Varifocals Lens’ and Riding

Morning all,

I have recently been advised to consider wearing glassess for driving long distances and that there is aslo a slight deterioration in my near vision too.  The optician said I would not need to wear these all the time and suggested a set of varifocals to save having two pairs of glasses.  I am curious therefore what is peoples experience of varifocals and riding, particularly off road.  I can see the logic in better distance vision for looking further down the trail, obstacle awareness and line choice.  I am however unsure as to the “vertigo like effect” they described people getting when flicking between the top and bottom part of the lens and how much of a menace this might be whilst out riding.

Currently my thinking is that I should stick with a pair of distance glassess for driving and then consider changing up in furture as and when the need dictates but this is all new ground to me so thoughts and suggestions are welcome please.

I ride with varifocals & don’t notice a vertigo effect.

It did take me a while to get used to them in general use, but once the “bedding in” period was over they were fine for riding.

I do have specific riding glasses as in my normal riding position I look over the top of my day to day glasses.

I also have verifocals … been with them umpteen years now ? the first couple of wears were interesting but after that no problems at all. You do adapt to moving your head more than your eyes so that quick flick of the eye to go from down the trail to down by the front tyre becomes a more pronounced head movement instead.

It took me a couple of weeks to adjust, especially when switching focus between near and far. Off-road riding might feel tricky at first, but once your eyes get used to it, it’s a lot smoother.

I’ve worn glasses (long and short) for a few years now and keep avoiding varifocals. The opticians seem rather keen on pushing them on you.

I’m happy to keep a pair of prescription readers with me.

Despite my vision getting noticeably worse each year, I find I can still ride fine without my prescription at all though. If you are only on a mild prescription and don’t feel like it would compromise your safety, I wouldn’t rush into prescription glasses for cycling

The other option is bifocals which have been great for me. Apparently they are less aesthetic because others can see a line in the lens but frankly i couldn’t give a ………..

So most of the lens is distance with a small area of near at the bottom. Once your Brain has learnt them they just work. They are also cheap with no distortion

Another option if you just need the near vision for say navigating is bifocal safety specs of Amazon. Or you can buy stick on near vision patches for your super cool riding glasses

I just got my first set of varifocals this week(3 days ago) Though not really noticing much difference or in the way of problems while riding, though there i prefer to either look fully down, or not glance down given the focal is that different.

Currently trying to stop myself looking over the top of them.

I’ve worn spex since I was a kid. Prefer protective glasses fur riding with contact lenses. They don’t bounce.
As my close vision is poor with standard corrective contacts in I use one multi focal contact lens ( in the less dominant eye). Magic. My ophthalmologist is a mountain biker and recommended.
I wouldn’t use that lens combination all day at a computer screen, but the lenses are great for riding and I can see my phone screen fine.

I have varifocals, but my distance vision is almost spot on and fine for riding.  I ride in bifocal safety glasses  which enable me to read menus and my Garmin, fix a puncture etc.

https://www.voltxsafety.com/

Eta I sometimes ride road in the varifocals  but not off road.  That is mainly for fear of knackering an expensive pair, but also the weirdness.

No problem with them here. More than likely depends on your prescription. I can pass the driving licence eye test without glasses (which is bonkers) but I’d never drive (or ride) without glasses. ?

I think we all have different experiences and what will work for one person won’t work for another.

I can only say that I’ve had varifocals for many years now and never had any problems adapting to them at all, got on with them fine from day1.  I have a normal pair, a sunglasses pair, and a riding specific pair that are also photochromatic and I think they are great. But that might not be the case for the OP.

Having worn glasess since about 1979, I started wearing contact lenses (monthly disposables at first, cleaned overnight, eventually moving to daily disposables) for sports in 1990 and did so for years. When I gave up playing volleyball a few years ago, I stopped wearing them as I can’t really justify them just for biking and skiing – I can do both of those in specs, and the plastic waste of daily disposables doesn’t sit well with my preference to be as eco-friendly as is reasonably possible.

Two year ago my eyes reached the piont where I neeed different prescriptions for reading and distance and I went the whoel hog and got photochromic varifocals. I wear them for everything – biking, skiing, reading, working, living. Took me a couple of days to get used to them and now wouldn’t go back.

I wear varifocals for riding (and work) and wouldn’t go back to anything else unless I had no other choice. It didn’t take long to get used to them and now I can put them on a the start of a ride and forget I’m wearing them. In the end I bit the bullet and paid for a prescription pair (from RxSport) because I couldn’t get on with inserts (and getting transitions lenses at the same time was a bonus). I’ve never had the vertigo effect with varifocals, although with fixed focus lenses (in inserts) I occasionally had something like the vertigo effect on steep inclines (one of the reasons I tried varifocals).

I wear varifocals all day every day, have done for six or seven years now. No vertigo, there’s about an hours’ worth of mild oddness when I get a new prescription but that’s it.

I have a posh pair from the local opticians for daily wear, and two cheap pairs (one clear, one tinted) from Goggles4U for riding in and if/when I need sunglasses.

I have worn occupational varifocals for 5 years now. They did take some adjusting too, but I am now fine wearing them all the time, even though they do nothing for my longer vision.

That said my long vision is now going and it was suggested at last eye test that next time I may want to go with two sets of glasses.

I have multi/varifocals or whatever they are called now – the most expensive Zeiss lenses. TBH, I don’t even notice any ‘transition’ at all and wear them all day every day. The only time they come off is when I am doing really close-up work like wiring a plug or somesuch.

I’ve been using varifocals for about 8 years now – not really any issues with them unless I’m not quite sitting in the right distance from my screen at work. I quickly adjust and all is fine. Absolutely no issues whilst biking and the only other issue I really have now is trying to do some really really close up work, and I just remove my glasses now.

I don’t think I took much time to adapt to the varifocals as they seemed to really just work. I did have a wee bit of time to work out where to place stuff to look at it without having to tip my head back or forward like a really old person tends to do – that didn’t take long to adjust to though, but I think it was still a couple of weeks before it was all just happening properly automatically.