Manky Monkey Motors

Hopefully, this summer the sun will be shining, and we should be turning our attention to eye protection.
Sunglasses these days are available in a huge range of styles but more importantly, a huge range of coloured lenses. I have to be honest and say that until the other week all i ever wore were dark lens glasses, didnt give a thought about lens colour cos i assumed they were for posers, how wrong could i have been!
The different colour lenses actualy perform differently in different lighting conditions. I bought a pair of glasses with 3 interchangable lenses, as well as a strap to hold them in place, i used the orange lens on a cloudy day and wow, everything was instantly lighter and clearer.
I cannot recommend the use of different lenses enough, they do work and do make a difference.

Them's nice TB. How much & where from?

Right then, you wanna rough idea of what to wear when?

BLACK/GREY
Black, grey, and/or smoke lenses are best for bright conditions – they dim the bright sunlight to ease the strain on your eyes. While the lenses do darken your vision, grey does not alter colour, so everything remains the same colour.

Grey also makes a great lens colour for driving sunglasses.


BROWN
Brown is a good “all around” lens color choice. It is dark enough to save your eyes in bright conditions, but brown also improves contrast, clarity, and depth perception. Plus, it really enhances shades of green (i.e. trees, bushes, and grass.)
Brown does this by filtering out blue light waves.

AMBER
Amber is somewhere between a light brown and a dark yellow lens. It will block blue light, which greatly increases contrast.

RED
Red lenses, usually referred to as “rose” or “vermilion,” will increase contrast and brighten cloudy, dreary days. These lenses will distort colours, however, so don’t wear them in situations where you need to see perfect shades of color. (That’s not necessarily bad, though, because sometimes this distortion is pleasant and easy on your eyes.)

YELLOW
Yellow increases clarity so you can actually see where you are going, very usefull for hazy or foggy conditions, even if you’re in dense fog.

ORANGE
Orange comes in somewhere between red, brown, and yellow lenses, and as such, works well in darker, cloudy weather.

BLUE
Blue as far as i can tell would be far more usefull on the sea or in the air, i found they were ok, but act very much as the grey lens.

Just a cheap pair, £7.99 from our favourite shop of the moment, LIDL.
Manufactured by Crivit sports and aimed i believe at the cyclist, but very usefull for us trike riders too.

Really? Don't fancy picking up 2 more pairs do you? (Miss Tazet & myself).

Military glasses/goggles issued to the lads on ops, come with clear, black, and amber ballistic lenses!! Awesome bits of kit!

Clive

I had two pairs of glasses, with removable straps to convert them to goggles. Both had interchangeable lenses. Both got leant out to mates -never to be seen again.

I`ll pop over and see if they still have any, let you know later  ;)

Done.

The ones in my avatar pic are my new prescription. Spec Savers usual 2 for one I decided not to get self darkening this time but have the second pair as sunnies. Couldn't believe they did a nice wrap round lens, ideal for on the trike ;)

I got the same with polorized lenses, they are great. ;D

I did think about the ones with all those different lenses (the ones with a perscription insert) but decided to wait a while :-\

I'v got some of them with the prescription inserts,but have not yet been to the optician's  for new test yet,
must go .

Let me know if they're worth it  ;D

I got the John Doe glasses / goggles, they have a prescription insert.

Obviously a little bit more bulky than glasses but they are very comfortable and are totally wind and dust resistant which is what I wanted, they never mist up either, I always use the strap and wear a beanie over the top and even at high speed on the trike ive never had a problem.

More expensive than others on the market but I cant complain about the product.

http://www.kilbury-trading.com/index.php/products?page=shop.product_details&flypage=garden_flypage.tpl&product_id=16&category_id=23

What are all you blind buggers doin' riding bikes! I must make a mental note to stay out of your way!! Morrag

 ;D ;D

Excellent stuff Vmax ive just asked my neighbour who works at local optitions if they can insert my prescription lens and she has said she will check tomorrow for me...if they can iIgotta get a set of those glasses....voodoo...

My local opticians did mine.. cost me another £45 but worth every penny in the summer..

Will say the only thing I dont like about them is the inside lense can be seen through the yellow lense, but its fine with the black one (been meaning to paint the inside frame)

if you want some pics of the inside lense or how they look being worn then just say so. :)

I`ve got a pair of wraparounds with a light blue lens. Absolutely brill to ride with but when you take them off everything goes orange for a while!!!. Must be something to do with the light band they filter out.

Hello Cabman. Welcome to the forum.  ;)
I find if I don't wear any eye protection my eyes water like mad as soon as I hit about 40mph. Your eyes are so easily damaged, even just by wind pressure & often irrepairable, so if anyone here's new to triking/biking & riding without glasses, take our advice & get some protection. I have to wear single piece, wrap around style sunglasses cos the 2 piece ones I've tried, with seperate lenses for each eye & a bridge over your nose, just funnel the wind down each side of my nose & straight into my eyes, making them water even more. Favourites so far for me are the Aviator Retros, sold by Davida. Not cheap, but very good.

http://www.davida.co.uk/type.php?id=aviator

But they don't do much for your hair, by the looks of that pic Mr M.

Proper helmet hair. I've always suffered from that -only got to wear a lid for 30 seconds & my hair takes on the shape of the helmet lining. A good reason for riding trikes. It's the windswept & interesting look, as Billy Connolly would say.

Also my goggles and those like monkeys are good for hay fever sufferers, my eyes are very sensitive but because they are wind proof I never feel anything.

Btw, Happy to hear I aint the only one who suffers from a Helmet imprint every time I take it off.  ;D

Your all amateurs at helmet hair!!!!! Try wearing one pretty much all the time!!!!!! :D

Clive

I wear clip-on sunglasses over my normal glasses, just a very light shade of brown so they don't change colours much but I think the important thing is that they have polarising lenses so they deal with glare.  I even used them once to hold in front of my camera lens to take pics of pretty stones under water, they cut out all the sun sparkle on the top of the water.

Helmet herr  ;D, those of you that know me have seen my cure for that  ;D.
Andy, just to clarify, i got you two pairs. Not had chance to answer properly due to work, do you want me to post them or hold them till i see you on the 25th?

Hi TB. Hang onto them if that's O.K please mate.

i have a pair  with interchangable lens and prescription inserts they came with 4 differant lens  mirror  smoked   yellow and a shade of red (more of a pinky) after choosing the red  and being out on bike for a few hours  i went inside  changing to my normal glasses (clear lens) i noticeed that all white things had agreen tint  to then  this cleared in about  half hour but was a strange experience  andy

It's because your eyes overcompensate for the red, and the green receptors 'go to sleep'. When you revert to normal sight, the green 'wake up', and the red ones are 'knackered' so have a bit of a kip!!! ;D

It happens when we fly on NVG. Two green TV screens an inch from your eyeballs! when you stop using them, everything goes shades of red!!

Clive

I think that these glasses are fine, but how do you change lenses ??

Hello Roddy or is that Rod? Which glasses are you asking about?