dendawg

I had been using prescription bifocal sunglasses but had problems with debris still getting past them when riding. Just got a pair of Rudy Project wrap around style sunglasses. They have a prescription insert and they work great at keeping the gunk out of my eyes though I haven't quite gotten used to the Rx compared to my normal progressives

Bikey Mikey

@tsl,

Not sure if this will help you, but I have a pair of glasses just for doing computer work. They're single vision set for the range of the monitor, but if you have to look away or then read other text on paper a lot, it may not be the way to go.

tsl

I used to own computer glasses for at home. It certainly wouldn't work at work.

I have to look at what's in my hands, check the computer screen, look the patron in the eye, scan across the room to make sure those kids aren't getting into trouble, then look back at the next thing in my hands…

Bikey Mikey

Yeah, I figured it wouldn't work for you in the work situation.

Looigi

I am lucky having only moderate nearsightedness and no astigmatism, but of course now with presbyopia (loss of ability to change focus). It works out that I can read and use the computer without any glasses at all and only need glasses for distance vision, certainly for things like driving or riding. Of course with the glasses I can't read or use the computer, or clearly see the dashboard in the car or the bike computer, so that's where progressives come in. The bottoms of my progressives basically have no correction.

Road Fan

I've been very nearsighted and somewhat astigmatic since 5th grade (have only been able to focus about 7 inches from my face!), and have worn glasses since then. Now my eyes' ability to change to focus on different distances is nearly nil, so I need multi-range lenses, aka progressives. When I bike I need to look in my long distance range to see the road, traffic, signs, et cetera. I also need a middle range to read my bike computer, HRM, and maps. I have no need for a close distance book-reading lens on the bike.

I'm in the middle of hand-fitting some special struts to put a Mark's Rack on a bike, and I need to do all that essentially without glasses. If I did more fine, exacting mechanical work these days I'd need some special glasses with a large near-field lens.

Mrs. Road Fan bought a set of biking specs with dark wrap-around lenses and her progressive prescription. I tell her she now looks like Tom Cruise or Cycling Woman in Black (CWIB), but its actually quite a hot look on her. She'd have never tried them 10 years ago! And she has no more issues with eye-watering while biking. We didn't look into Transition lenses - I think she heard they are not effective for very bright sunlight.

Road Fan

I'm intrigued by the large corridor of those Seiko lenses. Are you able to see distance decently if you hold your head just the right way?

Can you supervise the "kids" across the room well while wearing them? What about text projected on a big computer screen across the room? We do a lot of meetings this way, in the engineering conference rooms, and I have "kids" to keep an eye on as well. Especially if I'm leading a meeting or a design discussion, I need to look at all the faces to detect problems or better understand questions.

Also needed for early warning of Boss Approaches.

Curious: what's the distance to your 24" monitors? I just got converted to a laptop, and I need to again sort out the ergonomics of my desk.

Retro Grouch 

I once bought a pair of prescription sunglasses that were not bifocal. I'll never do that again. I was surprised at how often I want to check a map or look at my bike computer or need to check an address or something that's written on a piece of paper.

What's possible depends on your prescription. I buy mine from my independent optometrist. I think it's kind of like buying your bikes from the LBS.

tsl

For reading, I sit back from the monitors at about 39". Typing, I lean forward to about 24".

At work, there's across the room and across the room. At work, when I say across the room, I'm talking 75 to 120 feet.

Make no mistake, I can see distance decently with the Seiko Surmounts. The Seikos are decent, acceptable, perfectly adequate. I have no complaints. It's just that the Zeiss GT2 lenses are absolutely razor-sharp at infinity. They're "Wow!" and "Holy schidt!"

What falls off at that distance with the Seikos is my astigmatism correction, which is different both in cylinder power and rotation degree in each eye. At that 120 feet or so, I can read newspaper headlines and magazine covers with the Seikos. They "tear" with my astigmatism (as opposed to become fuzzy due to lens power). With the Zeiss, they pop.

My optician warns that some of this is probably due to my GT2s being polarized, when tends to sharpen things at distance, so it's not a completely fair comparison.

Neither lens is perfect for me. Each one is a compromise. Summer reading at the lake wearing the GT2s, I have to track with my head to read hardcover novels in my lap. Back inside wearing the Surmounts, you can bolt my head in place and I can track the same book with only my eyes. Inside, I prefer to rest my head against high-back chairs, so eye-only tracking is important to me. We don't have any high-back lawn chairs, so it's a non-issue there with the GT2s.

In the intermediate ranges--face to face across a counter or conference table, for instance--I like the wider corridor of the Surmounts because I'm at an angle to my patrons, seldom facing them straight-on. But the GT2s are by no means unacceptable.

It's all a matter of degree, how picky you are, and plain old personal preference.

As for Boss Alerts, have you tried a bell?

Boudicca

I think I'm coming round to the idea of wrap around (regular) shades with the distance-only prescription stuff as an insert on the inside. It means I will be pretty much blind if I have to take them off during the day, and I will lose the middle-distance vision (bye-bye bicycle computer and route directions), but it may be the best compromise.

And I can always go back to using the lenses with regular cycling sunglasses if that works better.

Looigi

That's a solution many find workable. Personally, I don't like inserts as I wind up looking through 4 surfaces instead of two causing reflections, reducing contrast, getting dirty fogged up or wet, etc...

campngolf

Just had my annual eyeball checkup today and ordered my new Nike Skylon Ace sunglasses. With my prescription they weren't sure the lab could make lenses for these frames but after a few calls all is good. They're polarized progressives. I'll update once I get them.

fietsbob

VA supplied .. glasses that darken in the bright light, but being a bit grey at the base density ,
I often have to take those off and use clear readers when indoor light is not Brilliant.

