fog
 

I'm in western South Carolina, so I shouldn't complain about weather.
But today (fall break!) I went out about an hour later than I intended
because of thick fog, and still had almost an hour and a half riding in
the fog before it cleared. It wasn't that wet--the road was dry. But I
had water droplets constantly collecting on my glasses, and I hated
stopping and wiping them on my jersey tail. I'm very nearsighted, so
doing without the glasses isn't an option. Does anyone have any
suggestions? Is there any kind of absorbant cloth that I could wipe the
outside surface of my glasses with as I ride that would improve my
vision rather than make it worse?

It was in the mid 60s but with a chill in the air when I set out so I
wore a long sleeved jersey and a vest with a windproof front. My vest
is flourescent yellow-green and there was enough sun coming through the
fog that I think I was pretty visible. The trouble was I felt like I
was in a steam bath going up hill and it was chilly going down hill.
The hills aren't that long here, so it seemed I was constantly adjusting
zippers.

The last hour of my ride it was beautiful: sunny and in the 70s. So I'm
just starting to try to figure out how to dress for this intermediate
weather we are going to have a lot of here.

Pam

pam_in_sc wrote:

I'm in western South Carolina, so I shouldn't complain about weather.
But today (fall break!) I went out about an hour later than I intended
because of thick fog, and still had almost an hour and a half riding
in the fog before it cleared. It wasn't that wet--the road was dry.
But I had water droplets constantly collecting on my glasses, and I
hated stopping and wiping them on my jersey tail. I'm very
nearsighted, so doing without the glasses isn't an option. Does
anyone have any suggestions?

Contact lenses! Or LASIK! When your glasses are so covered you can't see
through them, taking them off is the only solution. However, it has to be
really wet for this to happen.

Is there any kind of absorbant cloth
that I could wipe the outside surface of my glasses with as I ride
that would improve my vision rather than make it worse?

Anti-fog wipes are available, so you might try those. Ask your optometrist.

Matt O.

Matt O'Toole wrote:
Contact lenses! Or LASIK! When your glasses are so covered you can't see
through them, taking them off is the only solution. However, it has to be
really wet for this to happen.

I never could bear the thought of contact lenses, and my nearsightedness
is still getting worse (sphere in the worse eye is now -7, which means
my uncorrected vision is roughly 20-700) even as I need stronger
bifocals. Not to mention astigmatism (-2.5). I know they now have
contact lenses that can handle astigmatism, but after having the world
slope up on one side for two days when the axis of my astigmatism
prescription was changed, the idea of something that could shift in
position even a little sounds awful.

I can see through the water drops, perhaps a little better than through
fogged glasses, but it just isn't fun to ride that way.

Pam

"pam_in_sc" wrote in message
...
I'm in western South Carolina, so I shouldn't complain about weather. But
today (fall break!) I went out about an hour later than I intended because
of thick fog, and still had almost an hour and a half riding in the fog
before it cleared. It wasn't that wet--the road was dry. But I had water
droplets constantly collecting on my glasses, and I hated stopping and
wiping them on my jersey tail. I'm very nearsighted, so doing without the
glasses isn't an option. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there any
kind of absorbant cloth that I could wipe the outside surface of my
glasses with as I ride that would improve my vision rather than make it
worse?

Have some other surface for the water to collect on. Sunglasses that fit
over your glasses, or light ski goggles. Wipe with an antifog treatment.

The water forming on your primary focusing surface is the problem.

Pete

pam_in_sc wrote:
Matt O'Toole wrote:
Contact lenses! Or LASIK! When your glasses are so covered you
can't see through them, taking them off is the only solution.
However, it has to be really wet for this to happen.

I never could bear the thought of contact lenses, and my
nearsightedness is still getting worse (sphere in the worse eye is
now -7, which means my uncorrected vision is roughly 20-700) even as
I need stronger bifocals. Not to mention astigmatism (-2.5). I know
they now have contact lenses that can handle astigmatism, but after
having the world slope up on one side for two days when the axis of
my astigmatism prescription was changed, the idea of something that
could shift in position even a little sounds awful.

I can see through the water drops, perhaps a little better than
through fogged glasses, but it just isn't fun to ride that way.

Pam

I'm not going to /advocate/ LASIK here (and it's clearly not
sci.med.vision), but . . .

You /could/ have custom LASIK to alleviate your astigmatism (about
perfectly, btw), along with about /half/ of your myopia, then wear a simple
pair of disposable contact lenses to correct the remaining nearsightedness.

Without the astigmatic correction, small movements in the contact lenses
wouldn't induce blur.

