[kil0ran]

It’s finally got to the stage where my distance vision has degraded enough to warrant some prescription cycling glasses. Looking for recommendations – I’ve got my detailed prescription and given the lockdown will probably have to buy online.

Seems like there are two primary options – glazed prescription lenses and custom inserts for non-prescription lenses. Interested in hearing real-world pros and cons of both.

I’ll probably just go for single vision lenses (although I also have middle-aged short-sightedness so varifocals would be handy for seeing the Garmin/my phone).

Lenses should offer good side protection (lots of MTB in my life) and I think I prefer full frames rather than rimless. Oh and not huge lenses as I’m chubby in the face and hate having the base of my glasses come in contact with my face when I’m grimacing up that 5% incline 🙂

Topic

[Nixster]

Prescription Oakleys here

Prescription Oakleys here from Rx Sport. Good service and after sales. I broke one of the lenses when reinserting it, superglued it, struggled on for 6 months then gave up and asked to buy a replacement, which I got for free. Very impressed with that!

Mine are variofocal and photochromic and made a huge difference to how much I enjoyed riding. Expensive and I might have got away with bifocals but worth it to me.

[Mathemagician]

I got a pair of prescription
I got a pair of prescription Oakley sunglasses from Extreme Eyewear, and can’t recommend them highly enough. The first set had a slight bulge in one of the lenses which meant the frames didn’t close properly (Oakley Racing Jacket, which are full frame but still have removable lenses). I showed them the issue via a video upload and they sent me a new set of frames (to check it wasn’t the frames), followed by lenses after that after I still had the same problem with different frames. All the while just letting me keep hold of the spare frame and lenses which meant I wasn’t going without sunglasses. Can’t recommend their customer service highly enough.

[Spangly Shiny]

I have used Oakley Whisker

I have used Oakley Whisker frames with a varifocal prescription for 6 years, just getting them reglazed every time the prescription changed. However this most recent prescription change I tried something different. I got a bifocal, based on a varifocal prescription. So there was the distance prescription and a reading prescrioption at the bottom of the lens.

I could have gone for  a single distance prescription lens which is sufficient to read the Wahoo thingey but I wanted the reading part in case of a mechanical (otherwise I’d have to carry the main specs just in case).

I got them from Selectspecs, choosing their Aero 8107 model. Frame, lenses and Transitions photochromic coatings for £85, much less than reglazing the Oakleys. 

Being all plastic they are much lighter on the nose than the Oakleys and they actually perform better at protecting from the wind – no more watering eyes at 30mph plus. Overall I’m pretty impressed with them.

Oakleys on the left.

 

[TheBillder]

I got my prescription
I got my prescription sunglasses from spex4less. They were not the absolute cheapest but could supply lenses with details like prism correction. £75 or thereabouts a couple of years ago. I’ve been very happy with them – seem decent optically, frame quality is fine and they look ok – there’s a lot of choice of styles but not many looked right for cycling.

The ones with inserts look a bit nose-heavy to me and that’s a pet hate of mine.

I am short sighted and don’t quite yet need varifocals to read the Garmin. Obviously varifocals will put the price up but when the day comes I’ll try the stick-on films from Amazon first, because I’m a miser.

[kil0ran]

Great feedback thanks – that

Great feedback thanks – that pretty much rules out using inserts for me as I always have clearance issues with frames.

So direct glazed, and probably Optilabs as I can try the frames

[morgyporg]

I’ve had a pair with
I’ve had a pair with prescription inserts, the inserts sit closer to your face than normal glasses which can be annoying if you’ve got long eyelashes. Also there are two lenses to fog up, I rode in snow once and ended up riding without them because I couldn’t see a thing through them.
I’ve got direct glazed ones now, a pair of Oakleys which are great albeit pricey and a pair of photochromic ones from optilabs. I’d definitely recommend optilabs, I managed to lose the nose bridge after a year and they just sent me a new one. I think they will send you frames to try on as well.

[kil0ran]

Ta, contacts are a “No, god

Ta, contacts are a “No, god no” for me as I’m borderline phobic about things being anywhere near my eyes – I don’t even get on with the wrap around vizor style glasses currently popular in the peloton.

[Woldsman]

The answer, of course, is

The answer, of course, is contact lenses, but maybe have a wade through this recent thread on the CTC’s forum…

https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=140935&hilit=Prescription+cycling+glasses

[Author]

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