[Closed] Prescription riding glasses

Oakley Transitions.

I'll do my usual and recommend Rad8 transition glasses. Their hydrophilic coating really does limit steaming up and they are pretty hard wearing. Nowhere near as good lens quality as Oakley but nowhere near as expensive.

I’ve just got mine from Reglaze Glasses Direct (formerly ciliary blue I think). Paid about £100 for clear lenses for my Racing Jackets. I’ve used transitions before and don’t really like them personally - I’m never that bothered by sun on bright days. Having said that, I can’t really swap to tinted lenses now without rediscovering the faff of contacts so I can see transitions lenses would be really useful for some.

It’s so great just to be able to switch glasses and ride rather than put contacts in. I should have done it years ago. Service was great from them and the lenses seem well made and fit well. So thumbs up from me.

They seem to have 10% off offers almost weekly, code for this weekend is VEDAY10.

RXSport have always been very helpful, and offer good pricing too. i'd also suggest avoiding anything with a seperate set of prescription lenses as they're prone to fogging, harder to keep clean, and the extra weight can often lead to them constantly slipping down your nose.

I was thinking of trying Rad8 but they don't seem to do a half frame design.

Depends how strong your prescription is. I used to ride with a pair of standard Oakley prescription glasses as the Oakley sunglasses etc were too curved for my prescription, at that point I moved to contact lenses for the 1st time ever. I only ever wear glasses (normally) on days that I don't ride.

optilabs- great people

Rad8 get theirs done by optilabs iirc.

I’ve a non-prescription set of rad8 and really like them, but the wrap around won’t take my prescription (neither would ciliary blue). When I finally get round to stumping up the cash for prescriptions I’ll probably try their flat style glasses- my other half has them and I like them but there’s a bit too much free space around them to use with contacts for my liking.

Alternatively, I persuaded Specsavers to put my prescription into some wraparounds a few years ago as my second pair of glasses. The really didn’t want to, said I’d get distortion round the edges. They were right, but they’re fine for road riding. Ok for mountain biking as long as you don’t try looking through the bottom of the lenses as things go a bit weird. Happy with it tbh, given what they cost me.

I've got Oakley transitions from RX sports. Must be 5 years old now and could do with being replaced.

Flat lens glasses fit a prescription best as the lens to eye distant remains constant so there's no image distortion. I got a pair of oakley specs form the performance lifestyle range with a prescription and just wear those. Added benefit of being able to use them off the bike without looking like a triathlete.Work well mountain biking as the reduced speeds mean you don't really need a wrap around lens most of the time.

I picked a pair of sporty sunglasses from Specsavers and had clear lenses put in them. Been wearing them for commuting since December and they've been great.

I've also had old Oakleys reglazed with clear lenses from ciliary blue.

Another Optilabs recommendation. Couldn’t fault them and the glasses are great.

Depends upon your prescription.
If it's high you'll need to visit an optician.

I've used Optilabs for many years. I use them to go skiing too.

Roughly what is your prescription?

i’d also suggest avoiding anything with a seperate set of prescription lenses as they’re prone to fogging, harder to keep clean, and the extra weight can often lead to them constantly slipping down your nose.

I have clip in inserts due to my strong prescription. They don't fog or slip down my nose.

I've had Bolle Bolt S frame with their lenses for about 18 months, prescription in them is -7 so really limited in what I can use. Had Optilabs before, which were much cheaper but don't match the fit of the Bolle frame or the quality of the lenses.

Try www.selectspecs.com/ i got some of there Areo 2057 With prescription Light Adaptive & Photochromic lenses £45 work great and at that price you don't mind if you cover them in mud or drop them

I like my Oakley Trail Prizm lenses better than my old Oakley Transition lenses.

RX Sport do a good home trial service too so you can try 3 sets on to make sure they fit well and play nice with helmets etc.

I have also used https://www.extreme-eyewear.co.uk/ and they were very good too.

Another vote here for Reglaze glasses direct - I didnt want to pay out for prescription oakleys through RX Sport - managed to buy some frames on ebay (Whether genuine or not im not sure but if they were copies they were really good copies, and the price i paid i wasnt too bothered)

Sent them off to Reglaze who fitted transition prescription lenses for about £70 - quick service too, so all in i had a pair of prescription oakleys for about £100 whereas through RX Sport the same ones would have been about £500 with transition.

I have since had laser eye surgery but again to change my prescription non riding sunglasses to normal sunglasses.

I used smartbuyglasses - went for Oakley straightlink frames, as they are robust and give good coverage, with a transition lens for £190
I have had several pairs with no problems

Got a pair of Rudy Projects with prescription inserts from RX Sport. Not at all cheap, but I found they worked well (certainly dont fog up or slip down any more than standard sunglasses.
Then I needed to replace the sunglass lenses as they had got scratched.
Not listed for that model any more. Emailed RX Sport - utter radio silence. Rang them - they would look into it and would ring me back. Heard nothing. Rang them again "look on the website".
Ended up getting some replacements from a place in Australia that makes them for lots of different glasses - but cant get the photochromatic ones I wanted.

