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Glasses / Contacts

jeneralist said:
...the "wrap-around" style of sunglasses? Well, some of them can take a prescription lens, as long as the prescription isn't too severe....
Thanks for the heads up about this. I can't envision them (pun intended), but with the slight correction for my one eye, this sounds feasible for nighttime riding/driving. Do you have a brand or model number for your prescription wrap-around lenses?

chfite said:
I see the same peripherally with or without glasses.
I agree. That is exactly the problem with glasses (except apparently with what jeneralist has found, above). I had glasses since 1959, and glasses and contacts since 1968. When preparing for Lasik, I had to forgo my contacts for two months, requiring me to use my glasses full-time. The loss of sharp peripheral vison while riding and driving was a real bummer.

Fred
 
I've also worn glasses my whole life. I never noticed the loss of periferal vision before. You're right. If I tweek my eyeballs to the side and don't look thru the corrective lens the world gets blurry. I guess I've always just turned my head to compensate.
robert :bottle
 
you get used to what you see all the time. so if you wear glasses all the time, you think your peripheral vision is fine. if you have a strong prescription, it's not. it's all just blurry blobs off to the sides. typically, i have not ever really been able to tell that my vision was lousy until i was presented with a better alternative. when i had glasses in my 20s, i thought i could see fine. i went to the optometrist, and found out that my eyes had degraded a bit. when i put on the new glasses, i was AMAZED. i simply couldnt tell before that my vision wasn't as good, my mind had adjusted to the way things were. if my forward vision had degraded, then my peripheral vision certainly had. it makes me nervous to think that my peripheral vision is not at maximum on the motorcycle.

little tiny movements in the corner of your eye (periphery) are the things that can be the difference between life and death on a bike. if you're wearing glasses, and have to turn your head as a result, that means you arent facing the direction you are going. that means that you need to turn your head BACK to the front to reassess hazards in front of you.

just sitting here at my desk, i did an experiment - i sat with my desk lamp over to my right at about 45 degrees. i can flick my eyes, focus on it, and then flick them back straight ahead, in less than 300 milliseconds. it takes me about 600 to turn my head, look at the lamp, and then turn it back forward and refocus. (i'm trying really hard too, i'd likely be lazier/slower on the bike, and i'd have a helmet/wind forces to contend with.)

at 70 mph i cover 102 ft/second. so if i take my eyes off the road for 600 milliseconds, i cover 61 feet. my bike is 8 feet long, so i cover almost 8 bike lengths not looking where i am going! if i take my eyes off the front for 300 milliseconds, obviosuly it's half the distance, or around 30 feet.

i think it's more likely that i would be turning my head in city traffic, so let's say i'm going 40mph in that scenario. that's 58 feet/sec, so i'd cover 35 feet in 600 milliseconds and ~17.5 feet in 300 milliseconds. still pretty crazy, but i'll take the extra 17 feet for braking/swerving.

give me contacts/lasik on the bike, anytime, anywhere. it gives me a slightly larger safety margin, and my mentality when riding is to do everything i can to decrease the probability of wreck/injury. (short of not riding, that'd be NUTS! :D )
 
If you can't see to the side perhaps it's not the fault of the specs as it is the choice of what frames and lenses to buy. If you go with the small granny style lenses heck yeah you will have reduced clear peripheral vision. I use "aviator" style frames with medium lenses and have great peripheral vision and have tested it. As a pilot I had a physical every 2 years and a peripheral check was part of it. No differnce in the test for me with or without glasses. I still had the range of view either way.

Frankly, if your head isn't on a swivel anyhow you shouldn't be riding. Don't depend on seeing something from the corner of your eye. SCAN the world around you.
 
My right eye is so bad that I see noticeably better to the periphery with the contacts that is why I ride wearing the contacts. Just to give you an idea, un corrected it is 20/450. It means what I can see at 20 feet a "typical" person can see at 450 feet. :hungover
 
chfite said:
I don't understand the comment about limited peripheral vision. I see the same peripherally with or without glasses. Our eyes can focus only in the center of the visual field.

You're right; strictly speaking, the glasses don't give me improved peripheral vision. What I had been annoyed by was the need to turn my head to see something on my side, rather than merely moving my eyes.

If you wear glasses now, try this: with your glasses on, look waaaaay over to the right. Odds are, there's a line across the middle of your visual field where your glasses frame is. To one side of that line, your vision is corrected; to the other side, it's uncorrected and blurry.

The wrap-around glasses have a shape that moves that line much closer to my temples. I can't move my eyes far enough to one side or the other to notice that line anymore.

FredRydr said:
Thanks for the heads up about this. I can't envision them (pun intended), but with the slight correction for my one eye, this sounds feasible for nighttime riding/driving. Do you have a brand or model number for your prescription wrap-around lenses?
Fred

My frames are by Brooks Brothers model BB 332-S. I went to one of the big eyeglass chains' -- Lenscrafters? Pearl? -- sunglasses departments. I brought my helmet with me, so I could make sure that the glasses would fit under my fullface (not flip-up) helmet. And I tried on about a dozen pairs, pushing them to my nose and then looking all the way to one side without turning my head.

