Landracing Forum
Bonneville Salt Flats Discussion => Bonneville General Chat => Topic started by: donpearsall on August 20, 2014, 02:15:44 PM
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Are there any opinions on what brand or kinds of sunglasses work best on the salt? Polarized or non-polarized? Blu-blockers? Gray, amber, dark tinted? There must be some experts here who have tried them all and found the best ones.
Thanks
Don
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If you can buy your sunglasses from the vendor that sells them on the salt at SpeedWeek you should do it. I've heard very good things about those. I haven't tried them. I don't know if they're out the for WoS.
I'd say that polarised lenses should do well since they reject/filter light that has been reflected - like that that comes up from the surface of the salt.
I wear regular glasses that have the "transition" lenses -- the ones that darken as the light gets more intense. I haven't found a need for sunglasses for the four or five years I've been wearing them. Of course - maybe I've finally burned out my retinas and therefore the intense light at Bville just doesn't bother me any more. :roll:
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Polarized will kill the glare on the salt and it makes it easier to read the contour of the course.
I have no idea about the others. I have used polarized since day one.
FREUD
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I am not an expert, but I'll throw my opinion into the mix. I used to wear Nikon sunglasses. I figured a camera maker would be very qualified to put good coatings on these. They were great in the sun, much better than the "popular" brands. I still have one old pair of Nikons but now wear Maui Jim most of the time and even have 2.50 readers on the lower part, which is really nice. These seem to be nearly as good as the old Nikons. I honestly have not tried the $20 glasses at the track and have to be skeptical that they can offer shatterproof, polarized glasses for this price. I also have a pair of Dewalt shatterproof work sunglasses that have the 2.50 readers on the bottom also. These are not as stylish, but great for outdoor work and are priced fairly cheap and are very durable. I really like the sunglasses with the built in reading glasses, they are great for using the phone, reading gauges at a glance, or for doing work on the bike outside.
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I wear prescription glasses and ALWAYS delete the polarized option with new lenses. Polarized lenses make reading any LCD or laptop very hard..kinda have to tilt your head to see screen. Any wrap around frame with good lenses will work. Allow for sweat (not touching brows) and try to keep them light. The vendor glasses at the hut near TECH work very well for "off the shelf". 8-)
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I talked to the eye doctor and he said yellow is good for snow and should work as well on salt. He has a chart that show dirrerent colors for different conditions. I used yellow face shields when I was drag racing at night at Lions and OCR,worked great. :cheers:
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I buy the clip on blue blocker glasses from the vendor at speed week.
I love them. Even though they do not appear as dark as some other glasses they reduce eye strain much better for me.
The first year I went out there, I used expensive extra dark sun glasses and found they were a big problem.
The moment you stepped into a shaded area or bent over to look into an engine compartment you went blind.
They were so dark in shaded areas you could not see anything useful.
It got to be a real pain taking them off and putting them back on again.
Polarized clip ons helped a bit with the glare, but the best I have found so far is those glasses sold on the salt by the sunbeat vendor at speed week.
The actual lens color is a very dark orange which completely kills blue and UV.
I used to have headaches from eye strain even with dark sunglasses but these have completely eliminated that I can wear them all day with no problems.
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I wear glasses with a nasty prescription, and have found the big, ugly Solar Shields - yup, the "Grandpa Shades" - to be the trick.
http://www.walgreens.com/search/results.jsp?Ntt=solar shield fit over sunglasses
They just slip over your glasses, they breath well, and a trick I do is to take a drill, bore holes in the ends of the temples and put a shoestring through them. If I need to look at something close up, they're hanging around my neck when I need them again.
And you can then hang them from your rear view mirror at night.
Even in a convertible.
With the top down.
In a bad neighborhood.
They're so ugly, nobody's going to steal them.
I'm usually more fashion forward, but it's the bloody slat flats, for pity's sake.
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I'm usually more fashion forward, but it's the bloody slat flats, for pity's sake.
The only fashionable wear, IMO, on the Salt is a red, blue, or black hat.
Mike
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Men in Black! :wink:
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I like these things about the 3M safety/sunglasses from Home Depot:
Cheap
Wrap around
Super light
Very thin ear pieces are comfortable under a helmet
safety
One piece so they are thinner and the lenses can't pop out
I find them to be very comfortable
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Remember to have one pair of clear lens glasses for reading spark plugs.
