Eyeglass lenses advised (MG related)

[NCAmother]

Hi y'all
I am interested to hear opinions of people who wear glasses and ride.  I love riding in the desert, so I get a lot of scratches on my lenses.  The places I go to are private property so I like to let my hair (whats left of it) free.  I'm going in for a new prescription, and I need a lens as scratch resistant as possible.  I am heavily considering glass.  They'll be heavier, and easier to breakage, but I've tried all the expensive lens scratch resistant coatings like Crystal, Nikon, etc.  After a day or two I get scratches.  Let me know your secrets of eyeglass science and experience!!  (please  )
Nate

[SaskMick]

Wear a helmet with a visor or wear goggles over your glasses. Both work for me.

[Matt Story]

Disposable contacts with cheap safety glasses or sunglasses.

[NCAmother]

Thanks for the advice :)  Those are the most sound, but sometimes I just wanna ride...  I'm lucky to live in california and run on some amazing roads, but they can be salty and dusty

[SaskMick]

Thanks for the advice :)  Those are the most sound, but sometimes I just wanna ride...  I'm lucky to live in california and run on some amazing roads, but they can be salty and dusty

Same where I live in Saskatchewan

[Wayne Orwig]

Glass lenses for me. I chipped one once. Never broken one.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[RinkRat II]

  I ran into a similar dilemma here in Arizona so I got an extra pair made from polycarbonate.  When I ride in the desert I wear those with clear MSR goggles designed to fit over glasses and if they do get scratched I've had pretty good sucess with Plastix polishing them back up. My $.02

      Paul B

[StuCorpe]

I like glass but they are heavy. I tried a pair of Acrylic but they had so much light splitting (white objects had blue and yellow outlines or the same with black lines on a white background) that I could not wear them. The company that made them said it happens with about 2% of the people. Which is to bad because in some states Acrylic is required for children's lenses.

[Lannis]

I wear glasses all the time, but I never use them as a primary eye protector.

I've tried many types of prescription goggles, shatterproof glass and plastic lenses, etc over the years, but when it comes down to it, I let my glasses correct my vision and my visor or goggles protect my eyes.

That means I'm always looking through two layers of clear stuff, which means 4 surfaces to scatter light (4% each even on a perfect surface) and fog up and get dirty and need to be cleaned, but that's life, I guess.

I've considered laser eye surgery, but after Fay went through it, I'll never go through that.   Pain, annoyance, limitations, and she still has to wear glasses ....

Lanis

[RANDM]

I was an MC Postie for a while and live in a Coast and
hinterland situation I get wind blown sand and swarms of insects
In Spring / Summer. For me the best answer was Safety
Glasses and a visor on an open faced Helmet.

Have you ever tried the yellow tinted Safety Glasses fir low
light situations,  they substantially brighten things up.

Maurie.

[LowRyter]

I get the best coatings on my glasses and wear a helmet.  Generally, I don't ride in dirt. 

All considered, I've never had a problem. 

[johnr]

I've always preferred glass, toughened glass if I can get it. The extra weight is negligible and my personal opinion (not necessarily backed up by scientific fact) is that they are a bit clearer.

Prior to the time when riding with glasses became necessary I used proper motor cycle googles with their twp layers of armor plate glass and a layer of plastic between. These stopped a substantial flying rock on one occasion which then went on to leave a very substantial bruise on my passengers knee.

Since the advent of 'glasses all the time' for me (endorsed so on my licence) I have used glass ones in combo with a visor.

The problems I have with this are a different ones. I could not get glass in the last round of replacement specs and the plastic ones seem to get dirty quicker and you have to be much more careful  cleaning them.  With the EVT fairing I get a lot of back turbulence.  When it rains this means I get water on BOTH sides of the visor and BOTH sides of my glasses leaving me with four layers of water to look through. This has stopped me on occasion.

[rodekyll]

I have a semi-goggle 'sport' frame similar to what you see basketball players wearing with osha-spec transitions bifocal lenses.  I use them as safety glassess in the shop and sometimes on the bike.  They're too "goggley" to use as everyday eyewear though, and the temples don't fit well under some of my helmets.  Sears had them.

[ray bear]

Im with Matt, disposable contacts.  Bill

[Bravo Sierra]

I wear polycarbonate bifocals and the face shield on my helmet not a serious off road rider but have many miles on dusty dirt and gravel roads. What I have found is the important thing is how you wash your glasses. Only wash glasses under running water with a little soap after all the chunks are rinsed off. Kinda a pain miles from nowhere but bottled water works. Plexus was not meant to clean glasses only to polish it but if you use enough of it kinda works like bottled water.       

[donn]

I like glass better for optical reasons, like a couple of others who have posted already.  But if you haven't noticed any problems with what you've been using, then you might not notice the difference.  In my case I suppose it's because of an unusual sideways barrel correction, that makes the lenses unusually thick at the outside edge, and that's where the color fringing shows up.  I have glasses with small high density plastic lenses, and they're fine, but normal width lenses are glass.

But it is are tough stuff.  I've been wearing these glasses since the '90s.

[Testarossa]

I wear glasses all the time, but I never use them as a primary eye protector.

I've tried many types of prescription goggles, shatterproof glass and plastic lenses, etc over the years, but when it comes down to it, I let my glasses correct my vision and my visor or goggles protect my eyes.

This.

I've worn specs full time since age nine. I've always worn goggles over glasses for skiing (including water skiing).

