Sunglasses under helmet?

[erkishhorde]

What helmets have provisions in the padding specifically to accomodate sunglasses?  My Arai Profile does, but my Shark RSX does not.  I get the worst pressure when wearing my Oakleys and the Shark.  It makes me wonder why all helmet vendors can't do what Arai does.

I believe all Shoei's do. My HJC did as well and it was an cheapo model ($75 on sale). My Scorpion EXO 700 does as well. Sometimes they don't quite seem like they're specifically for glasses and they're just a separation between pads and they cause your glasses to sit funny.

or why they don't make helmets with built-in sunglasses (like some manufacturers do)

A lot of manufacturers don't do the in-helmet sunglasses because the extra mechanism is a lot more work. It makes the helmet slightly heavier and bulkier. Also, nobody really has a good system for deciding how far down the glasses go; most are either all the way up or all the way down. Everyone's face is different and this causes the glasses to not work well for everyone.

[Clickjack]

I do.   It is hot as hell in West Tx, and so I ride with the wind screen up during the day w/ motorcyle glasses.  At night I just ride with the clear visor down.  Plus, I'm lazy and I hate switching out the clear and smoke visor.

I can't handle just regular sun glasses... the wind dries out my contacts.  i have to use riding glasses.

[r_ciao]

Sunglasses, yes Revo with polarized lenses.  Helmet Shoei with clear shield.  Get sunglasses that can slide easily on and off when wearing the helmet.

[triangleforge]

I wear sunglasses all the time during daytime riding, and like being able to ride into dusk & nighttime without fussing with changing a visor. Plus, Arizona requires eye protection, so riding with my visor cracked or up still has my eyes protected -- police routinely pull riders over here for riding with visor up & no glasses on. Can't say I blame them -- we've got some HUGE flying bugs around here!

My favorite glasses so far are a rose-tinted pair of Tifosi bicycle glasses that look a fair amount like these:



They're pretty cheap, and the thing I like best about the rose color is that it's enough tint to keep my eyes relaxed in full Arizona sunshine, but not too dark; where I used to ride in Maryland & Virginia, it was always a bit disconcerting to ride on bright sunny days, as the best roads took you in & out of the woods. Your eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the shift, and I often found dark gray lenses to be way too dark to see comfortably in shady woods. You know, where the deer live. Rose was a really good in-between color that covered a super wide range of light conditions.

+1 on the negative comments above about polarized lenses. For me, the weirdest part was suddenly seeing all kinds of "wet" or "oily" patches in the road that turned out to be simply strange reflections, after I'd already taken unnecessary evasive action.

[faolan01]

I just picked up a new pair of prescription sunglasses and took my first ride with them the other day. The frames are Ray-Ban 3176, and for me the are PERFECT! They fit very comfortably inside my helmet without adding any pressure along the temples or by the ears, provide good wind protection when I have my face shield up, and almost completely completely cover my field of view while wearing the helmet (SO much nicer than my regular glasses, which I was constantly glancing around or under to check gages and mirrors). I would definitely recommend these to anyone looking for Rx shades for riding 

[zLoki]

I dont leave home without my sunglasses. (sensitive eyes) I wear Okaleys and ive gone 10+ hours in em. Comfortable if you have the right pair of sunglasses. Its much better than having a tinted visor in my opinion. Mostly cause i ride with visor up all the time since my bike is an urban commuter. That means stop and go traffic with visor down is the same as gagging me. i also dont need to carry another sheild so i can ride at night.

I also went down with my glasses on (visor up) ~30-40mph. No problems. If you have the proper fitting helmet, they shouldn't move around. Try to get something that hugs the face and has the least amount of frame around the lens. Also, i wouldnt ride with a pair of lens that are not ansi rated polycarbonate.

+1 on the Oakleys.  I have the Ice Picks, great because they are plastic (they flex a bit more than metal) and have straight bars, easy to get into a helmet.  They never move and the polarized thing really helps when it's sunny down here, impact resistant and all kinds of other cool tech.  Not cheap but worth every penny, they are your eyes after all

[enzo]

Is there such a thing as non-polarized face shields, specifically for Shoei?  I haven't found any, but perhaps somebody has.

