# Clear polarized glasses for night riding?



## SkiDiver (Nov 24, 2004)

Can anyone recommend any good, inexpensive, polarized clear glasses for night riding? I'm getting a lot of glare from headlights on my current non-polarized glasses. Would polarization help with that, or does it only help with sunlight?

I'd love to find something under $20 if it's out there. One possibility is safety glasses (a tip I picked up on the old board--how do you search the old board, by the way?). Here are a few examples:

http://www.galeton.com/browsecat.asp?DepartmentID=8&CategoryID=177

Any other recommendations out there?


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## carlhulit (Nov 5, 2005)

*no such thing*

Polarization by laws of physics blocks approximatly 50% of light. This would be very bad for night riding, you might have better luck with better lenses or just more careful cleaning.


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## SkiDiver (Nov 24, 2004)

thanks, Carl! I'm clearly not a physicist 

can anyone recommend any good clear glasses without too much glare?


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## buck-50 (Sep 20, 2005)

I ride at night with $8 safety glasses from the hardware store- Kinda dorky looking, but they work great. No weird distortion, no issues with oncoming headlights...

Plus, they work pretty well in the rain...

Figure if you spend more than 10 bucks, you're ripping yourself off...


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## terzo rene (Mar 23, 2002)

I like a yellow tint for night. It does reduce light transmission, as do all glasses, but the sharpness is improved and headlight issues decreased.


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## Chris H (Jul 7, 2005)

I second the yellow tint. Takes a bit of getting used to, but after that things appear a bit sharper to me for some reason.


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## baghdadbiking (Sep 26, 2005)

SkiDiver said:


> thanks, Carl! I'm clearly not a physicist
> 
> can anyone recommend any good clear glasses without too much glare?


saranwrap

..ok my sense of humor is shot.


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## cosmo3 (Nov 1, 2005)

Chris H said:


> I second the yellow tint. Takes a bit of getting used to, but after that things appear a bit sharper to me for some reason.


Just a note of caution - I'd be careful with the yellow tint if you live in an urban area. Anything more than moonlight makes me want to vomit after a few miles on the yellow lenses. Ugh, thinking about it now makes me feel kinda queezy.


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## Fredke (Dec 10, 2004)

carlhulit said:


> Polarization by laws of physics blocks approximatly 50% of light. This would be very bad for night riding, you might have better luck with better lenses or just more careful cleaning.


Your eyes have logarithmic sensitivity, so losing 50% of light has very little effect on your perception.

On the other hand, polarization would have zero effect on glare from headlights. Polarized lenses work to reduce glare only when the glare itself is polarized. Headlights are not polarized, so the lenses wouldn't help with headlights shining right at you. 

Light can be polarized by reflection from flat nonmetallic surfaces, such as water, if it bounces off them at the proper angle (known as Brewster's angle). The midday sun is high enough in the sky that sunlight reflects off horizontal surfaces, such as lakes, at around Brewster's angle, so the reflected light (glare) is polarized. Because headlights are so close to the ground, this effect would only occur for light reflected off a wet roadway when the car is somewhere around 5 or 10 feet in front of you. Further away, the angle between the headlight and the roadway would be too shallow to polarize the light significantly.

Thus, polarized lenses would only be useful if you're getting blinded by reflections of the headlights off the roadway that occur when oncoming cars are very close to you.


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## alienator (Jun 11, 2004)

Fredke said:


> Your eyes have logarithmic sensitivity, so losing 50% of light has very little effect on your perception.
> 
> On the other hand, polarization would have zero effect on glare from headlights. Polarized lenses work to reduce glare only when the glare itself is polarized. Headlights are not polarized, so the lenses wouldn't help with headlights shining right at you.
> 
> ...


The man spake the truth, or so this optics guy thinks. I had glacier glasses, when I was still climbing a lot, that only transmitted about 5% of incident light. Bright days on the glaciers were still bright. On the flip side, you can pretty much figure that every transparent surface between you and the light reflects about 4% of the light left, so just wearing eyeglasses means that without fancy schmancy anti-reflective coatings you're only getting about 92.2% of incident light. You can figure the same losses for your windshield in your car. Iffin' you're wearing glasses in your car, you could be gettin' as little as 85% of the available light.

The best way to reduce the irritation of headlights is to a) don't look directly at 'em and b) iffin you're wearing glasses, keep 'em clean.


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## bonkmiester (Sep 23, 2005)

*Brewster's Angle ????????????*

........ Brewster's Angle ?????

Isn't that the critical angle your elbow passes thru when you are drinking a Brew


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## OnTheRivet (Sep 3, 2004)

Fredke said:


> *Your eyes have logarithmic sensitivity*, so losing 50% of light has very little effect on your perception.


Actually it's my understanding that eyesight sensitivity follows more of a power-law curve. Same basic idea though.


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## Old_school_nik (May 21, 2002)

*Nasbar has som every cheap glasses that come with 3 lenses*

Clear, yellow and dark. They come with case and everything. They have that ugly "N" on the side but they work for nigth riding which is why I bought them.

Funny, I was using clear counterfit Oakleys that I got on Canal St for nite riding. But then on a cold night I took them off and they cracked in my hand like they were made of candy!

Lol - that's what I get for $6 off the street.

Nik


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## drouse (Nov 4, 2005)

As much as I am a fan of polarized lenses for general sunwear I would not recommend them for cyclists. Puddles and oil slicks become less apparent when viewed through a polarized lens.


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## sminar (Sep 22, 2005)

*Check out Racquetball / Squash eyewear...*

I've had great luck with Racquetball eyewear. They have escaped the exponential $ curve of the marketing folks but provide remarkable functionality. The pair I'm using now came with yellow & clear lenses, look like sunglasses / sport eyewear and are ventilated & remain fairly fog free.

I started wearing these as my primary eye protection while mountain biking as I'm usually riding under canopy or in the fog. I now use them for low-light road riding and I've had them on for my first night MTB experience. I'm using the yellow lenses most of the time.

sminar


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## Chris H (Jul 7, 2005)

Actually the yellow tint doesn't bother me and I'm an urban commuter. Now throw on some shades with a blue tint, heck yeah I'm puking up some toenails.


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