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eye protection

That is 46.2Yen per set of glasses.

When you buy it, bring it out on a ride and do my glasses, and I will give you 100yen :)
 
Right, there is a 630 yen shipping charge so before I buy I will have a toddle round the local Oakley dealers (3 I know of in spitting distance) and see what they say.
 
What about RainX? It does the same thing and bottle of this will coat about 60,000 pairs of eyewear. Sorry, I didn't do the actual math cause the repetitive stress injury of using a spray bottle would not be covered by my insurance.

I ususally wear glasses because my eyesight is right on the edge - about 20/40 - and crispier vision is great for longer rides and navigation. HOWEVER ---

Did you know that your B&W vision on the periphery is far more sensitive than your focused center vision? And it doesn't really need to be clear to function. In racing, I hardly, if ever wore my prescription glasses as my center gaze was downward and I rely more on my peripheral vision.

I love the UVEX safety glasses, btw, and have a few sets, too. At less than 1000y a wack, they can't beat and are more than 90% UV cut. UVEX (if you ski or ride moto) is one of the biggies in eye protection.

I have some BRIKO's , too - from the 1980's. The 'Stingers' same as Pantani. They look like bug eyes - but, damn, I love those glasses. Full coverage and oh , so , well... Pantani!

Lastly, I got some folding sun glasses from Chinese PLA surplus. Depsite being really funky, they are pretty good cause they fold flat, have leather (yes, real) rims and glass (yes , real) lens and they fit over my std low profile prescription wear. The cost about 200y at the flea market in Beijing.

Last of lastly was my beloved pair of 'Steve McQueen' Persols. Sigh - they broke after more than 25yrs constant use. I sent back for replacement and hopefully return soon. Custom made lenses in Italy as that model never had prescription. I saved up premes for like 4 mo to buy them. Honestly, they were / are my favorite eyewear of all time. Even David Millar thinks so... (25yrs later)

I believe only 2 ways to go with eyewear - cheap and easily replaceable Or iconic. Get a few of the cheap ones and one of the iconic ones. You won't be disatisfied.

I had contacts, too - they are great until you are descending at 80kph and have a grit in your eye. And after the ride when you fall asleep and they glue themselves onto your cornea.

When I'm hard on the pedals, even eyewear annoys me. So, I'm oftentimes tossing it or stowing it back. It gets scuffed, crushed, tossed and even coated with gel slime and melted goo.
 
Thank you all again for your comments and recommendations. One of the most interesting to me was for the "Cocoon" over-goggles. But as soon as I started to think about them, I realized that they must be enormous and awkward. Yet no, above is snoogly, disinterestedly claiming that they're fine. And they're cheap enough, though the maker is cagey about sales options. I'll keep this option in mind.

I went to Zoff today and ordered a pair of their "athlete" specs. Their frames come in black, which I didn't much want, and a variety of pretty alternatives, which I wanted less; so I took the black. I wanted the ("chromogenic"?) lenses that automatically darken a bit when it's bright. The bad news: such lenses add five thou to the price, they're only for the cheapest (fattest) lens option, and they extend the waiting period to one week. But I ordered this combination anyway, for the grand total of 12,600 yen. And I got the prescription, which I can recycle for internet order.
 
RainX makes a marine and aviation version that works perfectly fine on polycarbonates. So do many other companies. This stuff has been around for more than 30 yrs at least in the aviation industry.
 
More on the "Cocoon" cover-your-specs goggles, if anyone's interested. The website, liveeyewear.com, encourages purchase from local retailers, says nothing about Japan, but invites people to ask about local retailers. So I did. Answer: they're not aware of local retailers, but suggest the following internet dealers:
  • anysunglasses.com
  • golflandwarehouse.com
  • tacklewarehouse.com
  • heavyglare.com
  • sunglassesgiant.com
  • fishusa.com
  • xwear.com
I'd guess that some won't sell to Japan and others will only do so for an exorbitant charge; but I haven't yet investigated (and shan't do so unless/until dissatisfied with specs I've ordered but haven't yet even received).
 
