go for silicon hydrogel for most oxygen transmition.
£30 for 30 pairs. Or £22 for normal dailies. Speccies again.

i have tried various tints on my prescription specs (inc. specsavers driving tint…quite good)

best option so far have been the ‘cocoons’ sunglasses that are designed to be worn over your regular specs.

they look a bit ‘ski-gogglish’ but block out way more unwanted uv. etc than conventional designs and comfy too! highly recommended.

best of luck!

Cheers for the info everyone!

I’m now completely undecided to be honest – need some prescription sunnies for general use, so there are a lot of “buy one” get XYZ or % off deals with the local opticians. And you get to try the things on before you buy.

Or I could pick up a set of BBB Optiviews for £40 and get the inserts glazed online for a few quid…