Sunglasses

On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 8:10:46 PM UTC+2, Tom Kunich wrote:
While sunglasses are usually valued for their ability to shade the eyes from glare that is not the first use of them on a bike.

On a bike you need them to shield the eyes from wind and road debris that might be kicked up from passing cars or the wind. They are especially important descending when you can be traveling 40 mph or more in the open air.

This used to be pretty well understood but it seems to have been thrown aside. None of the reasonably priced glasses are large enough to prevent a windstorm pulling around your glasses and blinding you at critical times.

The glasses that used to work well - Oakley, Bolle and Smith are now of breath-taking expense and they TOO are now reducing their sizes. I cannot even find a Bolle Contour anymore. Even the $200 Oakley is too small.

Another thing - as a cyclist you often ride from light to shadow and out into the bright sunlight again. Heavily tinted sunglasses makes the road turn totally invisible in these shadow conditions. California roads filled with potholes and broken whiskey bottles are not amiable to having your sight hindered. On the first ride on a set of 600 Campy wheels I ran over a missing utility road opening and broke several spokes and could barely make it home. I had it repaired but it now breaks spokes so regularly that I no longer use it.

The polarized glasses I've used do not seem to provide any improvements. Though the blue tinted ones seem to be a happy medium.

One would think that the Chinese who are generally really fast on the uptake would jump on this market but they too are both skimping with the size of the lens and even worse yet the optical characteristics can have you seeing double.

And the latest fad of very wide side pieces can rob you entirely of peripheral vision.

I bought several pairs of $2 Chinese sunglasses in the hope that one would work. One was Tifosi and it is pretty good as long as I keep the speed below 30. Another is an unnamed brand.

Has anyone had any good luck with sunglasses lately?

I hate sunglasses with thick frames. Frameless glasses were out of fashion for quite a while. They are back. Best sunglasses I had for years:

https://www.mantel.com/oakley-ev-zer...NCNzdG FydDE0

very light,
large glasses,
no frame blocking your view in a descent in the drops.

Lou

On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 11:41:20 PM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 7:02:39 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

BTW, I'm just back from a short ride to visit a friend. I went there in
daylight, returned in dark. Same glasses, no problem.

Also, it's so nice to have a powerful dynamo light ready at a click.

Powerful dynamo light is kind of an oxymoron. It is nice not to have to remember to recharge, though.

Leaving my friend's house, I had a downhill for about half a mile, much of it at
25 mph or more. My tiny Busch & Mueller Eyc headlight was perfectly fine, except
through a fairly tight S turn, where I could have used more beam width. (The
IQ Cyo seems to have a wider beam.)

Cutting through some neighborhoods later in the ride, I verified again that the
headlight illuminated road signs about a quarter mile away. I can't imagine
needing more. But as always, YMMV.

- Frank Krygowski

On Monday, 23 September 2019 12:09:56 UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 11:41:20 PM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 7:02:39 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

BTW, I'm just back from a short ride to visit a friend. I went there in
daylight, returned in dark. Same glasses, no problem.

Also, it's so nice to have a powerful dynamo light ready at a click.

Powerful dynamo light is kind of an oxymoron. It is nice not to have to remember to recharge, though.

Leaving my friend's house, I had a downhill for about half a mile, much of it at
25 mph or more. My tiny Busch & Mueller Eyc headlight was perfectly fine, except
through a fairly tight S turn, where I could have used more beam width. (The
IQ Cyo seems to have a wider beam.)

Cutting through some neighborhoods later in the ride, I verified again that the
headlight illuminated road signs about a quarter mile away. I can't imagine
needing more. But as always, YMMV.

- Frank Krygowski

A cheapo flashlight like SMS used to recommend will often illuminate a road sign at 1/4 mile distance. What I want in a bicycle light is something that illuminates the ROAD ahead of me. If it illuminates the shoulders too that's even better. That's what I really liked about my CygoLite Rover II light - it lit up the shoulders as well as the road surface plus it had an external battery pack that I could keep under my jacket during winter rides. The only problem with that light was that it didn't have the 'reach' that I prefer when riding very fast on country roads at night where the only source of light is my bicycle light.

Cheers

On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 3:55:55 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/22/2019 2:10 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
While sunglasses are usually valued for their ability to shade the eyes from glare that is not the first use of them on a bike.

On a bike you need them to shield the eyes from wind and road debris that might be kicked up from passing cars or the wind. They are especially important descending when you can be traveling 40 mph or more in the open air..

This used to be pretty well understood but it seems to have been thrown aside. None of the reasonably priced glasses are large enough to prevent a windstorm pulling around your glasses and blinding you at critical times.

The glasses that used to work well - Oakley, Bolle and Smith are now of breath-taking expense and they TOO are now reducing their sizes. I cannot even find a Bolle Contour anymore. Even the $200 Oakley is too small.

Another thing - as a cyclist you often ride from light to shadow and out into the bright sunlight again. Heavily tinted sunglasses makes the road turn totally invisible in these shadow conditions. California roads filled with potholes and broken whiskey bottles are not amiable to having your sight hindered. On the first ride on a set of 600 Campy wheels I ran over a missing utility road opening and broke several spokes and could barely make it home. I had it repaired but it now breaks spokes so regularly that I no longer use it.