It's a while since I bought mine, but I got them direct from USA. Even with the postage it was cheaper than the local price.

I will dig around to find the receipt, so I can let you know where exactly I bought them.

More on the "Cocoon" cover-your-specs goggles, if anyone's interested. The website, liveeyewear.com, encourages purchase from local retailers, says nothing about Japan, but invites people to ask about local retailers. So I did. Answer: they're not aware of local retailers, but suggest the following internet dealers:
  • anysunglasses.com
  • golflandwarehouse.com
  • tacklewarehouse.com
  • heavyglare.com
  • sunglassesgiant.com
  • fishusa.com
  • xwear.com
I'd guess that some won't sell to Japan and others will only do so for an exorbitant charge; but I haven't yet investigated (and shan't do so unless/until dissatisfied with specs I've ordered but haven't yet even received).
 
Cocoons update ... I bought mine in 2009 from http://shop.liveeyewear.com/c/cocoons

I paid $15 for postage.

Another option is clip-on sunglasses. Over the years I have always managed to find a suitable model to fit on my new specs from:

http://www.polarizedoptics.com/clip_on_sunglasses.html

It can be tricky getting the size right, but it's easy and cheap to post them back and have different sizes sent.

My eyes are the pits, and I need varifocal lenses which are fiendishly difficult to balance correctly, and tricky to manufacture. That's why I wear normal specs when I cycle, with some kind of sunglasses over the top.
 
I ordered my "Cocoons" from liveeyewear.com, which subcontracted this to "Sunglass Emporium" of Arizona. The Cocoons cost $30 and the shipping cost $30. The latter is a bit ridiculous as it tracks the progress of your package across Arizona in somewhat unnecessary detail and then loses track when it leaves Arizona. And the trip from Arizona to Japan isn't by ship but it does seem to be by a rather slow plane -- a series of flying boats hopping from one Pacific island to the next, perhaps.

The Cocoons seem good. They come in various sizes. I chose "M", rather than the "ML" recommended above. "M" is adequate for my brand new, medium size specs.

One reason why I like the specs+Cocoons combination is that my Cocoons have transparent lenses to go over my transparent specs; a handy contrast with the automatically-greying-in-UV lenses of the specs I'd shortly before bought at Zoff. It had been too long since I'd previously used sunglasses. I do have experience of having been dazzled (e.g. near the Mediterranean), but here in Japan there's more loess; I haven't yet benefitted from the greying lenses.
 
Local big box, the sunglasses aisle, and I try to get by for 2000 yen or less, maybe a little more if they seem nice.

...due to a "lesson learned", a pair of shimano glasses that cost 7-8 times any of the cheapies, and which constantly lost the nose and ear/temple pads, which I tried to order/replace, but those pad replacements (which shouldn't have ever been needed) cost as much as the glasses that I now use.

Those replacement pads didn't work for shyte, even poorer than the original crap that came on the glasses in the first place.

There's probably no bigger profit center for a bike shop than selling you a 5,000-10,000+ yen set of glasses.
 
I believe only 2 ways to go with eyewear - cheap and easily replaceable Or iconic.

Agreed!

I will only let Oakleys don my person - I still have my very first pair of sponsored Oakley Straight Jackets in custard yellow from the 1990's.
 
