Advice on the BEST motorcycle eyeglasses

[Mad Mike]

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I goofed up with one of my benefit elections last year and ended up with $1300 in a wellness account that I have to use of lose by the end of Feb.

I've always used regular prescription glasses with tinted safety lenses. I don't need any teeth or massages, so I can't think of anything better to buy with wellness account money. I've never had real riding glasses, I think I want them now. Any recommendations?

 

[ScorpionT16]

Rayban Aviators with the green G-15 lenses, or if you can find them, the driving brown lens versions from the 70s-80s by B&L.

That tint is designed for blue light optically and the shape for coverage, my dad has been wearing them for 45yrs, I've been using them for 15yrs+. A good solid pair, can last a lifetime with the glass.

 

[J_F]

for me anyway, your helmet and visor setup can affect this

I like the helmets with the drop down sun shade
and I have a fog resistant pin lock insert in the clear visor

with this particular setup I cannot use polarized lenses
the image is badly distorted, and I cannot see the gauges at all

non polarized darkened glasses are not a problem
but having the sunshade, I ride with normal glasses
and when the sun sets I don't need to stop to switch glasses

so it's a tough question Mike
what works for others may not work for you

but for 1,300 bucks I'd go for the best scrip shades I can get
even if they are not good for riding
personally I like the Rayban wayfarer frames
unfortunately with scrip lenses you are only getting the frames
and agree I'd go the glass lenses

 

[nakkers]

For FF helmet, Ray Ban aviators are nice.


For the pirate in me and skull cap helmet, I’ve gone with Wiley X. There are various frame sizes and the frame padding works well.




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[Baggsy]

How's your vision? Are you wearing bifocals? What I found was that progressive bifocals seem too narrow to get proper distance vision, and single vision nearsighted glasses didn't allow me to see the gauges. I lucked out in that "computer glasses" seem to fit all roles nicely. They're not quite as good for far far far away, but they're awesome for everything else, and I couldn't read the traffic light countdown timers from a far distance with the bifocals anyways.

 

[Mad Mike]

for me anyway, your helmet and visor setup can affect this

I like the helmets with the drop down sun shade
and I have a fog resistant pin lock insert in the clear visor

with this particular setup I cannot use polarized lenses
the image is badly distorted, and I cannot see the gauges at all

non polarized darkened glasses are not a problem
but having the sunshade, I ride with normal glasses
and when the sun sets I don't need to stop to switch glasses

so it's a tough question Mike
what works for others may not work for you

but for 1,300 bucks I'd go for the best scrip shades I can get
even if they are not good for riding
personally I like the Rayban wayfarer frames
unfortunately with scrip lenses you are only getting the frames
and agree I'd go the glass lenses

I too like the drop down shade - I have that on my Scorpion helmet. Rayban has great prescription sunglasses, already own Clubmasters and a Wayfarers - love them.

This isn't really a need, more of a want, what I want are glasses that are great for riding. I had a pair of Smiths a few years ago which I really liked -- too bad they're at the bottom of Lake Simcoe.

 

[Trials]

I goofed up with one of my benefit elections last year and ended up with $1300 in a wellness account that I have to use of lose by the end of Feb.

I've always used regular prescription glasses with tinted safety lenses. I don't need any teeth or massages, so I can't think of anything better to buy with wellness account money. I've never had real riding glasses, I think I want them now. Any recommendations?

Contact lenses.

They are awesome! I tried riding with glasses once my eyes got old and they made me crash lots :I even stairs and halls were a challenge.
Went to contacts and the quality of vision without loss of depth of field and having to deal with multiple optical centres and dirty lenses is infinitely better.
Now you have good vision you can go shopping for cheap sunglasses goggles and face shields.

 

[pfbmgd]

Take a look at 7eye.com they make amazing motorcycle glasses .

 

[Mad Mike]

Contact lenses.

They are awesome! I tried riding with glasses once my eyes got old and they made me crash lots :I even stairs and halls were a challenge.
Went to contacts and the quality of vision without loss of depth of field and having to deal with multiple optical centres and dirty lenses is infinitely better.
Now you have good vision you can go shopping for cheap sunglasses goggles and face shields.

Contracts might be an option -- haven't worn them for 20 years but I guess I could at least try. I hear they have them in bifocal, anybody try those?

 

[Trials]

Contracts might be an option -- haven't worn them for 20 years but I guess I could at least try. I hear they have them in bifocal, anybody try those?

You can get a set of multifocal contacts to try for free 8) see if you can work with them,
alternatively you can just use a weak set of readers like you used to wear before your eyes went real bad, wear them over the contacts for up close work.

 

[kruzuki]

I have 2 pairs of scrip glasses.
One are regular Ray Bans w all-plastic frame.
I find metal framed glasses always break from metal-fatigue due to repeatedly jamming them under a helmet.

For nighttime I got a pair of Oakleys all-plastic frames and had yellow/amber lenses made - highly recommended to cut glare and they're great on cloudy days also. I took my helmet into the optician store and tried on a bunch a frames while wearing my helmet & picked what I liked best.

