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Finally reduced to wearing specs when I ride. The varifocals work fine and I am amazed how much more I can see however...
...when sweat drips down the inside of the lenses I lose visibility quick. This is especially true at night when the rear lights of anyone in front reduce my view to a red haze with some vague tree like things looming out of the darkness.
I am normally too wet / sweaty to have a dry bit of clothing to wipe the lenses so end up just taking the glasses off and sticking them in the back pack.
Is there anything like Rain-X for prescription glasses?
How do others cope?
Fix the sweating not the glasses, wear less clothes/lighter layers so that you don't overheat in the first place, wash your helmet pads or get a new helmet with a decent brow pad.
Contact lenses. Everything else is a compromise that leads to crashes in my experience.
try wearing a cap under your helmet. works for me.
You can put washing up liquid on the inside of the lenses and then polish it off.this stops them steaming up
I ride with glasses for 4 years. It was a mild disability, to be honest. If it wasn't raining it was humid and they steamed up, and if it was warm enough not to steam up I dropped sweat on them. I rarely could see properly.
As for fixing the sweat - not possible for me, I always sweat to some extend even if my skin is freezing my core is still hot.
Getting contact lenses was a euphoric experience for me. Absolutely mandatory equipment. I'd rather ride a BSO in contacts than a top end bike in glasses.
Fixing sweat - not really an option. I wear shorts and have a thin summer tech fabric short sleeved top I wear. Anything less and I am naked.
I have a big brow pad on the helment which helps as I can tip my head forward, squeeze the helmet against my forehead and a waterfall of sweat flows out, normally but not always, missing my glasses.
Might look at contacts I guess - still getting used to glasses at the moment though
worth looking for a better vented helmet ... I wear glasses all the time and have found that with as Spesh Instinct I get minimal dripping compared to others I have tried.
In contrast, I moved from contacts to prescription Oakleys. Liked the prism ones so much I got another set this time photochromic.
So much easier for me. I’m short sighted though - I don’t know if that makes a difference.
Have a look at the Oakley DRT5 helmet that has the sweat gutter thing. I've not tried it yet myself, but I'm tempted when I need to replace.
I wear a thin Buff helmet liner under my helmet which really helps stop sweat running down. It wicks well but is thin so doesn't get loaded with water that can then get get squeezed out like a brow band can. I have several and now never ride without them and it's pretty much made this problem go away from me (I don't wear prescription glasses, but it used to be a huge issue since I ride with sunglasses or clear glasses most of the time).
As per previous replies, defo try a light cap under the helmet for starters - wicks sweat away from the pads before it starts dripping into your eyes, I am a sweaty animal & this pretty much solves it for me. As soon as I stop at traffic lights i'm pretty much blinded by condensation, turning your head slightly to try & direct a breeze into the lenses helps a bit but for me this is the real pain in the arse when wearing specs riding... oh, and monsoon rain... and snow... and mud...
Calotherm, available in sprays or pre-impregnated lens cloths.
The varifocals work fine and I am amazed how much more I can see however…
Mine scare the hell out of me. I don't need them for distance though (more kewyboard/projector) but when I've forgotten and left them on I keep looking through the reading part.
I wear a Bandana under my helmet which works pretty well.
I will try this and update you if it works
Get an eBike and never sweat on a ride again. 😀
[i]Get an eBike and never sweat on a ride again. 😀[/i]
From someone who doesn't rely on an e-bike to be able to ride at all I guess.
I am e-bike specific but still try to work up a sweat to keep fit
🙂
No, from someone with arthritis and sciatica who probably wouldn’t be riding anymore without my eBike but who also has a sense of humour.
I’m also fitter* than I’ve ever been, thanks in part to the eeb.
*autocorrect changed that to cuter, which is also true. 😀
Summer head band works for me.
Buff under the helmet for me.
Buffs only work for a short time, for me. They do help but they don't solve the problem.
Summer head band works for me.
So the OP asks about glasses and we offer this as solution:
Proper riding glasses for me have always worked. You can get a spray (fog buster?) to wipe the lenses with which stops moisture beading on them. But my current Bolle Bolts are decent enough with air flow to not fog unless I've stopped, then they clear quickly. In general, the worst thing with normal glasses was how much they moved around on your face. Probably not that significant with low prescriptions, but with -9 it's like descending at warp speed on acid. I can't do contacts but even if I could, had enough pokes, scratches and scrapes to the head to value my glasses.
contact lenses. Don't slip, don't fog up, don't get scratched, can't break in a crash, don't get rain drops on them.
I was never really happy riding in my glasses, even expensive transition lensed Oakleys.
Night riding was the worst.
Contacts are far far better.
I have ridden in glasses since the late 90s I've also sailed, kayaked and hiked in them in all weathers.
In my view there are a limited number of circumstances when they're a total blasted nuisance.
There is good advice above on defogging and such so I won't repeat it but the biggest single issue is where you focus.
The further ahead you focus the less imperfections and muck you notice. When I'm getting face full after face full of salt water in my Laser or spattered with mud I just try to focus beyond it.
It seems quite natural now to do the 1000 yard stare.
With mud they'll get a cursory wipe but I'm often mildly surprised when I get off the water and see how much crusty salt is dried on the lenses which I had barely registered in a couple of hours afloat.
Buff to minimise sweat dripping works well. Be careful with glasses, they need to be safe if you crash.
contact lenses. Don’t slip, don’t fog up, don’t get scratched, can’t break in a crash, don’t get rain drops on them.
I swear by contact lenses but my advice would be to carry a spare pair.
Unless you wear goggles, there's always the chance of getting 'stuff' in your eyes.
When you have miles to go it's either a painful experience or one that's navigated by one eye. Which is far harder than you may think.
Or just get a huge front mudguard. But even then I'd be carrying a spare set of lenses.
I am intrigued by prescription Oakley's though.
My wife (also a contact lens wearer) borrowed mine (prescription Oakleys) for running yesterday (similar prescription) and was impressed.
I fine them so much easier than contacts, particularly if I need to read anything at any point (I’m naturally short sighted, but with my contacts in I find my arms are shrinking as I get older).
I’d still wear contacts for snowboarding though as that’s goggles territory.
PS Boots contact lens by post folk get 50% off their prescription Oakleys (which is as good as any of the online only send us your prescription places).
Been wearing specs for most of my adult life and contact lenses are awkward for my prescription so all I can say is that you get used to slightly dirty or imperfect vision (technically I can drive without specs as I passed my test after reading the number plate on the 3rd go just before they reached for the tape measure but I never do).
Top tips are to always carry a spare old school cotton hanky for specs cleaning, the one for your nose goes in the other pocket! When drizzling wear an old school cycling cap and pull the peak down so you are peering under it and it stops the worst of the rain. Specs that are very close fitting can be a pest for sweat and steaming up (some safety specs I've had are horrendous but I got no choice in frame style sometimes). If it's pouring down just put the specs in your back pocket and enjoy surfing the puddles in a blur.
The above probably doesn't help you massively so sorry.
As I'm now on my first pair of varifocals I find the distortion riding along cycle paths that are tile or block paved as the blocks change shape on their way through the varifocal part is quite comic, if a little weird at first, definitely try it. On the plus side I can now read the phone again without extending my arm.