After another eye infection – and this one a bit scary after ending up in the eye hospital – I am close to giving up on contact lenses for riding. Considering prescription glasses with transition type lenses so I can use them for night riding as well.

RXSPORT seem a good start. Sending me three frames so I can decide which – if any – I want prescription lens’s in.

Interested in experiences from riders who have done that. I really don’t like wearing glasses (at all) but coming to the conclusion that abusing my eyeballs with rubbish lenses for many years may mean that’s the only game in town. Had two ‘wake up’ calls in the last twelve months and there’s nothing replaceable about eyes!

Have a look at cilary blue for lenses.
They fitted transition lenses to Oakley five squared frames.
Came to less than £120 all in.

What do you put the infection(s) down to?

Not meticulous enough cleaning your hands?

Re-usable lenses or disposable?

Do you wear riding glasses over your contacts?

Well I asked the eye doctor and they came up with all sorts from ‘riding without glasses and getting something stuck in the eye’ to ‘contact lens contamination’ to ‘eye ulcers’. I have the very thin dailys I used for riding and bi-weekly’s that are super, super thin. I am – after the optician showing me what I had been doing to my eyes – extremely meticulous in cleaning them or at least I thought I was.

Problem is I had 20ish years of wearing lenses that were not very breathable and I used to leave them in far too long. So I think I’m going to try and see if I can get on without lenses at all. Makes me feel old tho. There’s a reason for that 😉

Generally I wear glasses over contacts for riding but didn’t as I forgot my clear ones for last weeks night ride. Next night, massive infection. Could be co-incidence.

Been doing some research and I like the idea of transition/directly moulded lenses into Oakley frames. Lots of cash but wonder how many more ‘warnings’ I can have before something very bad happens. Might be over-reacting!

I’ll take a look at those Dave_E. Ta.

I went from contacts with clear glasses to prescription transitions oakleys. TBH, I could never ride without glasses over my contacts anyway – I just found that my eyes/contacts dried out – so there are no real disadvantages in comparison, and the transitions lenses are fine. Based on my research people generally find a brown tint beat for riding. It’s what I have and it works.

Just be aware of a few things about them. They don’t work in the car – they will stay clear as there is no UV. For this reason, I’d go for a design that looks alright with clear lenses. My Oakley Scalpels look daft and that’s an understatement. Nice to be able to wear them in the pub/cafe or whatever too. If you ride in very bright conditions (chance would be nice as I live in Scotland) then be aware that they can take a minute or so to lose their tint. So, if you go from bright open hillside to dark woods then they can struggle to keep up. I’ve never had a problem with this in practice. Perhaps in the alps. Depending on your prescription you can be quite limited on choice of frame with many simply being an insert behind a non prescription lense. This is because Sunglasses generally have a bigger curve to the front of the frame which makes them unsuitable for higher prescriptions (it distorts the vision). I’m +3 in one eye which is beyond Oakley range. I found an optition that would make this to order claiming special techniques which would get round this. Not so. Stick to manufacturer specs on limits. Mine are bearable, but they are only .5 beyond what Oakley do.

I have health insurance through work so I get glasses essentially for free up to a yearly limit, but otherwise mine were around 320 which for me is pretty steep.

Sorry for poor spelling…I’m on my phone with large fingers. 🙂

Hope that helps.

It does. Thanks. Although someone else I know swears by the grey lenses. I’ll ask whoever I buy then from. I think wearing glasses all the time is a good idea based on how often I seem to smack into the vegetation! It’s the stopping/steaming up thing that cheeses me off, but again we’re back to small problems versus damaged vision.

On that note, it’s time for Mr. Antibiotic Eye Drop again. At least I can now look at the monitor without going all Gremlin “ARRRGGH BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT” 😉

Oh and I have a set of ‘driving prescription sunglasses’. I did feel they should come with a set of stringy driving gloves and something beige in the trouser department!