Cycling UK Forum

If I use my reactalight glasses on a road at a certain time of day. My head is in sunshine but the side of the road where I’m peddling is in shadow my glasses go dark and I can’t see bugger all in the shadows so I can’t see the road properly. Given up on the reactalights and using my normal clear prescription work glasses if the sun gets in my eyes I put on a cycling cap.

pete75 wrote:

Jdsk wrote:

Ray wrote:My distance vision is fine, but I need correction to be able to read. I use these:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bolle-iri-s- ... on-2/7681f

Absolutely excellent, and at £11 damaging or losing them is not a big worry.

Thanks for that.

I use Bolle safety glasses from Screwfix for cycling but I hadn't spotted these. They could be very useful in the workshop.

They are and I was wearing mine this morning when bleeding the brakes on a BMW R90S.

Just put mine on for the first time: Bollé IRIDPSI2. I hadn't realised that they were bifocal: reading area only at the bottom. Might work fine but it confused me for 20s! : - )

Jonathan

Thanks everyone, useful stuff. Need to do some hands on now. Will return with gripes.

Anybody fancy trying these?
https://premiumlifetech.net/reviews/properfocus/en/v2b_inh_dyn_theme2/?region=Leeds&country=GB&loader=0&exitpop=0&mob_offerwall=1&cmts=1&pname=DialVision&pp=%C2%A339.95&pphi=%C2%A379.9&product_ref=dialvision_en&uclick=lplpsyi4&uclickhash=lplpsyi4-lplpsyi4-520-pm6o-he8n-ftwj-j20-9b2464#tblciGiC03Yd7NkIhGBBH7SZ2bzEjtFSugU-p5qhFdASea67uwCDrm1E
Err....yeah....neither do I!

Even better than "one size fits all" socks.
Think I'll pass on those (as well as the socks), but at least the socks are less dangerous.

I'm very new to road cycling and am only just starting to take it seriously. I would like to buy a pair of glasses that can truly be used in all lighting conditions. I've researched "photochromic" glasses but I guess I'm still sceptical.

Can anyone tell me if there's a pair of glasses out there, with a single lens, which can be used in darkness and blazing sunshine? I often cycle in the afternoons for hours where it can be sunny one minute and dark the next.

Thanks in advance!

I've been using photochromic glasses since about 1980, apart from 7 or 8 years when I used contacts, and I've never either swapped them for sunglasses or kept a non-photochromic pair for indoor or night time use (other than reading glasses of recent years).
Faded, they are only just detectably darker than the reading glasses if I put them on a sheet of white paper, and I've found them OK on glaciers on bright sun.
They are least convenient when you come in from bright sun into somewhere poorly lit (like a pub).It always takes a short time for your eyes to adjust anyway, and that the glasses have to adjust too makes it more obvious. When cycling, tunnels or riding under thick tree cover on a sunny day can have the same effect, though I've never found it as awkward as the dappling of light and dark patches of lighter tree cover camouflaging the road.

It's basically a race between the sun (i.e. UV) turning them dark, and them fading back to transparent. Low temperatures slow down the fading so they go darker than when it's warm, and quicker reacting lenses won't go quite as dark. Car headlight don't have enough UV to have any effect on their (lack of) shade.

Recent discussion:
https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=140935&hilit=photochromic&start=30#p1529077

Jonathan

My experience with photochromatic lenses is that after two or three years they fade to become pretty much completely clear in all lighting conditions, particularly if they've been used a lot for outdoor activities.

These days my cycling glasses have a pair of Rudy Project prescription lenses in orange that work well in all conditions from midsummer bright sun to early morning thick fog in winter.

Nearly...yes
Comletely....No

I go for photochromatic, but nothing does properly dark night time to full sunny day light. Photochromatic lenses will do upto a certain brightness range, say use in gloomy to fully bright weather, or use from dark evening to fairly bright (but not full sunny bright) weather.
I use 2 pairs of Tifosi ones, I think they are these:
https://www.tifosioptics.com/product/ty ... unglasses/
These go from not sensible to use in the dark to nicely dark on a bright sunny day. I tend to use these over the summer + a period either side of summer.
and these:
https://www.tifosioptics.com/product/ve ... t-fototec/
These ones go from pretty much clear (OK in the dark) to not fully dark, but ok on a sunny day.
I tend to use these over winter when there will be a lot more gloomy low light riding. I have given up using them in the dark under street lights, I think it was a combination of reflections and any dirt was more prominant, I think that was it, I certainly felt beter without them commuting under street lights in the dark. In the dark on a country (unlit) road they are fine, virtually clear. Though not as dark as the summer ones, they do me well enough on a low level sun on a mid winter's sunny day.

The tifiso website used to have a specs (as in specifications) page, which included the % light transmission range through the lens, but I couldn't see it just now.
https://www.tifosioptics.com/photochromic-sunglasses/ is just the photchomatic models, they do a bewilderingly wide range if you view all models, as well as cycling and running, they also to "Asian fit" and er "gaming" ones as well. They also do reading ones (varifocals I think).
I don't know who the UK ditributor is, but one of my better local bike shops stock some of the models.

Your eyes already have the adjustment they need so the only thing you really need to be concerned about is UV protection.

Can anyone tell me if there's a pair of glasses out there, with a single lens, which can be used in darkness and blazing sunshine?

No.
Or to put it another way, depends on the state of your eyes, your budget and your expectations. I take the view that no eyewear can do everything that's required of it and so I have several pairs that are specialists, and are better at one or more jobs than the others. That way, I'm less disappointed than I would be if I just used the one. Wear & tear is also distributed across several pairs. Some, like my night driving glasses are so specialist that they stay in the vehicle and don't get used for anything else. They are different to my night cycling eyewear, which are different again to my night, wet-weather, cycling eyewear, etc., etc., - you get the picture...

I wear Rudy Project Rydons with their photochromic black lenses. I've not found problems with them, or any other lenses (my regular glasses are photochromic too), losing their photochromic sbility.

They are rated as 74% transmission when clear (for comparison their clear lenses are rated a 86%). That is similar, I think, to the allowable tint in car windscreens & they are fine for riding in the dark. Maximum tint is rated at 9% transmission which should do for most situations. I've never found a problem with them not being dark enough & I tend towards being sensitive to bright conditions.