The polarized glasses I've used do not seem to provide any improvements.. Though the blue tinted ones seem to be a happy medium.

One would think that the Chinese who are generally really fast on the uptake would jump on this market but they too are both skimping with the size of the lens and even worse yet the optical characteristics can have you seeing double.

And the latest fad of very wide side pieces can rob you entirely of peripheral vision.

I bought several pairs of $2 Chinese sunglasses in the hope that one would work. One was Tifosi and it is pretty good as long as I keep the speed below 30. Another is an unnamed brand.

Has anyone had any good luck with sunglasses lately?

I've had excellent luck with "sunglasses" since I started riding avidly
in about 1973. But my "sunglasses" have always been my regular glasses
with photochromic lenses.

For me, it's just one less thing to worry about. These work with any
bike I ride, for day or night riding, they work with my home-made
eyeglass mirrors (one stored in each bike), they never get misplaced
because they're always in front of my eyes, they don't clash with my
street clothes nor my riding clothes, etc.

I suppose in almost five decades I've had a couple incidents of grit or
a small insect getting in my eye, but it's never been more than a minor
irritation, and it's been rare enough that I don't feel the need for
fancy special protection.

YMMV.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank, I don't think you read any of my postings about how much climbing I do. 46 mph isn't all that unusual on a good descent even now that I'm not overdoing the descending speeds. Having that much wind in your eyes is extremely dangerous.

On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 7:16:38 PM UTC-7, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Sunday, 22 September 2019 14:10:46 UTC-4, Tom Kunich wrote:
While sunglasses are usually valued for their ability to shade the eyes from glare that is not the first use of them on a bike.

On a bike you need them to shield the eyes from wind and road debris that might be kicked up from passing cars or the wind. They are especially important descending when you can be traveling 40 mph or more in the open air..

This used to be pretty well understood but it seems to have been thrown aside. None of the reasonably priced glasses are large enough to prevent a windstorm pulling around your glasses and blinding you at critical times.

The glasses that used to work well - Oakley, Bolle and Smith are now of breath-taking expense and they TOO are now reducing their sizes. I cannot even find a Bolle Contour anymore. Even the $200 Oakley is too small.

Another thing - as a cyclist you often ride from light to shadow and out into the bright sunlight again. Heavily tinted sunglasses makes the road turn totally invisible in these shadow conditions. California roads filled with potholes and broken whiskey bottles are not amiable to having your sight hindered. On the first ride on a set of 600 Campy wheels I ran over a missing utility road opening and broke several spokes and could barely make it home. I had it repaired but it now breaks spokes so regularly that I no longer use it.

The polarized glasses I've used do not seem to provide any improvements.. Though the blue tinted ones seem to be a happy medium.

One would think that the Chinese who are generally really fast on the uptake would jump on this market but they too are both skimping with the size of the lens and even worse yet the optical characteristics can have you seeing double.

And the latest fad of very wide side pieces can rob you entirely of peripheral vision.

I bought several pairs of $2 Chinese sunglasses in the hope that one would work. One was Tifosi and it is pretty good as long as I keep the speed below 30. Another is an unnamed brand.

Has anyone had any good luck with sunglasses lately?

I use these OVER my prescription eyeglasses. These sunglasses had tinted side pieces as well that block the sun when you're riding at right angles or close to right angles of the sun. They work very well too when riding bright to shade to bright to shade...

The yellow lenses ones are a real blessing to have on when a car with those super bright blue tinted headlights approaches me. Also help a lot when meeting an oncoming bicyclist with a ridiculously bright font light.

These sunglasses are pretty durable too.

https://www.gianttiger.com/product/804919.do

Cheers

My vision is close to 20-20 for anything more than 10 feet away. So I don't need to wear glasses when riding. From Amazon you can buy a set of "reading" sunglasses that have normal reading classes corrections in a "bifocal" manner. These are nice for flat rides but they are still too small to cover enough of my face for very rapid running. On the century a couple of weeks ago, on the flats I was doing 20 mph and having eyes watering. Not a good idea in a thick peloton.

On Monday, September 23, 2019 at 1:13:12 AM UTC-7, Rolf Mantel wrote:
Am 22.09.2019 um 20:10 schrieb Tom Kunich:

I bought several pairs of $2 Chinese sunglasses in the hope that one would work. One was Tifosi and it is pretty good as long as I keep the speed below 30. Another is an unnamed brand.

Has anyone had any good luck with sunglasses lately?

I'm quite happy with those
https://www.aldi-sued.de/de/angebote...ille-05082019/

Cheapo, close to the eyes. Only problem is that they now have a rounded
frame rather than the rectangular of earlier years, so my take-a-look
doesn't fit any more.

But the 40 mph on the weekend I just did without any sunglasses on, the
midges season is over.

On Monday, September 23, 2019 at 1:13:12 AM UTC-7, Rolf Mantel wrote:
Am 22.09.2019 um 20:10 schrieb Tom Kunich:

I bought several pairs of $2 Chinese sunglasses in the hope that one would work. One was Tifosi and it is pretty good as long as I keep the speed below 30. Another is an unnamed brand.