So I wouldn't use RX Sport ever again. I would also be wary of paying a lot of money for some with changeable lenses without some sort of guarantee that in 2 years time I can still get the lenses.

I'd previously tried Cillary Blue to reglaze some safety specs, and they couldn't get the prescription right, several attempts by them (each one costing me to send the glasses back) and I decided to just cut my losses and try a different approach.

So experiences clearly vary!

**** me what model of Oakleys was you getting that cost £500

For those of you with Rudy Project frames wanting spares the guys in Treviso whilst officially not dealing with the public will help where they can.

I've had a few pairs of prescription Oakleys before - everyday and riding glasses. I used Oakley prescription lenses for the riding ones, but bog standard opticians stuff for the others. That's usually where the eye-watering cost of Oakleys come in - but the optics on the Oakley lenses are really very good. I priced up a pair of Field Jackets with Oakley optics through a local (very good) opticians ( https://onlookers.co.uk/) and they were nearly 500 quid. I ended up with Adidas Evil Eye Halfrim Pros - a good chunk cheaper then the Oakleys, with Adidas lenses. They were favoured by the opticians - better product and better service as far as they were concerned. Been using them for a year for running and riding and I've very happy with them.

It's with see if you have a local opticians who have experience or specialise in sports stuff. These guys were happy to order stuff in for me to try, and just sent it back if it didn't suit. The Field Jackets looked great on paper but weren't right at all when I tried them on.

Another vote here for Reglaze glasses direct –

And another vote from me.

They are very good to deal with.

For riding glasses I've had a couple clear and transition prescription lenses for a pair of Oakley Racing Jackets from them, and they have recently put some traditions lenses in a Oakley Field Jacket frame. Usualy works out about £60-70 a pair.

I usually buy the frames elsewhere online with a decent lens in them, then eBay the original lens once removed.

They have also done several pairs of casual sunglass and normal glasses for me and my partner over the years. This is usualy about £20-25.

I like my Oakley Trail Prizm lenses better than my old Oakley Transition lenses.

That’s my current dilemma. I have some (broken, dog chewed) Oakleys from RX sport that are about 8 years old. They had the transition lens in there and I was never that impressed. Apparently the ‘new’ transition lenses are a lot faster.

I do have a set of flak jackets XL with a Trail Prizm lens and I really rate them for 90% of riding (tho not at night). The ‘obvious’ choice is to buy another set with my prescription in. Or save £100 and get some RAD8 transitions.

I did look at the optilabs options as well. Really helpful advice but they aren’t far off the cost of a set of flak jackets.

As ever, I'll chip in with "buy whatever frames you like (in my case, riding Transitions sunnies are £5.99 clearance stock from Mountain Warehouse, casual sunnies are £10 O'Neill frames from TKMaxx) get them glazed at Reglaze Glasses Direct".

I've used Optilabs in the past, but they're very expensive for what they are, their frames are (or at least were) absolutely bobby basic things.

My last pair of riding were Julbo frames ordered and glazed from Eyekit. I prefer them to the Oakleys. Also day to day are Julbo and they haven't suffered from the rubber pads on the arms degrading like my last few sets of Oakleys (I don't use any hair products). Being nagged by wife to order some more before I trash these lenses.

I've had a of pairs done by reglaze direct but the last pair were the same frames, prescription and material but they struggled to get the lenses to stay in the frames, after a couple of attempts of adjusting I gave up and they refunded me.

Do these online services just fit inserts or are they actually prescription lenses?

Do these online services just fit inserts or are they actually prescription lenses?

They remove the exisw lenses from the frames and replace them with prescription lenses.

Usually you fill in a Web form with your prescription details and frame details, they send you a box to post them in, they receive them, replace the lenses then return your frames to you with the new lenses fitted and the old lenses separately.

Sorry with all the questions but say I buy Oakleys, are the lenses they fit Oakley lenses or another lens that fits?

Sorry with all the questions but say I buy Oakleys, are the lenses they fit Oakley lenses or another lens that fits?

Depends on who you buy them from.  The likes of RXSport and Extreme-eyewear can supply official oakley lenses.

They will not be 'official' Oakley lenses if you use somewhere like Reglaze-Glasses-Direct, but in reality I can't imagine that they will be much difference. Both will be bespoke to you and the frame and I imagine that there will be limited differenced in machine and material types that could be used if you went official Vs online.

They will remove the original lens then use a machine to scan the frame, calculate the correct shape and curvature for the frame, your prescription and eye position in the frame.

You can choose to have all manner of treatments to the lens like tints, reflective or mirror coating, polarisation, anti scratch, anti fog etc.

Safety specs online

Do bolle and such like