I have 2 pairs of prescription Oakley glasses with prism lenses. The lenses in one pair are pretty scratched, so I want to something different in the frames. I was thinking maybe just clear lenses for overcast/darker days, but are there any other types of lenses worth considering?
The prism lenses are great for most of my riding but I can’t hurt to have options. Thanks!
I’ve played this game. Oakley has pretty good price control, and it’s hard to get non-Oakley branded lenses ( Sportrx may do it still).
For clear lenses, I recommend Transitions (branded) lenses. I’ve got a pair of the std, Xtractive, and the mirrored Xtraactive. The Xtractive ones are the s*** for AM rides. The standard Transitions, aren’t as good for this use. They don’t work in the car, don’t go full clear, nor go full sunny day dark… but they go clear enough for super dark w/ bad lighting and get dark enough for sunrise. The mirrored ones don’t get as dark/clear as the non-mirrored ones, but look so much better when they are partially tinted.
The red mirrors are the way to go (look at some youtube vids from rx labs cutting them for customers), as they use a grey base and the red mirror coating gets the clearest. The grey base works better than the brown. Don’t go off-brand/nonbranded/Oakley transitions - they all suck.
I’d recommend doing one of the following based on my attempts to do this:
WOW this is amazingly helpful!!! Thank you so much for this!!!
I rock some clear Oakley M frames that I have been enjoying for several years. MyEyeDr custom made the lenses in their factory to fit in the frame. I love the clear lenses, but am admittedly more of a trail rider than a road rider.
I got some transitions for my Oakley flak, from sport rx. They are great as they are completely clear for riding first thing in the morning when it is still dark , yet they grey out sufficiently to ride in moderate sunshine too .
The obvious choice are photochromic lenses that darken as sunshine intensifies. The degree and coloring depends on the glass (well, plastics) manufacturer. I don’t have Oakleys, but the shop where I got my glasses from would have put other maker’s lenses in Oakley frames. Mine are by NXT, and I went for clear ones (although I could have had them in different colors). The only slight downside is that in tunnels they take a bit to clear up, so it might be initially a bit darker than I ideally would like.
One thing I do not recommend are clip-in lenses, because they have a rather narrow field of view (with prescription strength). Some Oakley frames support clip in prescription lenses that allows you to use cheap (well, cheap compared to prescription lenses!) Oakley non-prescription lenses. However, they have a fairly narrow point of view and cyclists need peripheral vision (think traffic). Since getting my first pair of glasses with aspherically curved lenses, I am screwed, there is no way I can go back.
Have you tried polarised lenses? I got some in my first pair of rx Oakleys years ago and I’ll never go back to plain tints. Anything with a low sun, wet roads, glare, haze, you can see so much more clearly - even with a strong tint.
My regular sunglasses are polarized but I’ve only had oakleys with the road prizm lenses.
@jfranci3 @OreoCookie @Kevin I really like the Transitions suggestion. I had a pair maybe 15 years ago and wasn’t impressed, so I haven’t really thought about them since. I’m sure they’ve come a long way and it makes more sense than carrying 2 pairs of glasses on rides that start/end in lower light.
Thank!!
The regular “wear to the office/wear to the beach” ones still only get 75%-80% dark and look awful half tinted. They don’t perform as well above 70f
The Xtractive ones layer the std transitions (UV light sensitive) with a layer of visible light sensitive. The visible light layer only has about a 30% darkening range; while the UV layer has about 60-70% range. You end up with something that gets pretty dark, but only gets clear enough that it looks like the water when you clean out the coffee carafe - not good for the office, but unnoticeable otherwise. The change speed isn’t good for MTB in-out of trees work, but pretty great for AM / PM / travel road rides.
