Glasses, Contact Lenses, Cycling etc

[pete75]

The contact lenses I use are continuous wear. Kept in for a month day and night. Changed every 30 days. Extremely convenient. Have been using them for nearly 10 years now without any problems. £15 a month from specsavers. As part of the contact lens deal they supply a new pair of prescription glasses every two years at no extra charge.

[Heltor Chasca]

Traditional thread drift and hand bags became the flavour of this thread. That's this forum for you. [emoji23]

Rather than keeping a close eye on this thread, I found it less painful to dig my eyeballs out with desert spoons. So that's what I've done. Issue solved. Thanks anyway everyone.

Cor! Almost like I'm trolling my own thread. I forgot to add the positive bit. Weekend distractions. Seriously though I considered every post. Thanks everyone. This is what everyone done so far:

Given the glasses a go for a couple of weeks. I really like them for most stuff including cycling. Only downside, they are heavy which I feel after a few hours. They also move down my nose when I smile. That's easily cured by being a little more more miserable. I don't like using them for work. I guess I am feeling precious about them still. That may get better with time.

I am on day 3 with the contacts trial. One full day of work. A 5 mile spin on the bike and general wear. I had a little trouble taking one of them out on the first day, but the rest is easy. I love them. I'm really quite surprised.

I'll keep at it. Thanks again all.

[roleypoley]

the protection given by glasses over your eyes prevents twigs-flies-dust etc.entering one of the most sensitive and vital areas of your body. I would not wear contact lenses as the things I have had bump into at speed face first without a windscreen would have caused problems

[531colin]

....
For a few years I wore the ones you leave in night and day for a month, I eventually got trouble with them

If not impolite to ask, what problem.

For non-eye related reasons my reading glasses are now rather uncomfortable and a lot less practical so I'm considering contacts. From looking around (no optician input yet) the multifocal (0.0 distance with the addition for reading/close) monthly that you can sleep in looked my preferred choice.

My other worry is that when I discussed with my normal optician last year (before the change making my reading glasses very uncomfortable/impractical) he said that I would not like contacts - reason was that I have perfect distance vision and through contacts that would be worse. So unsure but now at the point of phoning a (different) optician for a free trial.

Ian

Only just drifted back to this thread. What problem? Corneal ulcer twice, conjunctivitis once. This was after several years of trouble-free use, so I don't get it, but anyway I'm now on regular monthly disposables that come out at night......trouble free. I now ride with an optician, and her question was "Why on Earth would you want to leave lenses in overnight, its asking for trouble?"

[Psamathe]

....
For a few years I wore the ones you leave in night and day for a month, I eventually got trouble with them

If not impolite to ask, what problem.

For non-eye related reasons my reading glasses are now rather uncomfortable and a lot less practical so I'm considering contacts. From looking around (no optician input yet) the multifocal (0.0 distance with the addition for reading/close) monthly that you can sleep in looked my preferred choice.

My other worry is that when I discussed with my normal optician last year (before the change making my reading glasses very uncomfortable/impractical) he said that I would not like contacts - reason was that I have perfect distance vision and through contacts that would be worse. So unsure but now at the point of phoning a (different) optician for a free trial.

Ian

Only just drifted back to this thread. What problem? Corneal ulcer twice, conjunctivitis once. This was after several years of trouble-free use, so I don't get it, but anyway I'm now on regular monthly disposables that come out at night......trouble free. I now ride with an optician, and her question was "Why on Earth would you want to leave lenses in overnight, its asking for trouble?"

Many thanks. Wearing in through the night is not something I'd plan on doing but I'm sometimes up through a lot of the night (hobby=astronomy) and when I do go to bed it's often a rush as I'm pretty tired and I can see the lenses being ignored and staying in for a sleep (or for snoozing for a few hours).

Not gone for them yet as I'm still prevaricating and wavering.

Ian

[mercalia]

I am lucky in that as my eyes have ages I dont need any special lenses - simply stronger reading lenses perfectly fine. Any way was in Crystal Palace Poundlander and noticed in their cheapo reading glasses section they now have also combined sunglasses/eye glasses - I bought a pair very weak ones and they are pretty good

[mjr]

I've never found rain an issue with glasses. Why do some see it as an issue and others don't?

I suspect it's either down to how short-sighted one is or how similar one's eyes are. I've two fairly mild (but still not legal to drive) short-sighted eyes without much rotation or astigmatism and find I can focus through the rain just fine, with either just my glasses or both glasses and overglasses.

[simonineaston]

Just re-read through this post, looking for tips on buying Varifocal spex. and thought I'd comment as per the original invitation. Since my eye-sight started to deteriorate, due to age, I've:
1. started to use a pair of spex. with a prescription for driving, which work really well - they stay in the car.
2. I splashed out on a pair of second-hand Algha frames, and had them fitted with my own prescription reading glasses. I imagine the frames will last me some years... periodically replacing the lenses. https://savileroweyewear.com/
3. I am now about to dip a toe into sourcing varifocal lenses in frames suitable for cycling... I'm OK with distance during daylight, but figure that, as I need lenses to read the GPS, I might as well have the facility to see distance better in the same frame. I have used Volt safety spex (very cheap) to try out the idea of eye-wear with a small reading area, to see if it lines up with my GPS properly, which it does!
In summary, needing a variety of eye wear, to adapt to losing visual capacity is Right Royal Pain, but I keep reminding myself that I enjoyed 20/20 vision for decades and some of my chums have had to wear glasses since they were children! And there are solutions... if the varifocals work, at least I'll be back to enjoying a Good View as well as being able to read the map. Certainly, having an expensive GPS and not being able to read it properly is verging on pointless, as well as, occasionally, leading to making Good, Old-Fashioned errors in navigation, which considering the accuracy of the GPS, is down-right ridiculous! The old adage of map reading was Always Know Where You Are, which (batteries allowing) the GPS is immune to, so to have to admit that you got lost 'cos you can't see the screen properly is embarrassing.

[Mick F]

That's one of the reasons I bought a Garmin Montana.
Huge bright screen with big numbers and and a big bright map!

Eventually, even my failing eyesight focusing couldn't manage, and now I have Varifocals, just about everything is fine.
I can read the screen and see down the road.

I do have issues with being forced to look out through the wrong part of the lens though. I have a mirror, and it's on the drops, so I'm looking down, but looking in the distance as well at the same time. It takes practice, but I can do it.

Trying to look down between my legs at the cassette to see where I'm up to, is a problem as it's never in focus any more - glasses on or glasses off.