You only make that mistake once. LOL
Doug in Big Ditch
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being a mountainbiker I am spoiled. I have some Bolle's with script inserts that snap in behind. I ordered them with several lenses, persimmon and red for low light conditions, dark brown for sunny (wear these the most) and dark silver metallic coated. The latter ones are too dark for anywhere but on the salt! It is like looking through normal glasses at home when I am out there. Plus the optics in these types are VERY good. Smith, Oakley,Bolle etc all sell something similar. Pricy but your eyes are worth it.
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I wear the sunglasses you buy on the salt over the top of my prescription sun glasses. No such thing as too dark out there
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. . . until you try to read the tach on a return run.
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I use the "Blue Blockers" sold on the salt. They are the best! Get the ones with the wide sides on them. I get very bad headaches without them. The only way I can find most of the outhouses!
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Along with Dr Freud, and others, polaroid is good for glare as the reflected light becomes polarized so helps the glare. "blue blockers" (prob a trade name now in general use) are yellow/orange in color, thus taking out the blue light which is not as well focused and contributes to glare and vision distortion. Blue lenses, therefore letting the blue light through, are the worst and shouldn't be used. Relatively speaking, blue light is more energetic than red it is known that damage to the retina (not macular degeneration- different topic) is more likely from blue than other wavelength high intensity light exposure. UV protection to a great extent is marketing hype but: Most UV is absorbed and filtered by the cornea=snow blindness=sun burn of the cornea etc. Some is filtered by the lens and has been shown to add to tendency for cataract formation. Studies on the Chesapeake Bay watermen and others have proved that but the surgery rate in the watermen was not greatly different that the controls on the beach. Different types of cataract contribute to the difference. Little UV gets to the retina and there is no good evidence that UV or even light at all (bit more likely and some suggestion is there) contributes to macular degeneration. However!! If you are going to wear sun glasses for comfort, especially on the salt, beach, skiing etc as most of us do, they should filter UV as the exposure in those settings is high (altitude, reflected doses etc) and your pupil will dilate behind a dark lens letting in considerably more UV than if you don't wear the glasses at all. That is, from a UV (not visible light which is what seems "bright" and for which we wear the sun glasses in first place) standpoint, you are better off without any than with non UV filtering sun glasses. Many clear prescription plastic lenses and all glass (rarely used these days due to weight and other considerations) naturally filter some UV. Besides, squinting in bright light causes wrinkles. My opinion cheap ones work as well as expensive, pay your money take your choice. Support the vendors on the salt. Color of lens other than as noted above is little consequence. More fashion, though a neutral gray does not cause a color perception shift the way colored lenses will. You quickly get used to that. I found looking at fall foliage really is more spectacular through glare control (Corning glass, orange "blue blocker" type lenses). YMMV :cheers:
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Jacksoni.......thanks for your knowledge, explanation and patience.
After any discussion they generally purchase the ones they think are cool anyhow.
FREUD
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I usually buy what ever is on the shelf at the first truck stop on the 1200 mile treck to the salt. Don't spend a lot as I will lose them before I
get back home. :-(
MAX
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I agree with you Max, I have a pair of readers every where I go now because I have left them there earlier.
The only thing I have to add to this topic is; If you use Polarized sun glass, make sure you test them with your helmet and visor down. I had a nice pair of sunglasses that I really like a lot, that is until, I was leaving the starting line and put my visor down and every thing went black. The polarized lenses did not work with the visor I had on my helmet, AT ALL, so I had to ditch the glasses at the last secant and make the run without them:( .
Just a thought.
Rouse
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my opometrist person told me that reactolites may not work fully in high temps.
I asked her about wearing them at Bonnevilel Salt Flats, she said "where". So i told her all about it. She didn't really care. Strange lady I thought. But she did tell me that the reaction type glasses would possibly not funstion fully. So I bought a pair of prescription polarised Oakleys. Love those!!!
I also learnt a lesson about glasses and helmets. I bought some for driving/riding. Put my helmet on, put my glasses on and set off on my old vincent. The galsses vibrated for about 2 miles until I pulled over, by now feeling really sick, and took them off. Now when I buy glasses, if I am going to use them with my helmet (which is always) I get the flexible ones. These work pretty good and I can now see where I am going.
:)
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Does anyone have contact info for the sunglass vendor on the salt?
I usually get a new pair each year and barely make them last that long, so I sure would love to replace my current set - now a month overdue!
-The Other Glen (SCTA 966B)
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I will say this. Would you race in a $20 helmet? Take care of your eyes with good optics.
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"I will say this. Would you race in a $20 helmet? Take care of your eyes with good optics. "
Absolutely. Poor quilty glasses can do more damage than no glasses at all.