Just my $0.02. Ride safely!

"pam_in_sc" wrote in message
...
I'm in western South Carolina, so I shouldn't complain about weather. But
today (fall break!) I went out about an hour later than I intended because
of thick fog, and still had almost an hour and a half riding in the fog
before it cleared. It wasn't that wet--the road was dry. But I had water
droplets constantly collecting on my glasses, and I hated stopping and
wiping them on my jersey tail. I'm very nearsighted, so doing without the
glasses isn't an option. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there any
kind of absorbant cloth that I could wipe the outside surface of my
glasses with as I ride that would improve my vision rather than make it
worse?

It was in the mid 60s but with a chill in the air when I set out so I wore
a long sleeved jersey and a vest with a windproof front. My vest is
flourescent yellow-green and there was enough sun coming through the fog
that I think I was pretty visible. The trouble was I felt like I was in a
steam bath going up hill and it was chilly going down hill. The hills
aren't that long here, so it seemed I was constantly adjusting zippers.

The last hour of my ride it was beautiful: sunny and in the 70s. So I'm
just starting to try to figure out how to dress for this intermediate
weather we are going to have a lot of here.

Pam


Hi Pam,

Remember me? I'm right down the road from you in Abbeville County. I know
you're new to the road riding scene. Be advised this kind of persistent fog
we've been having nearly every morning is VERY unusual. In a decade of
riding here in the Upstate, I never recall anything like it before. So
don't do anything drastic like LASIK just because we're having a strange
spell of weather.

I wear a pair of Oakley glasses that have a prescription insert that sits
behind the outer "shield" lense. I can just do without on foggy days, but
I've heard of people using a product called Rain-X on their outer lenses.
I've used it on my car windshield and it's incredible. It just makes water
repel like crazy. Look for it at an auto parts store or at Wal-Mart.

I saw in another post that you've got a full century you're planning to do
in the near future. Which one? I have hardly touched my bike since R for
R. I passed 10,000 miles for the year on that ride and just kinda decided
I'd had enough for a while (very unusual for me).

Anyway, suggestion #1 is to wait out the fog if you can. We're invisible
enough as it is. Suggestion #2 ... get some Rain-X.

Bob C.

psycholist wrote:

I saw in another post that you've got a full century you're planning to do
in the near future. Which one? I have hardly touched my bike since R for
R. I passed 10,000 miles for the year on that ride and just kinda decided
I'd had enough for a while (very unusual for me).

Anyway, suggestion #1 is to wait out the fog if you can. We're invisible
enough as it is. Suggestion #2 ... get some Rain-X.

Bob C.


Here near Lake Hartwell we get a fair bit of morning fog. I will try
the Rain X.

I'm planning on doing Festavelo(http://www.festivelo.com/index.php) in
Charleston--I figure if I can do a metric at Ride for the Raptors I can
do an English on the flat. And it has a perfect short option for my
husband and kids. A long drive, but we are planning on staying in a
hut and I think my kids will enjoy the camping scene. I just hope it
isn't too cold. Roger Zoul is going to do it too.

Pam

"psycholist" wrote

I wear a pair of Oakley glasses that have a prescription insert that sits
behind the outer "shield" lense. I can just do without on foggy days,
but
I've heard of people using a product called Rain-X on their outer lenses.
I've used it on my car windshield and it's incredible. It just makes
water
repel like crazy. Look for it at an auto parts store or at Wal-Mart.

Rain-X used to have a caution on the bottle to not use it on plastics.

I find a visor helps a lot to keep mist and drizzle off of my glasses.

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 06:45:07 -0500, pam_in_sc
wrote:

psycholist wrote:

I saw in another post that you've got a full century you're planning to do
in the near future. Which one? I have hardly touched my bike since R for
R. I passed 10,000 miles for the year on that ride and just kinda decided
I'd had enough for a while (very unusual for me).

Anyway, suggestion #1 is to wait out the fog if you can. We're invisible
enough as it is. Suggestion #2 ... get some Rain-X.

Bob C.


Here near Lake Hartwell we get a fair bit of morning fog. I will try
the Rain X.

I'm planning on doing Festavelo(http://www.festivelo.com/index.php) in
Charleston--I figure if I can do a metric at Ride for the Raptors I can
do an English on the flat. And it has a perfect short option for my
husband and kids. A long drive, but we are planning on staying in a
hut and I think my kids will enjoy the camping scene. I just hope it
isn't too cold. Roger Zoul is going to do it too.

Pam

We expect detailed and exciting and humor filled reports from each of you,
you realize!!!

-B