Oh -- and don't make a mistake that I made. Don't get polarized lenses. My sunglasses give my windshield a rainbow sheen....
 
glasses/contacts

Dave:

This thread has been quiet for a while, and there hasn't been a response to your query about members' experiences with multi-focal contacts. I would suggest that you try to get an ophthalmologist to refer you to a good optometrist in your area, and ask them what their patients' experiences have been with them; it's probably variable. If you don't know an ophthalmologist, you could ask your family doc, or possibly, an optician, to refer you. Also, there are ophthalmologists who include contact lens work as part of their practices, and you could consult with them. Also, ask your professional for their opinion on the new "Focus" lens by CIBA Vision.

As an attorney, your near vision will be a major priority for you.

Good luck.

Rinty
 
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Here is how I dealt with needing a lens for reading the GPS after my Lasik. I bought these Optx 20/20 HydroTac lenses (now on sale - two pair for $20, less than a cheap pair of readers) to apply to the inside surface of my faceshield. I apply one at the bottom center-left of my faceshield, where the GPS screen falls in my field of view. Make sure you apply the correct side of the lens to the faceshield; it is counterintuitive and the instruction is not clear. Note that this is not a permanant application, and the lens is easily removeable. I carry the extra three lenses in a little container as backup.

limtedtimeOffer.jpg


Fred
 
I got the multi-focal soft lenses about four months ago. They have been far superior to the bifocal glasses or the single vision gas perms along with reading glasses. You give up just a little in both distance vision and close up from the contact/reading glasses combo (it is a compromise) but it is well worth it to need reading glasses only in extreme conditions (Very low light or very small print). I throw a cheap pair of readers in my pocket and rarely ever pull them out. I have been very pleased with the vision and comfort along with the added convenience.
 
wavy peripheral vison with curved glasses/"wraparounds"

If you cannot tolerate contacts, look into Zeiss curved sunglasses. Curved glasses with no wavy images. They came into the market about 5 years ago. An optomitrist who specializes is sporting sun glasses (fishing, shooting, flying, golfing, etc.) told me about them.

They are EXPENSIVE! ...and mostly in big cities. In 2000-01, a pair costs about $2,200.

anybody up for a ride to the Big Apple for flawless sunglasses?
 
Go with LASIK... around here, the guy who's done 50,000 procedures offers 18 months same as cash... it's like buying a TV! I love it... I got very tired of the contacts/glasses thing. I use Wiley X goggles, which I almost bought Rx lenses for...THEN I would have had glasses/contacts/Rx Sunglasses/Regular Sunglasses/Rx goggles/Regular goggles... The LASIK took me from close to 20/400 on the left side and 20/70 on the right to 20/20. If you play tennis, racquetball, softball, etc... it's a wonderful thing!
 
Wandering down the list o'threads, and look! There's more activity on this one.

Rinty: thanks for your input. I have a good optometrist - and have liked for years that while he's suggested I try contacts, he has not pushed them at all. I'm very comfortable with him and his work, and will open a dialogue with him about my choices.

Bikelawyer: (I thought *I* was the bikelawyer!) I can sure understand your wanting to avoid having so many eye appliances. So far for me, 'though, it's only glasses. Mary smirks when I say they're OK. I confess to being nervous about surgery on my eyes, but I do observe that my 91-year-old father just had cataract surgery, which took something like 13 minutes, and his vision is transformed. So I haven't considered Lasik, but I should.
 
glasses/contacts

Dave:
I thought you'd wander back to the thread sooner or later. I'm mildly near sighted and I haven't had refractive surgery done, even though my wife is an ophthalmologist. Like you, the statistical possibility of something going wrong keeps me from going for it. And I value my near vision more than my distance vision; I just take my glasses off when I work.
Concerning your dad, he had to have his cataract surgery, but of course no one has to have Lasik done. But when you need your first intra ocular lens, the surgeon will set the refraction up just right for you.

Rinty
 
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I wore contacts for nearly 20 years until I got a corneal infection that forced me back to glasses about 3 years ago. I have progressive lenses and really enjoy the ability to read a map in my tankbag without having to haul out the reading glasses like I used to do with contacts.
I keep thinking I'll go back to contacts, but I'm not willing to go back to carrying reading glasses for close-up work. I've tried the variable focus contacts and the business of a distance eye and a close-up eye lens arrangement and disliked both.
So it looks like I'm destined to wear glasses until medical science figures out a way to give me the focusing range of a 20-year-old.
:drink
 
When I was 16, I had to start wearing glasses. That was many, many years ago during the beginnings of the hard contact lenses era. A doctor told me contacts were like putting a piece of sand in my eyes. The eyes would adjust but is was still a foreign object. I have worn glasses ever since. Early on I decided I was not going to let vanity have me carry the glasses in my pocket until I needed to haul them out and put them on and then put them away. I put them on in the morning when I get up and take them off at night when I go to bed. Very convenient. A few years ago, I tried contacts again. The problem is I have an astigmatism. I also use photogray, progressive tri-focals. The combination made contacts a difficult proposition. At one point, I tried a different perscription in each eye. That made my brain hurt. The bottom line was I would have to carry all the contact stuff plus spare glasses plus sunglasses. That was a step backwards. Perhaps I don't have 180 degree peripheral vision but I can still turn my head. And I always have the glasses on that I need. My helmet has a tinted face shield and that works fine. However, to each his own and if they work for you that's great.
 
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