[angler]

I wear prescription eye glasses, so I always have glasses on under the lid.  I have several different types of frames and they all fit in my Arai Corsair, no problem.  My sunglasses are polarized prescription lenses in Maui Jim full wrap frames.  I got the brown lenses as they improve lowlight contrast whereas grays tend to work best for high glare environments.  They have a slight mirror to them.  Awesome glasses.  I'm outside alot and they have held up exceptionally well.  I got clocked by an angry squirrel out ridding without a lid (oh my god, no helmet!) on the CB175 and took an acorn or something to the lens at about 50mph.  Gave me a slight shiner, but the lens didn't break.  It did put a divot in the frame above the right eye.

I ride with my visor up (except at highway speeds) and they provide excellent wind protection.  You do get the distortion (mine is rainbows) with the shield down, but I get that from some newer car windshields too.  Lots of mind expanding substance use as a youth makes me able to handle the distortion, no problem 

here is a pic of the Maui Jims

[victor441]

been using RayBan Predators like below for years and no problem with my Shoei helmet, work great for sports, bicycling etc too and are very light so they stay put and wrap around so they keep wind out....though they are polarized so the faceshield looks a little funny when it is down but that is not a real problem for me and the lack of glare makes it worthwhile overall

[erkishhorde]

Is there such a thing as non-polarized face shields, specifically for Shoei?  I haven't found any, but perhaps somebody has.

I don't think any company sells polarized visors but some of the mirrored visors might be polarized. You're talking about the rainbows you see with the visor down, right? AFAIK the rainbows are caused by the polarization on your glasses conflicting with the curve of the visor. If you don't use polarized glasses you shouldn't get the rainbows.

[orangelion03]

I wear sunglasses in the daytime and clear safety glasses at night.  The reason for clear glasses at night is that my contacts dry out if I have any amount of airflow against my eyes.  I've only used tinted visors on my auto racing helmets...I never wanted to be switching between clear and dark when riding my bikes from day to night.

[nicrosato]

Two different helmets in 2 different locales. Here in NY,

In Albuquerque, I have an older Shoei on which I swap shields between clear and tinted. The Shoei is OK with a cheapo pair of sunglasses and the clear shield but, in general, I don't feel comfortable with glasses.  It is a slight annoyance if you're riding day and night and need to carry the alternate shield to swap. The tinted shield really dims your vision once the sun starts setting. Riding at night with it would be an adventure.

Here in NY, I have an HJC-FS10 which has a tinted sun-visor which slides down inside the shield. It works fine.

[Serenitynow]

I always wear a full face helmet with prescription sunglasses and a clear visor. I wish I could be cool and get a dark visor (looks badass!) and just wear my regular clear lenses but I often go on longer rides in various lighting conditions. Do most of you that use a dark helmet visor always bring a spare for when it gets darker? Is that a pain or something you just get use to doing?

Anyway, regardless of the visor answers I need some sunglasses for moto and all around use. I've been looking at some of the Wiley X brand. Do any of you use these or something similar? Some of them have a removable foam gasket that seals your face to the glasses and protects your eyes from wind, dust, debris, fogging up and your eyes from drying out. They can even be converted easily into goggles with an attachable strap (I probably wouldn't use that very much but maybe sometimes). Some have various interchangable lenses (but can get expensive due to the prescription).

I'm sure a lot of Cruiser guys with beanie helmets wear these glasses. Any advice on sunglasses...good bad experiences? Thanks for your help!!!

[Buckethead]

I've got a pair of Wiley X's that I use. I used them to replace a pair of metal-framed Nike's that I still have and use for other stuff.

I don't use my regular glasses for riding because they're kind of short, top to bottom, and in the riding position I end up looking over the top of the lenses which makes them pretty much useless.

I really like the Wiley X's. I keep my regular glasses and the clear lenses in the handy little carry pouch and put them in my inside jacket pocket. If I should happen to be out riding and it gets dark, I can just pop in the clear lenses and keep riding. Its only happened to me on a couple of occasions, but it has, and they performed great.

They're pretty big on my face, so they're not "uber-cool" looking, but I pretty much only wear them when I'm out riding and I only ever wear a full face, so that's pretty much a non-issue. I've been happy with them, especially for the money. Plus, they qualify as safety glasses for when I go to the gun range.