Where I live now, the air is dry and fogging rarely a problem. Skiing or motorcycling without goggles dries out my eyes, with uncomfortablyn scratchy results -- it's almost like having a grain of sand in each eye. This is why I can't wear contacts.

For motorcycling, hard acrylic photosensitive sunglasses behind a visor -- keep them clean. Or glasses behind proper motocross goggles. OTG ski goggles (over-the-glasses) with quality double-pane thermal lenses rarely fog, though glasses may fog inside in damp air. Expensive versions with battery-operated electric fans can keep glasses clear in foggy weather. Problems with rain and fog are no worse than with any protective eyewear or visor -- you need gloves with a soft suede goggle-wipe panel on the knuckles, and grip guards to keep the wiper panel reasonably dry.

A few years ago a friend at Panoptix sent me a pair of those glasses in my prescription. Because of the wraparound design, the peripheral part of the lenses were very thick and so the glasses were heavy. But they worked very well on the bike. If I wore contacts, Panoptix with the foam liner would probably solve the eye-drying problem. I think Harley dealers sell Panoptix and they're worth trying if you wear contacts. If not, the prescription versions can be quite pricey. http://www.7eye.com/docs/2016%20RX%20Order%20Form.pdf

[NCAmother]

Excellent responses!!!     I can't use most tissues because they have lotion embedded (Kleenex) and smear.  Every once in a while I end up in a gas station or bar, and I've used cocktail napkins, which equals scratches on my super resistant crystal/nikon coatings.  I used to wear glasses when I was younger.  I remember less scratching, but a lot more "drooping" when I was sweaty.

[geoff in almonte]

If you wear single focus lenses, you can get 'dress' thickness safety glass.  They are only marginally heavier than plastic.  Talk to your optician.

I have worn glasses for 50 years and have tried all the plastic lense anti scratch coatings. In a word, none of them work.  In order to prolong their scratch free status you need all kinds of special stuff (cleaners, cloths, etc).  Major PITA.  Glass lenses you can clean with newspaper and it wont scratch them.

I have had the dress thickness safety glass in both my sunglasses and regular eyewear for years.  Once, riding to work, a car in front of me spit a pebble out from under one of the rear wheels.  I watched that stone bounce and hop and hit me square on the left hand lense.  The lense spider-webbed and went opaque but did not shatter.  This was on the hiway at 65mph.  I started wearing a full face helmet shortly after that experience.  Why tempt fate?

Contacts are not the answer either - the air passing over them at speed (even with safety glasses on) will cause them to warp and possibly scratch your eye.

Laser eye surgury is viable.  But only if you get the variety that actually reforms the back of your eye.  There is another type where a 'flap' is cut in the front of the eye and the front of the eyeball reshaped before the flap is replaced.  You are then subject to the same sort of warpage that happens with contacts.  In either case you still have to wear eye protection - it is the law in most places I have been.

My $.02.

G

[Testarossa]

Avoiding scratches is pretty easy, really. Use a microfiber cloth (get this from any optometrist). Keep the cloth in the clamshell aluminum glasses case (same source, usually free). When riding, wear the sunglasses, reading glasses go in the case. When heading indoors, swap the glasses face to case. Clean both glasses ONLY with the microfiber cloth. Glasses case goes in the opposite pocket to the cell phone.

[Matt Story]

I have been counseled by more than one optometrist to never ever clean glasses with a paper product unless its special lens paper.  Microfiber cloth is best.  This goes for glass or plastic lenses.

[JJ]

Disposable contacts with cheap safety glasses or sunglasses.

I wear prescription glasses and sunglasses to ride...(for distance) ...and all the time.  I wear a full-coverage helmet (also all the time...) with a visor.  That works for me in ALL types of conditions and weather.

[NCAmother]

The scratches  on my Crystal lenses are caused  by sand storms and salty water.  I only clean my glasses under running water, and use a microfiber cloth.  I went to see the optometrist today, to talk about lens materials, and some of his biggest clients are photographers and they use glass.  Of course he mentioned the good (most scratch resistant optical material) and the bad (easy to crack if dropped).  So then I asked about contacts, and was told there's a good chance I can't use contacts because of severe astigmatism.

[donn]

I went to see the optometrist today, to talk about lens materials, and some of his biggest clients are photographers and they use glass.

Biggest clients in what way, I wonder?  I'm thinking long daily camera and photo hours just might not be good for your eyes.

Of course he mentioned the good (most scratch resistant optical material) and the bad (easy to crack if dropped).

They really sweat over the breakage thing.  At one point I had been playing volleyball regularly, and the optometrist tried to tell me the lens could shatter into my eye as a result of a "spike" .... sure.  (I got some "sports specs", but optics were terrible and I never used them much.)  I've been wearing fairly large glass lenses for over 50 years and have dropped them thousands of times.  If they land face down on concrete you're liable to get some scratches, a chip is possible.  Maybe break, but I'm just saying I've never seen it.

They can be heavy, though, especially if you astigmatic barrel correction is lateral like mine.

I'm not personally one who likes to use eyeglasses for motorcycle eye protection.  I usually don't have a face shield down either, rather I have a substantial fixed windshield up front, so I'm looking over it but it throws the air up above eye level.

[NCAmother]

Biggest clients in what way, I wonder?  I'm thinking long daily camera and photo hours just might not be good for your eyes.

In particular a photographer doing a book on the climbers of everest, k2, etc.  He is also a climber.  Clarity for focusing by eye has to be super sharp, just like the lenses he uses on his camera