While out riding my TT bike the other day I realized that while in the aero position, I have to crane my neck to see under the top frame of my sunglasses. I ride in a pretty low position. I currently use Rudy’s. My buddy suggested riding without glasses and it makes a big difference. I can just glance up and see the road ahead. Much less neck fatigue. Yhe downside is that after an hour or so my eyes were watering from the dust and crap coming up of the road. I started thinking about the goofy looking Oakley Zeros that Lance and some other guys were wearing in the prologue. They have no upper frame. Anyonone have any experience with that setup? I would imagine it may allow more forward vision while in a low aero position by not having to look under the upper frame.
i WAS using the adidas gazelles on the bike, but they were driving me insane, the middle top bar was always in my field of view.
i just got the oakley mframe heaters yesterday, much higher above my eye than the gazelles are, so i’m hoping that they are much better for riding aero.
if i remember correctly, lance used to use them for his TT rides…so they have to work ok
Definately get glasses that don’t have a frame across the top. Makes a big difference. I’d never ride without glasses. A bug or piece of grit in the eye can be very annoying.
I wear Rx so it is an issue for us blind folks. What I do is have my eye doc move the focal point of the lens up about 5mm and I see perfect while on the bike and do not get any effects from not looking through the center of the prescription lens on my glasses…I think that it is a benifit that my eye doc is a cyclist and a nationally ranked in-line speed skater.
I was having the same problem until I got Smith Mainlines. They really stick on your nose like bubble gum, and are light enough to run in without even noticing.
If you have Rudys with adjustable nose piece squeeze them together closer and it will move the glasses up higher. works for me, in fact the only glasses that work for me b/c I have a small nose and glasses slip down and causes neck problems as you described.
I recently bought the Oakley half jackets, and they work well when aero. I used to have a pair of Rudys that wasnt comfy, plus they broke. I also liked the Rudy Rydons which seem to sit well on my face for riding aero, but havent purchased yet. New they are 150ish. Luckily, i have a credit from Rudy towards a new pair.
I’ve had oakley & smith before and had this problem (aka “granny’ing the glasses”). But never had this problem with Rudy’s (Tayo, Rydon, Ekynox, Skeey). Only have to make sure the nose bridge is properly adjusted.
The Bolle Parole and Vigilantes are an affordable option. They are the best of about 6 pair of glasses I have (because they sit high on your face). And they are usually about 40-50 bucks at Performance with three sets of lenses. The Paroles are the same as the Vigilantes but for smaller faces.
One negative is that the lenses scratch pretty easily.
I may be drummed out of the tri union for this but …
I found the perfect pair of tri sunglasses. No frame so vision is excellent. Extreme wrap around so good protection and excellent vision without 99.99% UV block. Shatterproof. Anit-fog coating. You can twist them, sit on them, I’ll bet you can even ride over them. They are $4.99 safety glasses from Home Depot.
I got an LG aero helmet with the visor and returned it for one without because the design of the helmet is such that you can’t have it really down low on the front of your head, in part because it that will make the rear “point” stick up in the air and in part because the helmet sits high on a head normally (I guess to give it the ANSI crash protection.) Net:Net the visor ends up only coming down about half way across the eyes…very annoying that they would even sell it that way. I have nevere seen anyone ride with the visor.
ZE–What am I missing here. I looked at these and they have a frame all around–even worse than just a frame on top. The fact that they may stay up is not the same as not having a frame, depending on your position,
I have been mystified as to why there are so few sunglasses for bikers that eliminated the top frame. It definitely causes neck strain, and it does not seem like the toughest thing to engineer. The onlu ones I have found are off brands with little style (attitude), that scratch easily, but I wear them to save my neck and not get focused on the road underneath me instead of the road ahead.
a few years ago, 94 I believe when Dave Scott made his first comeback he had on some Scott glasses that had the frames at the bottom only. At the time I thought they looked kinda goofy but in hindsight they were onto something.