Has anyone had any good luck with sunglasses lately?

I'm quite happy with those
https://www.aldi-sued.de/de/angebote...ille-05082019/

Cheapo, close to the eyes. Only problem is that they now have a rounded
frame rather than the rectangular of earlier years, so my take-a-look
doesn't fit any more.

But the 40 mph on the weekend I just did without any sunglasses on, the
midges season is over.

Judging from the position of the nose bridge that isn't nearly wide enough for me. I've tried glasses of that sort of fit tightly against my face but on the long climbs the sweat causes the glasses to fog up even worse than sun in the eyes.

On Monday, September 23, 2019 at 1:39:12 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 8:10:46 PM UTC+2, Tom Kunich wrote:
While sunglasses are usually valued for their ability to shade the eyes from glare that is not the first use of them on a bike.

On a bike you need them to shield the eyes from wind and road debris that might be kicked up from passing cars or the wind. They are especially important descending when you can be traveling 40 mph or more in the open air..

This used to be pretty well understood but it seems to have been thrown aside. None of the reasonably priced glasses are large enough to prevent a windstorm pulling around your glasses and blinding you at critical times.

The glasses that used to work well - Oakley, Bolle and Smith are now of breath-taking expense and they TOO are now reducing their sizes. I cannot even find a Bolle Contour anymore. Even the $200 Oakley is too small.

Another thing - as a cyclist you often ride from light to shadow and out into the bright sunlight again. Heavily tinted sunglasses makes the road turn totally invisible in these shadow conditions. California roads filled with potholes and broken whiskey bottles are not amiable to having your sight hindered. On the first ride on a set of 600 Campy wheels I ran over a missing utility road opening and broke several spokes and could barely make it home. I had it repaired but it now breaks spokes so regularly that I no longer use it.

The polarized glasses I've used do not seem to provide any improvements.. Though the blue tinted ones seem to be a happy medium.

One would think that the Chinese who are generally really fast on the uptake would jump on this market but they too are both skimping with the size of the lens and even worse yet the optical characteristics can have you seeing double.

And the latest fad of very wide side pieces can rob you entirely of peripheral vision.

I bought several pairs of $2 Chinese sunglasses in the hope that one would work. One was Tifosi and it is pretty good as long as I keep the speed below 30. Another is an unnamed brand.

Has anyone had any good luck with sunglasses lately?

I hate sunglasses with thick frames. Frameless glasses were out of fashion for quite a while. They are back. Best sunglasses I had for years:

https://www.mantel.com/oakley-ev-zer...NCNzdG FydDE0

very light,
large glasses,
no frame blocking your view in a descent in the drops.

Lou

Those look interesting. I will try them as soon as the Bolle's I have get scratched up too much to use.

On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 7:23:11 PM UTC-4, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 22 Sep 2019 18:55:52 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 9/22/2019 2:10 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
While sunglasses are usually valued for their ability to shade the eyes from glare that is not the first use of them on a bike.

On a bike you need them to shield the eyes from wind and road debris that might be kicked up from passing cars or the wind. They are especially important descending when you can be traveling 40 mph or more in the open air.

On Monday, September 23, 2019 at 12:18:20 PM UTC-4, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Monday, 23 September 2019 12:09:56 UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 11:41:20 PM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 7:02:39 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

BTW, I'm just back from a short ride to visit a friend. I went there in
daylight, returned in dark. Same glasses, no problem.

Also, it's so nice to have a powerful dynamo light ready at a click..

Powerful dynamo light is kind of an oxymoron. It is nice not to have to remember to recharge, though.

Leaving my friend's house, I had a downhill for about half a mile, much of it at
25 mph or more. My tiny Busch & Mueller Eyc headlight was perfectly fine, except
through a fairly tight S turn, where I could have used more beam width. (The
IQ Cyo seems to have a wider beam.)

Cutting through some neighborhoods later in the ride, I verified again that the
headlight illuminated road signs about a quarter mile away. I can't imagine
needing more. But as always, YMMV.

- Frank Krygowski

A cheapo flashlight like SMS used to recommend will often illuminate a road sign at 1/4 mile distance. What I want in a bicycle light is something that illuminates the ROAD ahead of me. If it illuminates the shoulders too that's even better. That's what I really liked about my CygoLite Rover II light - it lit up the shoulders as well as the road surface plus it had an external battery pack that I could keep under my jacket during winter rides. The only problem with that light was that it didn't have the 'reach' that I prefer when riding very fast on country roads at night where the only source of light is my bicycle light.

These lights illuminate the road better than almost anything on the market. It
really is beneficial to have an even distribution of light, not a crude "hot
spot" overcooking the pavement.

BTW, I have a friend who loves to ride a nearby bike trail (or MUP) as the full
moon is rising. Last full moon (last Friday the 13th) I remarked that his
headlight batteries were low, that his light had a yellowish cast. "I've got
some fresh batteries, but why bother? I'll just ride next to you and use your
light." And near the ride's end, he was asking me about buying a generator light.

- Frank Krygowski