Are glasses always necessary when commuting?

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OP
OP
G

Gbola

New Member
You see.

This was the whole point of thread - to find people for the OP to abuse and wind up.
Learn to be polite
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
I need eyesight correction. Sometimes I wear glasses. Sometimes I wear contact lenses.

Now it might be my imagination, but I have the impression that I'm able to interact better with other people generally when I'm not wearing glasses, whatever form of transport they or I am using, or even if neither of us is using any.

The same is certainly true of sunglasses - it's hard to interact effectively with someone whose eyes you can't see.

I never wear cycling glasses.
 

brokenflipflop

Veteran
Location
Worsley
I wear clear glasses most of the time so eye contact isn't a problem. By the way, how do you clean your glasses as mine always develop smears/scratches with a few days of using a new pair - it's a right pain.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
I'm wearing glasses now but I get the impression I can't see some of the posts in this thread...

Anyhow, swarms of flies or eye-watering cold notwithstanding, I prefer cycling without glasses. I feel it's far better for getting good eye contact (and a pretty young pedestrian smiled at me this morning!). I guess there's a slight danger from the lack of eye protection but until pedestrians start wearing safety glasses to walk down the street, I'll take that risk. It feels safer.
 

Pikey

Waiting for the turbo to kick in...
Location
Wiltshire
^^^^^^^^^^+1
I was worried about getting a pair until recently, haunted with thoughts of looking like a twelk, and being ridiculed by her indoors.

In one week however (as mentioned above) a bumble bee hit me in the eye whilst i was happily doing 28 down a lane, it felt like my eye was going to fall out. Also on another ride on an A road, an overtaking car whipped up the steel bit from inside a car tyre as it passed. As it screamed past a few inches from my face it made up my mind for me.

Rather keep my eyes in my head and be laughed at personally!
 

Alun

Guru
Location
Liverpool
I'm wearing glasses now but I get the impression I can't see some of the posts in this thread...

Anyhow, swarms of flies or eye-watering cold notwithstanding, I prefer cycling without glasses. I feel it's far better for getting good eye contact (and a pretty young pedestrian smiled at me this morning!). I guess there's a slight danger from the lack of eye protection but until pedestrians start wearing safety glasses to walk down the street, I'll take that risk. It feels safer.
It's your choice, but I can't see how clear glasses affect eye contact, perhaps you could explain that one. I usually wear glasses for cycling whether or not pedestrians wear them.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
It's your choice, but I can't see how clear glasses affect eye contact, perhaps you could explain that one. I usually wear glasses for cycling whether or not pedestrians wear them.

It's probably a subjective thing but glare off the lenses does hide the eyes and put them slightly in shade a little even with clear ones.

An additional and purely personal reason for not wearing glasses is that feeling the elements, hearing the road noises and feeling the humps and bumps of the road surface make cycling more of a sensory, vibrant, in touch with the world experience - glasses are a bit like a windscreen and cycling for me is very much about not being behind one. I suffer badly from the cold so this ''alive to the elements'' approach does not extend to cycling in shorts at this time of year. But I know that once it's warm enough again to go out in shorts, I'll enjoy being able to feel the breeze against my legs once more.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
I've ridden into a swarm of some kind of fly. It wasn't the impact that hurt so much as the vile acidic mush that ended up swirling round my eyeballs. I wear clear £5 safety glasses in the summer but not in the winter when there are fewer bugs about.
 

Alun

Guru
Location
Liverpool
There's quite a choice of "stylish" safety glasses with clear, yellow and dark lenses at around the £5 mark, no need to pay silly bike specific prices. Oh dear, did I really use the word stylish !
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Has anyone seen an eyeball-bumping bumble bee recently? Or more pertinently, not seen one and been ambushed by it? Does anybody here know anybody blinded by road debris whilst cycling?
 
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