GeorgeBMac

An apparently little known fact is that the use of multi-focal lenses (bifocals) promotes the use of multi-focal lenses...

I got a taste of that about 25 years ago while wearing contact lenses. I was having increasing difficulties seeing close and my eye doctor suggested reading glasses. What I found was that the more I used them, the more I HAD to use them. Then, fortunately, we found out it was the contacts, not my eyes and, when I switched back to regular glasses, the reading problem improved.

Now, years later, I was able to give away all the reading glasses I had accumulated.

But I still have a little difficulty and a couple years ago I asked another eye doctor about reading glasses and his advice was to: "Avoid them as long as possible because, once you start using them your eyes lose their accommodation" which he described as the eye's ability to adjust their focus for near or far...

He suggested that, if I needed to, simply slide my regular glasses down my nose and I would be able to see closer... And, for very small stuff in dim light I have to take off my glasses. But I still do not need reading glasses or multi-focal lenses.

metalheart44

I saw the opthomologist yesterday for an annual checkup and took the opportunity to look for new sunglasses for riding. My regular sunglasses do not offer enough wind protection, especially during the current cool/cold weather. A dedicated pair of riding glasses will suit my situation better than using my regular prescription sunglasses.

I asked the person in the office who sells glasses about their selection, with an emphasis on glasses that fit a wider face, can accommodate a mild prescrption (-.5& -1.0), and have higher quality lenses. I asked about Oakley, Rudy Project, and Maui Jim. Here was the reply:

Oakley: We used to carry them, but they were sold and we were not happy with the new lens quality.
Rudy Porject: They are good quality lenses.
Maui Jim: These are top of the line and have some of the best lenses available.

In the past I have used glasses with a prescription insert and do not particularly care for how that works for me. I am inclined to get a pair of Maui Jim Banyans (https://www.mauijim.com/banyans-6942.html), but the Zeiss lenses mentioned in previous posts also look as if they should be on the short list.

Any thoughts?

dbg

Progressives have always bothered me. I've tried two different "lens maps" and they both make me feel like I'm looking at a fun house mirror. I carry a set in my brief case (back pack actually) for when I'm in a conference environment with long, middle, and short demands mixing unpredictably. Still hate them for outdoor activity and especially driving --totally messes with my peripheral vision. I'm currently befuddled on this topic. I also dislike wearing sun glasses while riding because of the blindness when riding from bright sunlight through deep shade. Photochromic is not fast enough to solve this problem. My next attempt will probably be very minimal sun shading with minor bifocal correction for handlebar stuff. I'm not hopeful but my correction in both distance and reading is still small enough to get by mostly (but annoyingly).

Does anybody know if you can define your own lens map for the progressives?

tsl

No, but if you learn how to read them, you can look up many of them here: https://www.thelensguru.com/

zonatandem

Have used progressive/sun-sensor glasses for decades.
80 years old and spouse/stoker is 78 and we have no issues.
We live in usually *brilliant* sunshine in Arizona and they work well for us.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

TromboneAl

I got a pair of wrap-around, strap-on glasses for surfing.



I knew that surfing was one activity for which I wouldn't need bifocals.

I tried wearing these on the bike, however, and it was a major fail, because I couldn't read the cyclocomputer at all. I really wanted to use them on the bike, because I looked hecka-cool, but there was no way I could.

Also, consider that you might ride your bike to, for example, the grocery store and need to read the fine print on a package.

I had had non-bifocal glasses that I tried for fishing, but found that I couldn't tie knots.

TromboneAl

Here's a test you can perform. Wear your non-sunglass bifocals, but put masking tape over the short distance part of the lens. You will know immediately whether you can tolerate not seeing your cyclocomputer.

And if you have an accident, you didn't hear this from me.

dbg

The times I've ridden in AZ, sunglasses were perfect. They are great on open water and mostly open terrain. In the upper midwest you go from bright sunlight to very deep dark shaded "tree-tunnels" a lot. Cruising down a long hill at a high speed in bright sunlight and encountering deep shade in dark sunglasses means total blindness and it's scary.

oldster

clipon sun glassesfrom wally world,I have been using them for many years,they cost less than 20$and work really well (and you can read with em as normalI am very myopic and have real comfortableframes and high index lenses and they work really well.....as far as reading,I re wrote the rx for the lenses and cut back the correction a diopter or so and I can read just fine withour reading glasses
Bud
Bud

campngolf

I got my new prescription wrap-around sunglasses last week and they are amazing. My optician has to send them to a special lab due to my difficult prescription but thankfully insurance picked up most of the tab. I got the Nike Skylon Ace frame and couldn't be happier. Now I'll be able to see the road and read my Garmin.

MinnMan

I've gone with RudyProject wrap-arounds with non-bifocal inserts. I manage to read my bicycle computer anyway, though maybe I have to squint. Both the inserts and the shaded lenses are removable. So you can always take out the shaded lenses if you find yourself with only the sunglasses but low light. The shaded lenses are progressive, but in very low light, they still make things pretty dark. But in fact, I usually have my regular glasses in my jersey. It's not like they're heavy.

Mountain Mitch

You can look into shooting glasses as they sit higher on your face. There are also specific biking/sports glasses or goggles available. I prefer to not have progressives or bifocals for riding or other sports. If you are looking for less expensive glasses look into an online company like clearly contacts (I think the US version is coastal contacts). Much less expensive but unfortunately they don't have shooting glasses or great sports glasses.