Bicycling

Last edited Thu Feb 7, 2013, 03:01 PM - Edit history (2)

Yes, my glasses steam up when I am breathing hard, they get covered by snow and rain, but as a general rule I can live with these problems and always have.

My biggest problem was when I was using a full face helmet. The nature of the full face caused by breath to go up toward my glasses and fog the glasses up. I just had to stop and wipe them clean every so often. I want to go back to a full face, for their provide more protection, but right now I have other priorities as to my bike (I need a new front brake, the old ones just froze up on me, hopelessly rusted and I had to remove them and now I have to replace them).

Something like in 40% of all accidents when it comes to injuries of the head are on the jaw bones. Thus my desire to get a full face.

Now, when I lived in South Texas in the early 1980s I did see the need for goggles, but only due to the dirt that was always in the air (It was a semi-desert situation). The dirt was always getting into my eye. It did not help I was wearing contacts at the time, something I then gave up on but the switch back to glasses still did NOT stop the irritation from the dirt in the air.

When I was in the National Guard, they issued us Goggles, never liked them. When I was wearing contacts, the seal was NOT tight enough to keep out all the dirt and thus the dirt caused eye irritation with the contacts. With Glasses they never did fit over my glasses to get a seal.

On the other hand, in the mud and dirt of Pennsylvania or Virginia not a problem (My training sites were AP Hill in Virginia or Ft. Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania). When I was on maneuvers when I was in Texas, a different situation. I was in an armor unit in Texas and they trained Ft Hood outside of Austin and it was Cattle Country (To dry to farm, but we had cattle running all over the place). It was semi-desert, enough water to have plant life, enough vegetation to feed cattle, but not enough water to prevent dust from being everywhere. The "tracks" (a generate name for anything with Caterpillar tracks instead of Wheels, i.e. Tanks, Armored Personal Carriers, Self Propelled Artillery etc) just churned up even more dirt. Goggles were needed in such environment and if I ever had one that would cover my glasses I would have been happy.

Just a further comment on Goggles, not needed outside desert areas (or other areas with a lot of dirt in the air). Please note goggles are required in Pennsylvania when ridding a Motorcycle, and that is true in most states, even states that do NOT require helmets. The reason being the greater speed Motorcycles are going at, requires that the eye be protected even when in normal situations no protection would be needed.