bpcyclist

I have to wear bifocals now and am also almost totally color blind. It's weird but there was a period in the 90s when I was running a lot of marathons and Nike was for some reason making orange lensed sunglasses. They were well-made and worked great for me, but I did not need glasses then.

Now, I am virtually blind from a reading point of view without my glasses, though I can see distance okay without them. If I wear my one pair of cheapie sunglasses on a ride, I would have to take my bifocals with, mostly in case there were an emergency and I needed to use the phone or google or text someone or look at the map closely on RWGPS. My glasses are good quality, but they both came with soft cases, so I had been putting them in the left front pocket of my Proziz vest (I ride at night), so as not to crush them in a tight rear pocket. Well, apparently, I am an idiot, because I got home last week and my favorite pair of the two had snapped an earpiece in two. 275 bucks. Idiot!

Huh, this post is not what I posted exactly. Hmm. Anyhow, editing here. The bottom line is that I am now riding without sunglasses and with my bifocals on. I don't like it, because they slip off my nose and I have to deal with the sun. It's very expensive to get prescription anything, so I guess I am stuck with this for now.

I had one good backup pair of bifocals, but if I break those, that's it. And to go back to the optometrist, have an exam (which they insist on doing in this town, even if you have a good prescription), get decent frames, get lenses,and pick them up, it can easily, easily be 500 bucks or more. 1000, if you go crazy with the frames. Don't want to offend any optometrists in the thread, but optometry here can be extremely lucrative.

In order to keep from breaking my only remaining pair, I just started riding without the glasses and hoping I wouldn't have to read anything. But then I got a call on a ride and needed to get vmail and I could not do it. 27 miles from home, middle of nowhere. So now, I am just riding wearing bifocals, which sucks when the sun is out and because they constantly slip off my nose. Not designed for cycling. No idea what to do.

downhillmaster

Nope.
It’s recently been proven that it is never worth buying anything expensive.

DrIsotope

This is speaking of prescription lenses, so results may vary: Went to my first pair of polarized lenses a little over a year ago. Never going back to non-polarized. The increased contrast is absolutely worth it. I now have two pairs with polarized lenses-- one can make screens go black by tilting my head (Wiley X,) the other absolutely does not (Nike.) So far as I can tell, it comes down to how the lenses are oriented when they're ground-- I have a dual-monitor setup on my desktop, and with the pair that blackens screens, tilting my head to the left darkens the right one, and tilting it to the right darkens the left one. It presents no issue while riding, but it is weird. Also makes the odd rainbow dots in car windows.

But the Wiley's have straight smoke lenses with red mirror coat, and the Nike's have some bizarre hi-def lenses that are like a medium blue-- so lens color itself might impact the effects of polarization.

bruce19

It's all Luxottica:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica

DrIsotope

It's not even remotely all Luxottica, but what they've done (been allowed to do, more accurately) to the industry is inexcusable. They've done to eyewear what DeBeers did to diamonds. The fact that $500+ "designer" sunglasses exist is 100% the doing of Luxottica.

There are ways around it. Plenty of brands do their lens work in-house (my Nike prescription sunglasses through my optometrist were just over $200 with polarized, scratch-resistant, high-index, multi-coated lenses,) and Costco has their own eyewear group within the company, which is why they can get you out the door with a pair of prescription sunglasses for under $100-- sometimes well under. I still have a pair of Kirkland prescription shades around here somewhere, they might have been $70.

Texboy

Really, just a pair of $30 glasses and jack up the price?

'02 nrs

you can have both if your a savvy shopper.STP is a good place to start.if frame design is no biggy you can save more.as mentioned above-the more $$$ the better clarity.https://www.sierra.com/all/mens-sung...vingsHighToLow

Texboy

Just purchased an Under Armour polarized from a sporting goods store. It is very expensive, but for some reason, I feel good about it. The clerk asked me to purchase a 1-2 years warranty. Is it worth it to spend money on warranty?

deephate

Three pages already? I wear the cheapest convenience store sunglasses I can find as I normally break and/or lose them. I was upset when they went up to fifteen bucks!

bbbean 

If you never break or scratch them, maybe not. If you do need a warranty repair, its worth every penny. As I noted above, I have two pair of Rudy Project glasses (lifetime warranty), and they've both been repaired or replaced after crashes. Well worth the price of admission.

