toekneep wrote:I suppose I am lucky being short sighted rather than long.
Me too. Age means I need reading glasses to fill in the gap between about 15cm and full arms length, but for cycling maps I just take the 6" option and look over the top of my glasses.
You'll find that eventually looking over the glasses won't help enough. I can do that now, but the distance is getting longer. My bifocals are reading/intermediate. Intermediate was originally arm's length, now I need it for a foot or two beyond arm's length.
An optician put me onto a good trick: wear one contact lens in the dominant eye and nothing in the other. This seems to work (but I am only mildly short-sighted: -1.75 ish).
Mick F wrote:You'll find that eventually looking over the glasses won't help enough.
Of course it will. My "normal" uncorrected vision is at about 6 inches and I just hold the map at the correct distance for it to be in focus. Age will just reduce how much closer than 6" I can hold the map and still see it.
I always wear protective glasses to keep the bugs out and help stop my eyes getting badly bloodshot due to cold winds, but what I've recently started doing is also having some cheap readers' (.93p from Poundland, they're having a battle with Poundstretcher next door!) on a cord round my neck. Then, when it comes time to check the map, I just offer them up and check away. Might not look very cool or trendy, Hey Ho, it works.
I use varifocals, which are great, but not on a bike. My main problem is close vision as well - I'm fine riding with no glasses, but I can't see GPSs and Audax directions on my bars easily - unless I produce large-print direction sheets.
The reason for not wearing glasses on a bike is that I'm leaning forward, which throws the varifocals out, so instead of putting everything into focus, they put everything out, unless I tip my head up to an uncomfortable degree. Can anyone else relate to this experience, and do Rudy Project's account for it? It would mean that the lens graduation was "higher up the nose" than for glasses for normal wear.
Sometimes I wear an old pair of low-profile reading glasses on the end of my nose, to let me see the GPS and directions. anniesboy's bifocals look like a good solution.
the frames used in varifocals will have a large part to play in clarity at different distances. my wife and i use optilabs frames and lenses but when my prescription alters i get my local optician to put the new lenses in.
the frames we use are wide and deep, giving better protection from wind and bugs etc, but also allowing the different lens areas to be larger.
we don't have a problem reading the garmins on the bars or maps on barbag through the bottom of the lens and then looking up the road with hardly any noticeable head movement.
-- Burls Ti Tourer for tarmac Saracen aluminium full suss for trails.
The plastic magnifying sheet is a Fresnel lens, Simon. A credit card size one weighs 3 gm and is thinner than a credit card. Let me know if you want to ride near Dijon next summer with someone who has one.
andymiller wrote:An optician put me onto a good trick: wear one contact lens in the dominant eye and nothing in the other. This seems to work (but I am only mildly short-sighted: -1.75 ish).
I've tried this but felt a bit disorientated. You're effectively one-eyed as far as distance vision is concerned. Do you still feel confident driving, especially at night? Maybe I'll try again, I didn't persevere the last time. By the way, how do you decide which is your dominant eye PS: +1 for Poundshop reading specs!
if I wanted to make myself vomit inside five minutes, using a lens in one eye and not the other would do it. If this is recommended by a professional optician then my opinion of professional opticians has just sunk to an all-time low.
I use those cheap readers in a plastic case carried in my jersey pocket, an OS map tucked between the rivets of the long flap on me saddle bag. I think of looking at the map,think 'oh I'll look again after a few more miles', I do that, I'm normally proper lost by then, I quite like that. Mind you I wear some cheap sunglasses that always cast an optimistic hue on the day's route.Check out ZZ Top's song Cheap Sunglasses on youtube, the lyrics fit cycling. Mine are those two tone ones clear at the bottom so you can see the road as well going into the sun. They have Mountain Biking written on the arms(!), they were about 30 pence in a charity shop. I tried some vari focals, I didn't need them for riding / driving quite yet, but the long vision bit made driving less tiring on the eyes.What I found was that it's essential to get frames that put the lenses at the correct angle to your eyes otherwise you can get quite a lot of horizontal distortion even though the lens prescription is correct, whilst reading a map say and if the frames place them at an incorrect height on your ears, it's also tricky looking to the right for oncoming traffic, I found you had to keep moving your head up and down to get the correct facet of the lens, to me it seemed it would be too easy to lose sight of an oncoming bike at a junction. I gave up in the end and got bi-focals which I just use for driving or watching the box.Safe cycling one and all.
Brucey wrote:if I wanted to make myself vomit inside five minutes, using a lens in one eye and not the other would do it. If this is recommended by a professional optician then my opinion of professional opticians has just sunk to an all-time low.
cheers
Actually, it's called monovision and most people adjust to it pretty quickly. This is a common solution for those who need more than one type of correction, or vision.
james01 wrote:I've tried this but felt a bit disorientated. You're effectively one-eyed as far as distance vision is concerned. Do you still feel confident driving, especially at night? Maybe I'll try again, I didn't persevere the last time. By the way, how do you decide which is your dominant eye
The link above has a test for dominant eye.
It takes many people up to two weeks to adjust. I would advise against driving with monovision during the adjustment period, but it is fine for most people after that. It can, however, affect depth perception, so care is advised.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.” ― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
