[road]

Do coloured lenses make a difference for cycling? I’ve read the suggested yellow for this, blue for that but I’m not certain. I’ve currently got yellow lenses in my prescription glasses which are needing replacement and I’m wondering whether to get coloured or clear. I can’t currently afford photochromic ones but will consider them if they’re really worth it in people’s opinion.
I ride a mix of road and gravel with these glasses on so am looking for a general purpose lens colour.

Topic

[Nick T]

I wasn’t really talking about

I wasn’t really talking about Aldi (a retailer like that selling sunglasses will have to ensure that their stock does as advertised, I’d have no qualms wearing a 5 quid pair of theirs), more the knockoff Faux-kley lenses etc you can buy for pennies from aliexpress or genuinely cheap rubbish off a guy’s blanket stall in front of the Eiffel Tower 

[Sriracha]

Nick T wrote:

Nick T wrote:

[b]Cheap[/b]/knockoff sunglasses [b]in general [/b]are potentially very damaging, as they often won’t have genuine UV protection – so the dark tint opens your pupils up to increased ultraviolet damage. Like buying fake sun cream for your holiday, it’s a false economy

I think that’s a bit strong. If you read cases where they actually measure UV protection you find that it’s not as scary as the over priced brand name merchants would like you to fear. Any £5 job from Aldi or Lidl will be just as good against UV. That’s not too surprising, since polycarbonate is naturally opaque to UV, it does not need any special sauce from Oakley. It just isn’t difficult or costly to make them UV proof.

P.S. https://www.bikebiz.com/theyre-just-bits-of-plastic-why-cyclists-buy-fake-oakleys/

[Nick T]

Cheap/knockoff sunglasses in

Cheap/knockoff sunglasses in general are potentially very damaging, as they often won’t have genuine UV protection – so the dark tint opens your pupils up to increased ultraviolet damage. Like buying fake sun cream for your holiday, it’s a false economy

[hawkinspeter]

I think the theory is

I think the theory is probably more interesting (in a nerdy way) that the actual experiment as it’s a bit underwhelming.

Here’s a handy explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcqZHYo7ONs

or

https://www.alienryderflex.com/polarizer/

[Welsh boy]

I will be popping all my

I will be popping all my polarised lenses out later to give that a try, it sounds interesting.

[hawkinspeter]

Kapelmuur wrote:

How can you tell whether lenses are Polarised?

I have a drawer full of sunnies some of which were sold as Polarised but the labels have come off and I don’t remember which is which.

If you’ve got a device with an LCD display like a watch or calculator (I think phones will work too), then look at it through a lens and then turn the lens – if it’s polarised the display (which is polarised) will turn black. Similarly, if you’ve got one known polarised lens, then putting that in front of another lens and turning it will also make it block light at certain angles.

Another way is to find somewhere that there’s lots of glare from a wet road or lake or something horizontal and again, turn the unknown lens and at certain angles it will block the glare.

A “fun” trick if you’ve got three polarised lenses is to demonstrate how light is quantum and not classical – put the three lenses so that they overlap at different angles. Where there’s no overlap, lots of light can pass; where there’s two lenses overlapping hardly any light will pass, but where all three overlap, there’ll be more light transmitted than with just two overlapping.

[Kapelmuur]

How can you tell whether

How can you tell whether lenses are Polarised?

I have a drawer full of sunnies some of which were sold as Polarised but the labels have come off and I don’t remember which is which.

[EddyBerckx]

Be wary of cheap/fake lenses

Be wary of cheap/fake lenses/frames – I’ve seen some nasty accident aftermaths where fake oakleys etc shatter and impale the rider…they may look the same, but they are not made or tested to the same tolerances and so on (not to say they are not overpriced)

[Sriracha]

I just use polarising
I just use polarising sunglasses, because that really does make a difference – I think they have an orangey-brownish tint. Polarising selectively cuts the glare reverberating off tarmac (especially wet tarmac) and most other surfaces (except shiny metal), so colours are more vibrant even whilst the overall brightness is dialled down.

I’d never pay top dollar for fancy names, but that’s me. However it is worth making sure both lenses have the axis of polarisation exactly aligned, otherwise you get wierd effects, especially looking at choppy water (one eye gets bright spots off the ripples, the other doesn’t, etc).

[joncomelately]

I previously had a pair of

I previously had a pair of Oakley M-Frames that I used on the bike when I stopped needing eye protection at work. I had a clear lens that I used at night or really gloomy. Otherwise I swapped in their VR28 coloured lens, which is kind of browny, and that did me from sun up to sun down whatever the weather. Got fed up of the wind around the M-Frame sides, but the VR28 colour goes across their range. I don’t know whether they can do that in prescription or prescription-friendly tho.

[Welsh boy]

Some years ago i had blue

Some years ago i had blue lenses, they were really easy on the eye when riding, i then tried some red ones which gave me terrible headaches and, as the others have already said, yellow ones make a grey day seem much brighter.

I have (non Oakley) photochromis lenses in my Oakley frames, have a look on ebay, you might be able to get some for whatever glasses you wear, prices start from about £12, might be worth trying before you splash out on expensive ones.

[Chris Hayes]

You can get coloured cycling

You can get coloured cycling glasses from Decathlon for about £3.99, I think.  Try some out.  You don’t need to spend a fortune.   I use yellow on grey days….it sometimes surprises me how grey and miserable it is when I take them off.  

[EddyBerckx]

I use photochromic pretty
I use photochromic pretty much exclusively in my oakleys, they just work for all conditions.

I do have a fancy “prizm road” lens they were touting as he best thing since sliced bread a couple years back but honestly…unless you’re constantly swapping and comparing lenses it’s really hard to see much difference, and you’ll forget any difference within 30 seconds riding anyway.

I think the yellow lens does make dull days appear brighter, but not sure about the others

[Drinfinity]

I have photochromic

I have photochromic prescription Oakleys, which were super expensive (although less than a fairly ordinary wheelset). I wear them for road, MTB, cross, kayaking and have had them several years – they don’t owe me much. Optical quality is excellent, and the photochromic is great for MTB routes in and out of woodland.

Colour – probably more fashion than function. I had a more bronze tint in the past, current are a grey smoke. I prefer the grey, only because the coloured ones made the sky look much more threatening than reality.

A cheaper alternative is to go for a wraparound lens for light attenuation, with clear prescription lenses behind. Then you could have a range of colours to suit the light and your mood.

Apparently Melon is a popular colour if you can put up with the spammy flavour.

[Author]

Replies