banerjek

What do people use for slop weather eye protection in the dark?

The cycling glasses I've tried so far are mediocre at repelling water, get scratched too easily, and the cheaper one have terrible optics. Safety glasses I've tried are absolutely hopeless. I have not found RainX to be helpful with lenses that are bad with water, despite being a fan of the product for automotive use.

BobbyG

I understand your problem. Been wearing glasses since I was 4. I commute year round, so I ride home in the dark five months a year, and occasionally in the rain and snow, and very often with road spray and other moisture.. Been doing it seriously for 26 years.

Thanks to something I read here on BF, about 10 years ago I began cleaning my glasses with hand soap and warm water. The soap acts as a surfactant and helps the lenses repel water, like Rain X. It also helps keep them from fogging. They still sometimes fog when I stop at a light, but clear up quickly. And in light to moderate rain, the drops don't cling to the lenses.

I don't wear cycling glasses per se, by which I assume you mean rounded, curved goggles that fit the contour of your face. I merely wear an old pair of glasses. And sometimes in heavy rain or misty conditions I just have to tilt my head down and peer out over the tops of the glasses. I can't focus too well, but I can see better than through the obstructed lenses.

That's what I do; your mileage may vary.

fietsbob

I don't , but you tried Rain-X on cheap safety glasses?

In a Fishing Port town, My rain gear inckudes Sou'wester hat , fold in the front is like a rain gutter..
and a fleece toque or beret under it , for my head to be warmer ..

fietsbob

combo with cycling rain cape.. (fairweather RBW Site pix)

pdlamb

Like @BobbyG, I haven't found anything that works really well on any kind of glasses in precipitation heavier than a light mist.

Three things that have helped in heavier rain:
1. Cycling cap with the bill flipped down.
2. MTB helmet with a visor.
3. Flip-up cycling glasses with a prescription lens underneath.

All three of those sort of work, and the mechanism in all three cases is obviously keeping rain off the glasses.

banerjek

This is what I do -- it's proven most effective of all the things I've tried. It's cheap, easy, and fast. I'm looking for better lenses to do this with

I do the same on slower sections. However, my commute includes steep hills where I can break 40mph so even water flying in the eyes isn't great.

I have.

The RainX did not work nearly as well on the cheap safety glasses as it did elsewhere -- I'd go so far as to call it useless. Moreover, it seemed to make the glasses more vulnerable to fogging despite being vented.

My experience is that cycling specific glasses perform noticeably better, aside from having better side protection.

banerjek

There is a choose your poison aspect to this problem. For 10 years, I had a commute along a busy 2 lane highway where everyone was driving 65. The grime and road spray was so bad that wearing glasses in the wet was out of the question. So I wore cheap sunglasses that I'd popped the lenses out of so I could still use my mirror. The technique is effective even if dorky looking. However, I routinely hit speeds on my current commute that really call for eye protection, especially in cold weather.

CliffordK

I'm still a glass lens holdout (now glass safety glasses). It looks like I've picked up a few scratches, but I get pretty good life out of the lenses. I've started using shop goggles when grinding to help protect the glass.

The lenses get wet

But, I can peer through the water OK, and sometimes if it is really bad, look over the top of the frames.

I can see OK without glasses, but the glasses do help.

caloso

This is why God gave us cycling caps.

79pmooney

Another lifelong glasses wearer. I wear regular wire rimmed glasses (now bifocal). In light rains, I have been known to wipe my glasses with my finger, either bare or gloved, not to remove the water so much as to smooth it out to a film. Heavy enough rains and the film just happens.

I also find visors can help a lot. I use them anyways to block sun and hold mirrors so it is always on. (I outgrew needing to be race-sexy and uncomfortable a long time ago.)

Ben

CliffordK

I've taken the visors off all of my helmets because they block the top of the visual field.

But, I've been thinking of alternatives.

no motor?

This is just a seat of the pants suggestion that may not even be appropriate, but in off road motorcycling the use removable layers of plastic to cover a pair of goggles. The removable layers (tear offs) get discarded when desired, revealing a much cleaner layer underneath. https://www.motosport.com/dirtbike/goggle-tear-offs

mcours2006

I've given up trying to keep glasses clear of water when it rains heavily and just carry a small cloth handy for wiping whenever I come to a stop. With the lens close to your eyes vision isn't an issue at slower speeds, but if you're descending at 40 mph I can understand your concern. A cycling cap with a bigger bill might work well enough to keep the rain off the lens in the first place.

Notso_fastLane

Rain-X is designed specifically to work with glass, not plastics or lexan that are typically used for eye glasses.

Maguiar's makes a plastic polish specifically designed for clear plastic. https://www.meguiars.com/automotive/...0-10-oz-liquid

We also use Maguiar's on our aircraft windscreens (they don't have any wipers, and rely on the speed of the aircraft to shed water).

That's the best I've found. I use it on inexpensive safety glasses that I buy from Home Depot. I use the glasses on my bicycles, and my motorcycles. It beads water almost as good as Rain-X on a windshield, and it's pretty good for anti-fogging as well. For just anti-fog, though, plain dish soap seems to work better. It needs to be applied more frequently, but it is cheap and easy, so who cares.