Full-face helmet/downhill context and short sightedness

Question

I am short-sighted and doing downhill. Until recently my setup was full-face helmet (obvioulsy) plus eyes-glasses (normal or sunglasses according to the weather). Until recently because I had a mud/micro stone projection in my left eye : now I have fully recovered but I don't want it to happen again, so I decided to wear goggles.

For short-sighted people not able as me to wear contact lenses anymore, I see that there are four options :

• eyeglasses in the form of pool glasses, used for instance in basketball
• wearing goggles over my normal glasses
• having goggles glasses adapted to my view
• having a "intermediate" setup where special glasses adapted to my view are put juste before the goggles glass

I was about going for the first option when I went to an optician specialized in sports, and especially in MTB. He ruled out

• the first option because of almost immediate fog problem
• the second option because of security in case of goggles glasses breaking impact that would then also smash my normal glasses etc
• the third option because it cannot be done

and convinced me about the fourth option. (Actually I know several people that opted for the fourth option and that are really happy with it.)

So basically he made strong plastic glasses adapted to my eyesight that he incorporated to a plastic layer that went as a supplementary layer just between my eyes and the glasses of the oakley airbrak MX goggles :

I am not here to advertise for the goggles nor the setup, but for sure the goggles are worth the money etc, highly customizable etc, and the setup is really smart, provided my eyesight can adapt to the setup, as the optician warned me.

In fact, this setup has the following consequences :

• distances appear a bit elongated in the center of the viewing range, and more elongated as you tend to the extreme left or right of the viewing range
• consequence of the previous point : tracks slopes appear flattened, so flattened that I really feel a strong mismatch between what my eyes (with this setup) perceive and what my body (through feeling my weight attracted to the front) and equilibrum sense perceive.

These consequences implied a couple of big crashes, luckily without serious injuries, so that I concluded that no, my eyesight did not adapt to the setup. (A pity though, the setup being nice : solid, modular etc.) The end of the story is : I bought 100% accuri OTG MX goggle, designed especially so that there is place enough to put my real glasses under the goggles without my mose being compressed as it was the case with my previous all my previous goggles ...

But I am not happy with this, at all. So that I'd be really interested in knowing how other short-sighted riders deal with these problems ...

Answer 1

I've considered using some road-style wrap-around cycling glasses with inserts. My goal was to reduce the eye-drying effect of a downhill or a cold ride.

The frames on the inside clip into the housing, so can't be worn separately because they have no temples. If you take these riding glasses off you'll need a normal pair to wear or go without.

The front part should be a polycarbonate, so the same plastic as a workshop safety goggle. Some have a set of interchangeable fronts for different colours, which may be useful or may be for show (colour coordination).

You would need to get an optometrist to commission lenses that fit the inner frame. This is just like getting a new prescription for a new frame, and most optometrists would be happy with that however some get snitty if they didn't provide the frame as well, so you may have to shop around. You should be able to get a print of your prescription details from your optometrist then take that elsewhere for a lens quote.

I've not done this myself yet - my present solution is to wear normal glasses and squint a bit more when the wind gets cold. This wouldn't be a good solution for you.