 

[ScorpionT16]

have you thought of Lasik? My sister and two relatives got it done, and a co-worker. All fed up with getting prescription glasses, spending on frames, contacts for events, etc... If your covered for it, may be an option, quick and relatively painless now days, back to normal in 2-5 days.

 

[Mad Mike]

have you thought of Lasik? My sister and two relatives got it done, and a co-worker. All fed up with getting prescription glasses, spending on frames, contacts for events, etc... If your covered for it, may be an option, quick and relatively painless now days, back to normal in 2-5 days.

I thought about Lasik, not sure how I would cope with permanent monovision.

 

[Trials]

Personally I figure some day I will need to have intra-occular lens implants to deal with cataracts and I don't want to complicate that procedure by having modified corneas. ymmv. My wife always needed glasses, now has multifocal IOL's and here corrected vision is better then my aged vision.

 

[jc100]

When I got my last glasses at Costco a few months ago I got new transitions lenses. They apparently change quicker than the previous versions from dark to clear. I didn’t wear my last glasses with transitions lenses on the bike because of this (also because my eyes aren’t that bad either) but I might with the new ones.

 

[Mad Mike]

Personally I figure some day I will need to have intra-occular lens implants to deal with cataracts and I don't want to complicate that procedure by having modified corneas. ymmv. My wife always needed glasses, now has multifocal IOL's and here corrected vision is better then my aged vision.

Might happen to me too -- my mother just had that surgery to correct cataracts and vision. It worked out great -- she doesn't need glasses at all for reading or for sight. It's about $8K (costly!) if you're doing it purely for cosmetic reasons.

 

[Joe Bass]

Might happen to me too -- my mother just had that surgery to correct cataracts and vision. It worked out great -- she doesn't need glasses at all for reading or for sight. It's about $8K (costly!) if you're doing it purely for cosmetic reasons.

It's about that much if it's not cosmetic as well.....I just had my left eye done yesterday. Decided against the multifocal lenses though. The cataracts came in as a result of the retinal detachment surgery I had a few years ago. I'll be voluntarily doing my right eye next month.

As jc100 mentioned the Transitions are great. Quick change time. Only problem was last Rx was too strong and they don't make them in a 1.67 lense so I lost out.

Also a very big fan of amber tinted glasses. I will get those.

What are you leaning towards at this point? Still the goggles?

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[PrivatePilot]

Contact lenses.

They are awesome! I tried riding with glasses once my eyes got old and they made me crash lots :I even stairs and halls were a challenge.

For someone who's never wore them before I'm not sure I'd jump straight into that for motorcycling. A lot of people (myself included) find they don't work for them - myself for example, my eyes simply dried out when the wind from riding blasted across my eyeballs. Eventually they dried out to the point where my blinking was spinning the contact and my vision would suddenly go completely out of whack. Obviously not very safe.

As for other options, I just tonight picked up 2 pairs of new glasses. I've bought my last few pairs from Costco but opted for Walmart again this time (have previously had great experiences) and their prices are amazing. I bought my first ever pair of progressives my my daily wearers, although because I too have good benefits I opted for the very expensive premium ones - I learned that that there's varying levels of quality and the cheap ones are the ones people hate, whilst the expensive ones are easier to adapt to. For having never wore them before I will say that I'm finding them OK - definitely improved my up-close vision which was starting to suck - I was increasingly finding myself doing the "I'll have to hold your phone 2 feet from my face to be able to read that" maneuver.

For my second pair, I got a pair of these for riding with my halfshell:

I was able to get them in my prescription. I like the fact that they have the little foam seal around the inside of the lens that keeps the wind out of your eyes - that's always been something that's sucked on my motorcycle the way the air moves around the batwing. Obviously I haven't ridden with them yet, but I'll followup the first time I do.

Both pairs, my primary daily wearers (high-end progressives, the super dark transitions feature, and anti scratch coating) plus the second pair of motorcycle glasses (prescription lenses, permanent dark grey lens, polarized) were $575.

I know if just blowing all the benefit dollars is the primary goal here that's counterproductive, but just stating it for any others interested. If you just want to spend the $1800, go to some boutique optometrist and you'll have no issue blowing that with 2 pairs similar equipped. The place where I got my eyes tested quoted me $790 for basically the exact same glasses I got from Walmart for the $575 for both pairs. If nothing else you'll really make some salespersons day.

 

[PrivatePilot]

On another note, for anyone looking for motorcycle specific prescription sunglasses....get them with polarization. It's absolutely amazing how nice they are for riding - I can literally feel my eyeballs relax the second I put them on my face on a bright sunny day...and with all glare and such reduced you have better overall vision.

 

[J_F]

On another note, for anyone looking for motorcycle specific prescription sunglasses....get them with polarization. It's absolutely amazing how nice they are for riding - I can literally feel my eyeballs relax the second I put them on my face on a bright sunny day...and with all glare and such reduced you have better overall vision.

not being argumentative
but polarized lenses are completely unusable with my preferred helmet
internal sunshade, visor with fog resistant pinlock insert
cannot see a damn thing through that combo with polarized glasses
normal sunglasses are fine
normal scrip glasses are fine
but of course everyone is different

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