New Month..New Start..and Cycling Glasses.

Looking towards the Purbecks.

Well...that's another month done and dusted. 
For me, February was a month of standing still as far as my training was concerned... 
Four weeks is too long to be off the bike, when all you really want to do is just get on with the training for whatever cycle challenges you might have set yourself for the coming year....Anyway..we are now in March and I should be back on the bike sometime during next week... 

The picture above is a view from the end of my road looking across to the hills of the Purbecks....I do most of my training over on those hills and the first thing I did when I knew that I would be able to return to the bike next week, was to wander down to the little viewpoint and gaze over to those hills where I have had so many happy rides in the past....

Next Wednesday I am meeting up with the rest of the guy's from the 10in10 Cycling Team at the Studland Ferry for a ride and in order for a Team photo to be taken....
It will be the first time that the team will have all met let alone ride together, so it will be an important day for us....
In pure training terms I doubt if much will be achieved on this first ride together, but  it will be great to finally all get out on the road and see where everyone is right now with their individual training plans...and formulate what we need to be doing as a group in order to start to work together as a team in the future....

Optilabs Prescription Cycling Glasses

One of the things that I have been asked about over the past few weeks is cycling glasses...Now I know that a lot of people don't actually bother with them, but if you have ever been on a 50mph descent and been hit in the face by a large insect such as a bee you would not have any doubt that a pair of cycling glasses are a very important bit of kit.....

That is exactly what happened to me during my ride back from Gibraltar...I saw the insect a split second before it hit me square in the centre of the left hand lens of the glasses I was wearing....The impact was pretty massive forcing the lens right into my face with a loud and solid thwack!!... 
If that had hit me direct in the eye I can only imagine the level of damage to my eye that it would have caused....
Later on that day when I was cleaning the glasses I noticed that the impact had actually caused a small but quite deep scratch to the surface of the lens.....
So, they can protect you from flying insects...grit...etc and they also help to protect the eyes from the constant buffeting of the wind...

The first few pairs of cycling glasses I have used over the past ten years were obtained from Optilabs.... As I am slightly shortsighted it is not enough for me to just buy a pair of cycling glasses off the shelf so to speak...No, I need to have prescription lenses as well....I have had two pairs from Optilabs but following my cycling accident and the temporary loss of my sight in one eye afterwards I found that my eyesight seemed to be fluctuating and it started to become a bit expensive to keep replacing glasses/lenses......

Tifosi Cycling Glasses with prescription insert fitted

I started to look around for a cheaper way to solve the problem and found Tifosi Eyewear and their Roubaix glasses with a separate prescription insert.... 
Now first of all Tifosi Eyewear has absolutely no connection with the manufacturers of my Tifosi Bike... I will admit to being attracted to the make because it matched the name of my good old training steed, but that is were the connection ends....

The glasses had a very good review in a cycling mag and seemed to be exactly what I was looking for....they come in their own zipped clam style case containing the frames and three sets of lenses...Clear....All condition Red...and Dark Smoke.. 
The set cost me £49.95 if my memory serves me right... 
They are quite a large lens which curves round the shape of your face offering a first class protection....

The prescription inserts cost an additional £9.95 and clip into the frame behind the lenses. 
If you enlarge the image above and look closely, you should just be able to see the insert behind the dark lenses..I tried to get some light coming from behind in order to show the insert up for you.... 
My optician arranged to fit my prescription into the inserts and hey presto...the job was done... 

Now I know that you can get some really expensive glasses for cycling, but by the time you have factored in the cost of the prescription it can put them well out of a lot of peoples reach....
I have obviously not tried all the glasses out there in the market place..and all I have done here is to share with you what I have purchased.....

To re-cap....

The Optilabs glasses are good and I can recommend them. The glasses are superb and the company was efficient and courteous to deal with. However although they are cheaper than a lot of sources it can become expensive if you either keep losing them or like me, have to keep altering the prescription...

The Tifosi Roubaix glasses are a good product...the nose pads are fully adjustable so that you can achieve a perfect fit and there is plenty of grip in the arms. The nose pads and arm ends are non-slip for the days when you are struggling up those hills in the heat of summer and you are covered in perspiration.... 

The frame is made from a very flexible polymer which is both lightweight and heat resistant.. 
The three lens types supplied will cover all conditions that you are likely to be cycling in and they enhance contrast making them ideal for fast riding.... 
I have never had any problem with them misting up in damp conditions either. 
Last but not least, for the style conscious of us out there... they look pretty cool too..

My final spot of advice would be to always wear a set of cycling glasses....do not ride without some form of eye protection....try to avoid using your normal everyday glasses as they really won't cut it in the full protection stakes at speed and anyway they really are so uncool!