Cycling UK Forum

I have a pair of glasses from Optilabs (Serengheti model). From new I reckoned I would have to do something about the nose bridge, it having a tendency to slip down my nose. This would leave me looking more over the tops, especially when I'm on 'the drops'!

I tried out the little stick on silicone pads available in opticians, but they would come adrift, particularly when it got hot n sweaty. Other things were tried out, including smearing silicone sealant on the integral nose pads - it would just peel.

So my idea has been to utilise inner tube rubber. I attached a layer of it to some double sided foam tape, then from this cut the nose pads to shape. To finish, run around the edges of the pads withe a permanent black marker, to black out the white foam tape.

They seem to stick very well to the plastic frame nose bridge - they haven't come adrift after 2-3 weeks. Although early days, the sticky foam tape shows no hint of loosing stickiness - yet! The butyl proves to be effectively non-slip against the skin (and I'm quite greasy skinned!), meaning the glasses stay in place for much longer than before. An added benefit is that the width of the tape+inner tube has a good thickness, which effectively raises the height of the glasses above the nose. That's something which I think is often overlooked in cycle glasses frame design, particularly if you are riding on low set drop bars.

I just attach an adjustable retainer (e.g. Croakies) to the legs of my specs to hold them in the optimum position.

Brian

I use a sports strap which attaches to the specs at the rear. It prevents your glasses from sliding or falling off even when sweating. About £4.00 from most Opticians.

Ahh, the retaining strap device - didn't think of that. You can make those for free as well!
A thin strip of inner tube, folded over at the ends, to slide over the arms of the glasses. Add a little glue dabbed on the tube to hold the sleeve section in shape.

I prefer the raised nose pads - as I mentioned, they effectively raise the height of the lens on the face, so you're not peering through the top few millimetres (especially when using drop handlebars).
In addition, the raised rests have the effect of pushing the frames out at bit. This helps to prevent steaming up and stops the eye brows brushing the tops of the lens as much, which helps retain clear lenses.

I keep trying to dream up a way of raising the height of my specs when cycling that I can then remove. My varifocals sit quite low on my nose (which is small) and close to my eye brow ridge (which is pronounced!) so riding on the drops tends to mean that I am looking over the top or straining my neck. What I'd like is a clip on nose bridge to push the specs out and up for when I'm riding my bike, but can't think of how to do it so that it is removable. Any ideas?

I'm picturing a piece of that sort of dense foam stuff that chemists sell to help with bunions, corns or other foot problems. Cut to shape (following experimentation) and held in place by the use of one of the retainer straps already mentioned. I should probably add that my record on inventions isn't good

Brian

Brian G wrote:I'm picturing a piece of that sort of dense foam stuff that chemists sell to help with bunions, corns or other foot problems. Cut to shape (following experimentation) and held in place by the use of one of the retainer straps already mentioned. I should probably add that my record on inventions isn't good

Brian

I'm wondering is I could take said bunion foam and arrange it in such a way that it can be slotted on. Time for some experimentation!

I think you will find you need to break the glaze of the plastic for most adhesives to work properly.
This means you have to rub down the surface where you are going to apply the glue, so that is has small ridges to grip into.
The best type of glue for this type of plastic is marketed under the name Tensol. You have to be very careful with this as it melts the surface in the bonding process.

I have had the same problem and resolved it well using blutack. A thin strip high on the bridge of my nose. The glasses sit on this. The slight tackiness means that the material sticks to my nose and to the glasses. Has lasted for long distances. Play with the design to get the best fit with minimum visual appearance. I also use Vistana over sunglasses which have wrap around lenses which look good and are better for all round visibility. Overall very very little inconvenience and works well.

alanyg wrote:I have had the same problem and resolved it well using blutack. A thin strip high on the bridge of my nose. The glasses sit on this. The slight tackiness means that the material sticks to my nose and to the glasses. Has lasted for long distances. Play with the design to get the best fit with minimum visual appearance. I also use Vistana over sunglasses which have wrap around lenses which look good and are better for all round visibility. Overall very very little inconvenience and works well.

I would say with some certaintity that Blutac will melt in time and become very sticky and stringy. And you will come to hate the stuff for it's extreme stickiness - possibly worse than bubblegum! This will be because of heat and grease from your sweat getting mixed in. Plus Blutac does this of it's own accord with time.

I can also say that my original fix above ultimately proved inadequate, for pretty much the same reasons as for the blutac. The glue on the foam tape, although not loosing tackiness, actually got worse in that it lost it's firm bond and would leach glue onto my hands when wiping the glasses clean. This would have happened from heat and sweat contaminating the glue.

The proper fix for this is to use a good quality silicone sheet, of soft and tacky quality (silicone varies in tackiness). I used 3-4mm thick - from memory, bought off ebay.

Stick some masking tape to the nose rest area of the glasses, then outline a good shape for the nose rest. Remove the tape and apply it to the silicone sheet and cut out the shape. You can actually form the profile to some extent with emery paper, to take off any hard edges. Finally, sticky the nose rest down with superglue. Sparingly. Mask adjacent areas, such as the lens with more tape, if necessary, to avoid hazing from the glue.

You can use the same masking tape outline to repeat for the other nose rest.

Now, I really can say that these nose rests do stand the test of time - about 5 years so far without lifting or deteriorating

Having said the above, I suppose that if the Blutac is replaced regularly it may work fine. But I am surprised that heat and sweat don't interfere with the performance of the blutac.

clearly what you need is an 'opti-grab';





but seriously, as others have noted, the side arms ought to help retain your glasses in the right place, so some adjustment/modification of those ought to be worth a go? There are plenty of folk who don't have a nose shape that would ever support specs by itself, so they must rely on the side arms (or a strap or something) 100% to stop sliding?

cheers

CREPELLO wrote:Having said the above, I suppose that if the Blutac is replaced regularly it may work fine. But I am surprised that heat and sweat don't interfere with the performance of the blutac.

Thanks for the insight. I do not have a short term problem with Blutac, and I do replace it regularly, after a few rides. What you are suggesting would work well for a permanent solution I suspect, as you are using the fix with glasses you use for cycling, but for me I need to raise my prescription glasses higher, so I do not want a permanent solution.

You need some silicon rubber tubing. Available in various sizes and in medical grades.
Take about a half inch length and slit lengthways.
Slip over bridge with slit uppermost. If you need a bit more lift you might be able to get away with two layers.

I tend to bend my glasses a bit, at the nose bridge so the arms are more snug on the temples and the angle of the little metal bits that the nose rests are attached to. it helps but it's not perfect.