The club group ride was under dark overcast skies this week, and looking around the parking lot at everyone in their sunglasses made me wonder, not for the first time: Why do so few riders use clear or light lenses in low-light conditions?
Here in northern New England most mountain and gravel bike riding is under a tree canopy, as is some road riding, and rides are often under overcast skies or extending into dusk. But most riders I see appear to be wearing glasses designed for full sunlight in those conditions. Why?
I end up wearing clear lenses a lot. Some of the light “contrast” tints can be nice on the road to warm up a grey day, but for mountain biking I don’t see the benefit under a full tree canopy.
I’ve also come to like photochromatics. They seem to work well for rides that alternate sunlight and shade, or that extend from afternoon into evening.
I did a lot of MTB in the bush historically and have a couple of orange lens glasses about. Still block some UV but enhance terrain in low light. Fairly common sense in my opinion..
The Oakley Prizm low light lens is a super light pink, and one of my favorite lenses to ride in. Seems to be a favorite of a lot of road and MTB pros too when it’s stormy or overcast
I love my Julbo Reactive lenses for exactly those situations. Full bright to deep shade, I even wear them driving at night when I’m being followed by cars with those super bright white/blue lights. Need a new pair because the lenses are finally showing their age after 4 years of daily wear
Does anyone know how many different Oakley Prizm colors and variations there are?
I’m pretty sure there are more than 15, perhaps many more.
My riding glasses are Trail Prizms.
I have oakley photochromic lenses (London based). They don’t go 100% clear, but plenty clear enough, even in night riding. I don’t find them as dark as prizm, so swap out in the bright summer, if i’m not going to be in the dark later. But if i forget, they are still ok in bright summer, just not as nice as prizm. In the dirty dark winter i might swap to clear lenses, because i picked up some in a sale years ago.
My Smith glasses come with an extra low light lens stock which is pretty nice. Photochromic is good but for the price I feel like they scratch pretty easy. Most big brands offer spare lenses and I prefer the pink/yellow for low-light days. Keeps the strain off the eyes for me over wearing clears.
Another plus one for Julbo glasses. Their photochromic lenses transition fast and have never let me down. For events like The DAMN or Unbound where I will be riding in the dark and the bright sun, being able to use one pair of glasses is a game changer.
I have a set of Rudy Project yellow lenses which are great in low light on the road to the point where it can be disappointing to take them off. I’ll convince myself that it’s a lovely day only to remove them and be reminded why I put them on at all.
One caveat however: off road they skew depth perception so you really can’t handle anything other than smooth terrain.
Riding year-round in the Pacific Northwest (including lots of bike commuting), orange, yellow and clear lens glasses are used far more often than the dark, full sunlight ones.
Do the photochromatics change tint quickly enough for those of you who use them?
I use a range of glasses for early morning/overcast days
Spatz photochromic are excellent - as a previous poster said, I don’t feel that they cope with bright sunlight the best, but are ok, and fine even for dark early mornings. I’ve never felt like I’m waiting for them to change or that the light conditions have exceeded their capabilities (apart from said bright light) and they also give great contrast.
100% Low light silver are brilliant - use them for early mornings
Oakley Prizm Low light also excellent although I think I sold my last set of those with some Radars
Use clear on a set of old Oakley M Frame or in a set of Tifosi Moab Lite if I really don’t think it’s going to improve or when raining
I use photochromic lenses in those conditions, but to suggest some answers to your actual questions:
Wearing glasses is pretty essential to keep wind, dirt, bugs etc. out of your eyes. Some people might only have one pair of glasses, and might not have had the foresight to buy clear or photochromic lenses. So you just wear what you have.
Polarized lenses can be good for reducing reflected glare. Particular noticeable when riding on wet roads with low sun.
Clear lenses look dorky. Coloured or reflective lenses are cool. Scientific fact.
Oh well. I was never going to look cool on a bike anyway.
One nice thing about clear is that there’s no reason to pay for big-name proprietary color-enhancing technology. I’m happy with Tifosi and have used modern industrial safety glasses(even more uncool).
I always wear photochromic glasses, even in the depths of the Sydney summer. The light at the bottom of a gorge and in our national parks can often be quite overcast, and I can’t stand dicking around with taking glasses on and off and risking getting stuff in my eyes when they’re not on.
I get notably less eye strain letting the glasses do the adjusting, rather than my eyes.
Most photochromic glasses are perfectly clear enough to start an early ride in the dark too.
I’m in southern New England, and like you, under tree cover most of the time on the road. I’ve went with clear photochromics for 20 years or more now—Oakley Prizms at the moment, but I don’t feel the need to buy name brand. I have trouble understanding why anyone would ride with dark sunglasses in the trees. I can pick out things in the flat light so much better with the photochromics.
I’ve found photochromic lenses to be a frustrating choice when riding in situations when the light is changing pretty rapidly, eg. when there is a decent level of tree cover on a sunny day. They just don’t seem as good at helping with definition and seeing small changes in road surface. My experience with the Oakley photochromatic and the prizm road, prizm road jade and the darker Prizm road.
Yeah I realise they are trying to do both but I think I’d rather start with out them and just have a short stint with nothing early on to have a standard, darker lens later.
As many have replied - some glasses for wind / dirt / bug protection essential. I do a lot of early morning pre-dawn start rides and use the photochromatic “reactive” lenses for that reason
I have 4 lenses in rotation but used photochromic lenses probably 90% of the time here in the PNW. I have some smoke lenses for travel or super sunny days, clear lenses I occasionally use for nighttime, and some red/orange lenses for gravel rides mostly under tree cover. I could pretty easily just get by with the photochromic lenses though. Tifosi by the way.
I hear you, but my latest photochromic lenses are prescription ‘Transitions’ lenses in a pink hue for the additional benefit of being much more like the Prizm Road lenses.