I'm not still on my first pair of Oakleys but as one of my other hobbies is Fly Fishing I barely ever leave the house without a pair of sunglasses on (a fly hook tends to travel close past the face at about 70 mph and I do have a small chip in one pair of glasses to prove the don't always miss...). Okay, that and spending 5 days of the week sitting in a darkened office means going outdoors at the weekend hurts a bit if I don't wear sunglasses
Anyway, for both reasons I seem to have accumulated a range of Polarised glasses over the years. Oakley are still my favourite for making the world seem better and sharper. Yes your eyes can adjust the white balance and neutralise out a lot of whatever Oakley lens tint you've chosen, but the right red or yellow tint for you still seems to lift the day (especially if it's yet another grey day in London!!). So for cycling I mainly use an old pair of Oakleys Half Jackets. The lenses are a second or third iteration, but the frames are from 10 plus years ago (and only plastic).
If I were to recommend the best sports sunglasses I own then it would be Maui Jims. Flexible, very lightweight frames and great optics for a plastic lens. I have a pair for bright days and a one for dull. The dull ones I wear cycling on cloudy days in the winter and they give great eye protection plus easily stretch over helmet straps/the rear plastic cage of Kask helmets.
 
1970's - I wore B&L up until I discovered the 'Italian Thang'
1980's - Strictly Persol or Briko
1990's - Persol mainly and whatever cheap shades I could find
2000's - Persol supplemented by cheap shades.

My favorite Persol's finally broke after 25yrs, so I need to get them repaired. Still have a set of Briko 'Jumpers' . And will probably get a set of Briko 'Zen' in Tortoiseshell - they support prescription insert.

Monotaro cheapware (UVEX) is fine for supplemental. And I got a couple sets of simple prescription wear at Bic Camera for under 5000 yen.

I've never tried the Oakleys or Maui Jims, but heard lots of good things about them.

I'm not still on my first pair of Oakleys but as one of my other hobbies is Fly Fishing I barely ever leave the house without a pair of sunglasses on (a fly hook tends to travel close past the face at about 70 mph and I do have a small chip in one pair of glasses to prove the don't always miss...). Okay, that and spending 5 days of the week sitting in a darkened office means going outdoors at the weekend hurts a bit if I don't wear sunglasses
Anyway, for both reasons I seem to have accumulated a range of Polarised glasses over the years. Oakley are still my favourite for making the world seem better and sharper. Yes your eyes can adjust the white balance and neutralise out a lot of whatever Oakley lens tint you've chosen, but the right red or yellow tint for you still seems to lift the day (especially if it's yet another grey day in London!!). So for cycling I mainly use an old pair of Oakleys Half Jackets. The lenses are a second or third iteration, but the frames are from 10 plus years ago (and only plastic).
If I were to recommend the best sports sunglasses I own then it would be Maui Jims. Flexible, very lightweight frames and great optics for a plastic lens. I have a pair for bright days and a one for dull. The dull ones I wear cycling on cloudy days in the winter and they give great eye protection plus easily stretch over helmet straps/the rear plastic cage of Kask helmets.
 
Agreed!

I will only let Oakleys don my person - I still have my very first pair of sponsored Oakley Straight Jackets in custard yellow from the 1990's.

Haha, 90's Oakleys were the business. I have a pair of clear framed, orange lensed Straight Jackets. The best!
 
Haha, 90's Oakleys were the business. I have a pair of clear framed, orange lensed Straight Jackets. The best!
Init!

Wearing Jawbones and RADAR now though.
 
Sweet. I lent them to my bird of the time one day, around 1997. She came back home with them up on her head. Took them off and gave them back to me, only to discover one of the lenses was massively scratched to buggery. She had sat them on top of a cheap hair clip she was wearing in her hair for half the day which wrecked the left lens. I was WELL not happy about that.
 
mate surely that warrants murder?
 
Hmm, while these "Cocoon" overspecs seem comfortable at first, they're tiring over time. I think that my helmet presses on them and that they press my specs. Anyway, the bridge of my nose gets a bit more fatigued than if I were just wearing my sporty Zoff specs.

The latter have their own minor drawback. The, uh, what are they called, the long bits that go over your ears, these can't be reshaped. And they bend inwards rather too much for my taste over a long time. They're fine for even a three-hour bike ride, but I prefer not to wear them from morning to evening.

Well, more experimenting to do, especially with the Cocoon thingies.
 
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