Darth Lefty 

This is a fashion question, IMO. To keep the sun out of your eyes and focus your vision, you don't need to pay out the wazoo. Want this year's model, special coatings, hi index glass, a little sticker in the corner? It might matter to the person across from you, or you think it will. Pay up. Lots of things are this way.

DrIsotope

I sometimes forget that there is such a thing as cheap sunglasses, because mine have to be prescription, and are therefore not cheap. Lenses alone can end up over $200.

As to frame quality, I've had $30 frames serve perfectly well. But off the bike, I've been wearing the same pair of prescription Oakleys since 2003. So there is some quality to be had at that higher pricepoint.

billnuke1 

IRD


If you take two polarized lenses, place one lens over the other lens, turn one against the other, the lens will turn black...

Sy Reene

I do wonder or wish someone would do an objective scientific analysis.. comparing something like the below to some Scott, Oakley or whatnot:

Airway Rimless Mirror

indyfabz

You get your progressive Rx cut into the lens or insert. I was going to get that done with my Rudy Project insert but had never used progressives and didn't want to start doing so on a bike in the big city so I got bifocals with the distance and reading portions of my Rx. Allows me to read cue sheets and my computer when I am touring.

Moishe

The one big problem with Tifosi is that the lenses break easily when you swap them. So I now use two Tifosi frames, one with darker lenses, the other with lighter lenses, which I never swap out. And it's much easier to keep the lenses clean if you don't have to bother with forcing them in and out of the frame.

Texboy

The sunglasses are on sale! Skeleton Optics
Ted Baker

kingston 

I got progressive lenses this year and they work great, but for years I used cheap Nashbar sunglasses with an Rx insert on the left and a non-Rx insert on the right. Honestly that was almost as good for about a-fifth of the cost.

Metieval

I have many pairs of Tifosi

but my favorite pair of all are the Serfas Portals. (polarized) although Serfas no longer makes glasses. If anyone knows who manufactured lenses for Serfas... I'd like to know!!!!

the worse Pair I have is a pair of RUDY glasses which I won. Expensive and I hate them.

I won't buy Tifosi fototec now either. they really screw with depth of field and cause headaches.

400E

Someone mentioned getting shatterproof lenses. I bought some 3M safety sunglasses at a big box store and they actually look like (from a distance, anyway!) dedicated bicycling sunglasses.

jackb

What is it in sunglasses that costs so much? Most are just plastic. Of course prescription sunglasses are different, but what about all the rest?

Texboy

It is all about the fashion, my friend. That is the reason I purchased a pair of Under Armour sunglasses. I can be as The Rock superstar!
The Rock’s Under Armour Brand #1

Speedway2

Been using tinted Safety glasses for years riding my motorcycle. Easy transition on a bike. Inexpensive to replace, impact resistant and some are optically clear!

I`ve also had good luck with the ones sold at the Harley store for |$20

They`re not as nice as my polarized RayBan`s (obviously) but then again I don`t have to be too careful with the cheapies.....

indyfabz

They don't all cost so much. One has to consider quality of materials, quality of construction, quality of optics, and marketing/the cool factor.

Chinghis

As someone who needs a prescription, I used to just wear a pair of old-fogey black plastic convenience store frames over my regular glasses. Now I've taken to ordering a set of "Sport" glasses from Zenni. I am (a) hard on glasses, and (b) tend to lose them. No way am I going to drop Optician-store prices on something I will inevitably scratch, then lose.

These Zenni Sport Glasses are what I order - with some anti-glare and impact resistance, they're under $40. I've gone through two pairs already, losing them in incomprehensible places (like just inside the front door. WTH??) They do the job well.