Prescription glasses, visors, rain, dark and glare.

[spoodler]

This will probably sound strange to a lot of you guys and I may not have explained it well...
Tried a visor for the first time t'other day, usually I just wear my prescription glasses. Came home at about commuter time. So, dark, lots of headlights and drizzle/rain. In town, with the streetlights, it wasn't bad and it was quite pleasant not to be out in the rain! But once out of town I honestly could not see to ride due to the glare from oncoming headlights. I reverted to riding with the visor raised, as I could see so much better. The visor and lid are a practically new AGV. Visor was clear, clean, no scratches, no misting etc.

Those of you who use visors and glasses, are they something you needed to get used to?

I guess it could have been me focussing on the visor rather than the road beyond?

It could just be that my eyesight has deteriorated and due to lack of travel during Covid, I wasn't aware. I'm booking a Specsavers appointment, but anti glare doesn't seem to be offered on normal cheap glasses, so I'll see what else they suggest. Any "clever" suggestions, other than don't go out in the dark when it's raining?

I know I could just do without the visor, but I'm beginning to feel old and have decided to buy some decent kit to make life more comfortable...

[KTMsm]

I had similar when coming home the first time this year in the rain and dark

I think it was because although my glasses and visor appeared clear they had streaks of grease on them - I cleaned both with an isopropanol / water mix

I can't tell you if it's worked because I haven't been in the dark and rain since but it is certainly where I would start.

[Rushjob]

Quite a few of my mates suffered from this, pretty much all of them went down the laser surgery route.

Got to admit I thought that this idea sounded a bit extreme but thats what they did!

[Cylon2007]

I wear specs, I always use Visor proof to clean the outside of the visor this makes the rain run off. And I use fogtechdx on the glasses to stop them steaming up. Also I ALWAYS use a pinlock insert in the visor.

[spoodler]

Cylon2007 said:

I wear specs, I always use Visor proof to clean the outside of the visor this makes the rain run off. And I use fogtechdx on the glasses to stop them steaming up. Also I ALWAYS use a pinlock insert in the visor.

Thanks for that, I'd not come across Pinlock before... tho' as mine's an open face I doubt it would provide much benefit.

Thanks for replies (laser sounds drastic!), I have given it a thorough clean, and used a Rain-x type treatment as I always use it on my old cars. Got my jab tomorrow, so will see if it has made any difference.

[cjb44]

spoodler said:

This will probably sound strange to a lot of you guys and I may not have explained it well...
Tried a visor for the first time t'other day, usually I just wear my prescription glasses. Came home at about commuter time. So, dark, lots of headlights and drizzle/rain. In town, with the streetlights, it wasn't bad and it was quite pleasant not to be out in the rain! But once out of town I honestly could not see to ride due to the glare from oncoming headlights. I reverted to riding with the visor raised, as I could see so much better. The visor and lid are a practically new AGV. Visor was clear, clean, no scratches, no misting etc.

Those of you who use visors and glasses, are they something you needed to get used to?

I guess it could have been me focussing on the visor rather than the road beyond?

It could just be that my eyesight has deteriorated and due to lack of travel during Covid, I wasn't aware. I'm booking a Specsavers appointment, but anti glare doesn't seem to be offered on normal cheap glasses, so I'll see what else they suggest. Any "clever" suggestions, other than don't go out in the dark when it's raining?

I know I could just do without the visor, but I'm beginning to feel old and have decided to buy some decent kit to make life more comfortable...

I have had the same problem for years, and over the last four years have been told that my Cataracts have gradually got worse now got to the stage where they must be done. I had my first one done three weeks ago and the difference is amazing. This is something that creeps up on you fairly slowly and you do not realise how bad your reaction to oncoming lights is, in my case you get a starring effect coming from the oncoming light.
Of course, Cataracts are usually only found in people over 50 years of age, but I would certainly get along to an optician, for my two penneth I would avoid Specsavers.

[Freakuk]

Sounds like you need to apply a coating to the visor for the water to run off, plenty of them available. I tend to get to a certain speed and just turn my head and the wind blows the rain off the visor.

[spoodler]

CJB... Thanks for the suggestion. That could well be a possibility - I shall mention it to the optician. Just been reading up on the subject, 'can identify with a lot of the symptons even if only very slightly, as yet. Interesting how use of the visor compounded the problem. Absolutely no trouble in daylight, but I guess it's one of the problems of getting older.

