Prescription Cycling Glasses

srchar wrote:

Order a pair of replacement Oakley frames (a split frame like the Racing Jacket)  from their warranty phone line (£40) and take them to your optician to get them glazed with reactive lenses.

Srchar, can you explain further?  What does “split frame” mean here?  Are the lenses held between a pair of front and back mouldings that clip together?  Which Oakley frames are “split frames”?

Do your prescription lenses completely replace the original glazing?

A photograph would be appreciated.

Order a pair of replacement

Order a pair of replacement Oakley frames (a split frame like the Racing Jacket)  from their warranty phone line (£40) and take them to your optician to get them glazed with reactive lenses.

The best thing I have ever bought for on-bike comfort.

I was gutted to discover,

I was gutted to discover, after deciding  to not endure the torment that my use of contact lenses had become and after getting a lovely pair of Oakley perscription frames which the optician put in lenses, that Oakley do not make their lenses powerful enough for my percription.  So no Iridium lenses. 

I did without sunglasses for a while.  Too many years of finding the sun too bright, and several pairs of really bad oakley percription frames, I thought I would get myself a pair of sunglasses that could also be used as my spare pair.  I found to my delight that there is quite a market for second hand oakleys on ebay.  Found the sunglasses version of the glasses that I had loved for many Years, Ti Zeros, and got my optician to make up a set of my shockingly complex and expensive tinted lenses for them.  As I wanted them as emergency spares I went slightly lighter than I may have done for full on sunnys.

The original perscription Zeros frame had had slightly narrower lenses, as my lenses get quite fat at the edges, but since I had them, they have created a coating that reduces distortion towards the edges, and it really works, there’s still a little bit of “squeezing” but nothing like without it.  It’s so good when looking through the tops to look down the road or the sides when looking behind.  So good that I got the coating rather than the option of a mirrors coating, and I love the mirror thing.

Got my real glasses done all the same way, spare parts.

If you want to go down the

If you want to go down the more conventional sports sunglasses route then Honillesi on AliExpress might be to your liking. I’ve had everyday glasses from them and the lens and frame quality has been excellent.

My experience of the Jawbreaker clones from eBay or AliExpress is that the ones I’ve handled and used have been better than my Kaga’s.

I’ve used the Rudy Project

I’ve used the Rudy Project clip on insert for a fair while now with zero problems.

Took a bit of getting used to but now they are spot on.

I’ve used Kaga and they use a
I’ve used Kaga and they use a clipon prescription frame that mounts to the bridge piece of the main sunglasses frame. This clipon cracked in mine after a couple of months and I had to superglue it back together.

You can get similar and cheaper prescription glasses off AliExpress if you have your prescription.

I’ll post more details later when I get back from work.

A quick look at their website
A quick look at their website suggests that the prescription lenses all sit behind the main eye shield. This can be alright as long as the prescription lens frame doesn’t change position as you ride (I’m looking at you, Rudy Project) and the prescription lens doesn’t get brushed by your eyelashes (they leave greasy marks). There’s another problem. You will get annoying dirt and fluids lodged in the space between the lens and the shield, so make sure it’s easy and quick to temporarily remove the prescription lens frame. I’ve used Optilabs wrap arounds, where the main eyeshields are formed from prescription lenses. They don’t wrap around quite as much of your face as real, prescription less wraparounds, but they do a good job of keeping insects out of your eyes and have various photochromic, tinted or partially mirrored options.
Try for fit, before you buy and if you use bifocals or varifocals, bear in mind that you’ll be looking down, with your eyes tilted up when cycling, so you need to get the optical centre of the bit that gives you good distance perception, higher than normal.
For people that only need reading glasses, there was a company at the London Bike show with sports glasses with a reading insert at the bottom, allowing you to read the gizmos on your bars.