Hi all, I now need to wear glasses as my eyesight is ok but on the edge of the legal requirements, but I find that glasses are not compatible with my helmets, they are too tight and pinch the arms and make them lift up and down like Eric Morecambe does to Ernie Wise. How do you deal with the problem.
Most new lids cater for it, my Shoei NXR certainly does. I've always worn glasses and always used Shoei never had an issue.
I need to wear glasses so I specifically looked for a helmet to accommodate them, the Nolan N87 does the job for me, you need to take 2 foam inserts out of the helmet before use for spectacle wearers. https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_cat/1978
I use AGV and Bell helmets and they allow for glasses. I also use Oakley frames with thin straight arms, like below, and I don't notice my glasses at all when riding.
Thanks for all your input, I will now do a few searches for compatible helmets and defo sort some new frames.
Hi, thanks for your suggestion, my glasses are varifocals but they have a heavy frame and make my nose ache, I use them In the car and general use but just don’t fit with my helmets. I will get something sorted soon. Thanks again.
As much as I don't really like flip front helmets I got an AGV one with a flip front. Reason being that I find it very difficult to get my glasses on so that they actually fit comfortably with a full face helmet. Usually end up with the arms on the outside of my ears, so there's usually 5 minutes of faffing about trying to get comfortable. Flip front means I can put the lid on without taking my specs off. It also helps to wear a smooth balaclava. Never used to have a problem when younger, had lots of hair then, lids fit different. Now have shaved head, so I think that makes a difference. I suppose contact lenses would alleviate all the problems, but don't know about you, I find it a totally alien concept voluntarily putting things in my eye. (And, I'm not that vain....)
Contact lenses are definitely the way forward. Once you get over the initial awkwardness of putting them in and get used to them, they’re soooo much more practical than glasses. No more helmet problems, no more losing them or breaking them. I’ve been wearing them for over 20 years and am dreading the day that my optician tells me I can’t use them anymore
I would also need reading glasses if I wore contact lenses. Though last time in the opticians I spotted bi-focal contact lenses! My glasses are varifocal. My mother once referred to bifocal glasses as "bi-sexual" glasses. I said "Focal, mother, focal." to whit she said "We'll have none of your bad language in this house."
Bi-focal and varifocal contact lenses are a curse , particularly if you need toric ones. OK if you are always in an upright posture, but if you are working on the bike and need to look upwardish they float all over the place and your vision goes out of focus. Even putting my head under the car bonnet/hood was enough for this to happen. Spectacles are generally not as good optically, but they are consistent.
I tried varifocals a couple of years back, and just could not get on with them at all. I thought them as downright dangerous for driving, as they slow your sight reaction time, wearing normal glasses you can move your eyes within a fraction of a second to observe and identify what is around you, but wearing varifocals you usually have to move your whole head to maintain focus. I'm sure they are great for many people, but not for me.
You should try lying under a chassis and welding wearing them. Far easier to do without altogether, and being shortsighted that's not too bad. I hate wearing glasses. Have worn them for nearly 40 years, with the varifocal/bifocals in the last 10 or so. Tried contact lenses, but don't get on with them at all, just end up with very sore eyes.
I tried them varifocal contact lenses and thought that they were brilliant But after six months not mastering the putting in and taking out practice I gave up and went back to glasses The last straw for me was when I nearly pulled the front of my eye off trying to remove a lens that wasn’t there It had moved up behind my eyelid and of course I couldn’t see properly
Worst of it is... They have got you. You need them, and there's nothing cheap about them. Saw an advert for specs for the princely sum of six quid. Too good to be true, they don't make them strong enough for me (very shortsighted). True, they are jawdroppingly ugly styles, but better to fork up a pair of el cheapo glasses whilst running the angle grinder than your best pair. On the subject of helmets, years ago I had a Lazer helmet, and never had a problem with glasses. They fit right, and that lid wasn't 'designed' to use with glasses. Wonder what changed.
A few years ago a mate of mine got some new varifocal glasses but he’d never had them before and was struggling a bit with them. We worked on aircraft and were doing a job next to a plane wing, all the while with him moaning about these glasses. Anyway, brew time came and I stand up to go and make a cuppa and say to Bob “are you coming for a brew” ”Oh yeah, if I can see where I’m going, haha” At which point he stands up and walks into the edge of the wing.
I have two bell Helmets, open and a full face and have no issue wearing glasses, I have Varifocals but agree with other comments they can be a bastard to use having to learn to move your head around, for the first week I was falling Arrse over tit every time I tried to negotiate a few steps, learned the hard way.
I’m with you about contact lenses, I can’t even put eye drops in let alone a piece of alien matter, I’ve had varifocal glasses for 2 years and still struggle with them, same problems as you encounter, and I can’t read a newspaper properly with them as the area isn’t large enough, moving my head to read and not my eyes .. no it’s just weird, my brain won’t except it, so use my old readers instead. I also find that when I look down I see the curvature of the earth in my front room, that’s really not good, like Vertigo, and I know that first hand since I had an ear operation 12 yrs ago, and still have problems with it.
I wear a Bell open face so I can easily put the helmet on and off without removing my glasses. I've never tried a full face helmet (no shops where I live) but I would be interested to know if the same is possible with a full face.