There are companies who will make swim goggles with prescription lenses, and I believe it is possible to have prescription lenses incorporated within a diving mask (just try getting one of those inside your lid!). I wear contact lenses when I ride. Used to wear them all the time, but my eyes have dried over the years & I can't wear them for more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. I have an excellent optician & she has tried all sorts of lenses to find something more comfortable. The issue is more acute in air conditioned environments, so I wear my specs (with varifocal lenses) when I am working in hospitals. Part of the problem is my prescription for astigmatism, daily lenses don't yet provide good enough vision for me. I have my sight tested every year to ensure my prescription (specs & contacts) provides me with vision that exceeds the Dept of Transport requirement for driving. Some helmets such as Shark & Shoei have narrow channels in the padding to accept specs. You may find your specs sit better on your face if you try such a helmet. A couple of colleagues also wear specs when riding their bikes, they both use flip-front style lids. One has a Shoei Neotec, & the other has a Schuberth. Might be worth considering?
If you have a -12 prescription, you may change your mind about your statement above...........unless, that is, you don't mind having bullet proof glass in front of your eyes.............and a massive groove in your nose because of the weight. I have to have small lenses and the maximum high refractive index plastic available..........otherwise I would have double bottle bottoms.............so I designed my own and had a pair (or two) made which are blue tinted in a blue rimless frame...........that way the side of the lens thickness looks like a frame. AL
I have been wearing glasses longer than I have been riding bikes, so I guess I've never known any difference, but I never buy a helmet without checking that my glasses will fit comfortably into it - and never buy glasses without checking that they will fit inside a helmet. My current glasses are vari-focal and are great - looking through the top section the road ahead is in perfect focus, as are the instuments when I look through the bottom section. It took a couple of days to learn to not move my head when I looked down, just my eyes, but now I have no problems at all. I have never really liked riding with my visor fully shut - I like to keep a little bit of air circulating to keep the inside of the visor and my glasses clear, and some helmets are beter for this than others. I currently have an HJC which has a built-in sun visor inside the main visor. I find this is great because I can have the sunvisor fully down (meaning I don't have to wear sunglasses) and can have main visor open at normal road speeds. Works for me anyway...
I wear contacts all the time. When I first had to start wearing them about 10 yrs ago I went straight to contacts. I have monthly lenses. Can sleep in them only thing you cant do is swim in them. I wear glasses for a few days a month to give my eyes a rest from the contacts and I find it weird.Going down stairs in glasses for one weird sensation in glasses because you have to look where you are going in contacts I dont
I wear glasses for shortsightedness. Did contacts for ages but these days I can't be arsed with the hassle, so I only wear them when out for whole day plus trips on the bike. Otherwise I stick with the specs.
my sons a mechanic and he changed the pads on my transit today, we always have a joke together ,so I said "get out of the way you little twat I'll fit the pad to the back of the caliper," (coz he was having trouble locating it), " go on then you old c*** " he said , so I put my head in the wheel arch to fit said pad all cocky like. ------- I couldn't even focus on the job, it was too frikken close. I need to get some glasses, I had bought some 1.50's but I don't need that much , think I'll take a trip to the pharmacist's tomoz and try some 1.00's 1.25's
Well it looks like I'm not going to make my fortune with the prescription visor idea so I will give contacts another try,I wore them every day last time so this time I will just use them to ride the bike,I might mention the visor idea to specs avers when I go there though
Given that contact lenses remain in a fixed position on the front of your eye, how do bi-focal contacts work ?
There isn't a horizontal separation across them if that's what you are thinking..... In simple terms they are in fact concentric circles of two or more different prescriptions and there a variations on this............and as far as I am aware the bi-focal lenses are generally hard or gas permeable types...although I have heard of some soft types. Contact lenses do move on your eye to some degree...... I tried the gas permeable ones and found they were bl**dy awful, largely because when I blinked, the lenses moved on the eye for a split second, so when I was driving, my eyes were temporarily out of focus.......... AL
I wear an old pair of Dennis Taylor type safety glasses with the side/arm shields taken off. They fill the whole of the visor area and give a good field of vision, with no looking over the tops of them when riding.
Thanks for expalining that Arq... I have never used contacts, and I'm sure I can't be the only one who really does not fancy the idea of having my eyes modified by a laser: so, glasses it is for me. Whatever form of vision-correction we all use - the important thing to remember is that it is dangerous, and illegal, to ride with uncorrected vision defects. Be safe out there everyone !
That was the best explanation I could provide 'cos its a bit more complicated than that..........I'm sure a Google search could tell you more, but I can't be a*sed to look it up! Contacts are great if you can get used to them...... ....I can't get on with soft ones mainly because of the way you have to take them out, so I have had gas permeable ones ever since I started wearing them back in the early 80s....... .......the odd thing about them is that when you first put them in, then look in a jewellers shop, the watches are size of a dinner plate (or they appear to be)........and the worse thing about them is either getting a half brick in one ('cos that's what it feels like) or one slips and it goes off somewhere under the eyelid.....but you get used to finding them and getting them out. I was out rough shooting about 20 years ago and someone let a large whippy twig on a tree slap me across the face.......it me right in the eye and I knew the lens had broken, but I wasn't prepared for all the bits in my eye and the clean hole right in the centre of the lens........ AL
Laser corrected short sightedness and astigmatism for me. Been good for nearly 2 years now, and can still read books, etc (re shaping in my case was stealing some near vision to give me better distance vision - so guess my near vision was excellent prior to surgery, and just good now). painful for first 2-3 days, but drive/rideable after a week, and gradual loss of night time "halos" after a few months. really pleased with the result, and while there are scare stories (anecdotal urban legend, mostly - who actually knows somebody 1st hand who has had their vision totally screwed up by laser surgery?), I am happy to go with personal experience of those I actually know and can speak to (all I know are totally positive about their experiences). Each to their own. do like the idea of a visor causing the wearer to look like an elephant man just because of its refraction!
How do you take out soft ones compared to any others? Only ever had soft ones. I put my lenses in and take them out without a mirror or any kerfuffle. Not overly surprising. If you do anything daily for 30 years you tend to get quite good at it. What is the issue?
I bloody love contact lenses and have the ones that you leave in all month then throw away. Very comfortable and much less irritating as less gets under them. The opticians recon they're better for your eye too as your not poking about in there twice a day to get them in and out.
Soft ones involves wiping it off the eye with your finger..........which I don't like doing.....I never seem to be able to 'lift' it..... Hard and gas permeable ones are removed much easier............one finger against the corner of the eye (not in the eye), slight 'pull' slightly sideways and blink....ping, and it pops into your hand.......Your finger never gets to 'poke away in there'. I also do it without a mirror....been doing it for 33 years.......besides my prescription is -12, which is another reason why I have gas permeable ones. I sometimes leave them in for a couple of days as well (go to sleep in them). AL
To remove soft lens: a) look to one side b) pinch lens with thumb and forefinger and pull out, using thumb to pull lower eye-lash/lid thing a bit out of the way. It's a doddle I tell ya.
But I don't have to touch the lens or stick my fingers in my eye to get them out, no pulling of eyelids out of the way..... Fingertip vertically by the side of the eye (sort of above the cheek)....blink once.......ping! ....even more of a doddle........