[Vantagemech..]

cjb44 said:

spoodler said:

This will probably sound strange to a lot of you guys and I may not have explained it well...
Tried a visor for the first time t'other day, usually I just wear my prescription glasses. Came home at about commuter time. So, dark, lots of headlights and drizzle/rain. In town, with the streetlights, it wasn't bad and it was quite pleasant not to be out in the rain! But once out of town I honestly could not see to ride due to the glare from oncoming headlights. I reverted to riding with the visor raised, as I could see so much better. The visor and lid are a practically new AGV. Visor was clear, clean, no scratches, no misting etc.

Those of you who use visors and glasses, are they something you needed to get used to?

I guess it could have been me focussing on the visor rather than the road beyond?

It could just be that my eyesight has deteriorated and due to lack of travel during Covid, I wasn't aware. I'm booking a Specsavers appointment, but anti glare doesn't seem to be offered on normal cheap glasses, so I'll see what else they suggest. Any "clever" suggestions, other than don't go out in the dark when it's raining?

I know I could just do without the visor, but I'm beginning to feel old and have decided to buy some decent kit to make life more comfortable...

I have had the same problem for years, and over the last four years have been told that my Cataracts have gradually got worse now got to the stage where they must be done. I had my first one done three weeks ago and the difference is amazing. This is something that creeps up on you fairly slowly and you do not realise how bad your reaction to oncoming lights is, in my case you get a starring effect coming from the oncoming light.
Of course, Cataracts are usually only found in people over 50 years of age, but I would certainly get along to an optician, for my two penneth I would avoid Specsavers.

I have an AGV helmet with pinlock, wear glasses and also find the glare quite offputting though Im not sure if you need to clean the visor and remove the pinlock periodically?. Glasses wise I use this trick cloth thing - foggywipe - simply breath on the glasses and a 10 second wipe each lens stops misting with no streaks. (Sorry not an advert!) Works for most of the day - I find myself breathing erratically then remember Ive cleaned my glasses so dont need to!
Ive found on country roads at night I have to ride with main beam on as to still see the edge of the road - either down to a poor dipped headlight or the fact there are more LED lights now that blind you!
I also happen to have had cataract surgery - but thats another story - having had an implant. However there is still a little streaking of light with it - something that I just live with, thought that could be more down to the injury that resulted with the cataract.

[Kawasicki]

I‘ve ridden a lot in the rain with glasses and a full face helmet. I sometimes need to crack open the visor to get some air flowing to clear any misting, but other than that never had a problem.

[rodericb]

Clean your glasses with liquid soap - that usually works well. Rinse off that soap with warm water and then dry with paper towel (very gently if it's that rough stuff you sometimes find). As for the visor I used Plexus to clean it - before that I used Mr Sheen but it can be hard to find the original version which wipes off nice and clean but still leaves the surface sort of slick so water doesn't stick so much.

[gareth_r]

Prescription goggles?

[RichTT]

Within months of passing my license I got sick of fogged glasses and went and got daily disposable contact lenses. Best thing I ever did.

[Andy OH]

I haven't ridden a bike for years but I used to commute into the City of London from the Herts/Essex borders on a 2005 R1 and in all weather all year round. Used to do 1,600 miles a month on the R1 and over the 4 1/2 years I owned it, it covered 75,000 miles. Anyway, I was and still am a glasses wearer and for all but the warmest of months I used to use a Respro Foggy mask that velcroed to the inside of my Arai and was quite tight over my nose. My glasses would sit over the bridge of the mask and never steamed / misted up.

I never used any pinloc visor as for me they never really worked properly and for some reason kind of distorted my vision. In the winter I used to use Rain-Ex on the visor just on the outside face and that was it. I also used to just open the small vent at the front of the lid for that little bit extra ventilation but I never opened the visor in the rain as that's the worst thing you can do.

I commuted for ten years on various bikes between 2002 and 2012 and back then LED headlights were nowhere near as mainstream as they are now. I used to get flashed by oncoming car drivers as I had a HID conversion on my bikes as I wanted bright lights and the brightest lights back then on many cars were Zenon headlights and those on the bigger vehicles like Range Rovers etc. Perhaps the OP is suffering excessive glare from LED headlights as they are particularly bright and especially on the bigger vehicles which there seems to be more and more of on our roads and most cars now have LED lights.

Edited by Andy OH on Tuesday 21st December 14:18