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Hopefully some of you visually impaired folks can offer some guidance. I don't wear glasses, but my son who is just getting into dirtbiking does. He can't see anything if he doesn't have them on...like he might not even be able to find his glasses. I got him some goggles that go over his glasses, and that works okay, but he's complaining about them (the glasses)fogging up inside when he's going slow struggling in some tough terrain. He asked if contacts would be any good. I told him that since it's so dusty where we ride that I would think that would cause contacts to be a bigger problem. Is that right? Anybody got any tips on keeping your glasses clear?

Thanks,

CC wheres dem contac thingys

Oh, from that picture I thought he was just holding his haid up to his neck-hole.

My son, whose 14, wears contacts (and goggles of course) while riding.

Hasn't had a problem with dust (yet), but Colorado is probably a good bit dustier than my part of the country.

Let him try contacts, glasses are a PITA

yeah, it can get real dusty here, sometimes if you're in the back of a herd you can't see the trail. I just always thought contacts and dust were a bad mix, but I'm pretty ignant on the topic. I'll get my wife to see what the eye doc says.

Good tight fitting goggles do a damn fine job of keeping dust out of the eyes

Aplogies for hijacking, but that is a cool pic, Wibby. If there were a buch of offroad bikes in a parking lot here, the local popo would more than likely start pulling out the ticket book.

-G

just go to a dive shop scuba and get some no fog rub it on his glasses and wipe off he'll be good to go all day long.

Great photo Wib!

That's CC using my helmet mounted rear-view mirror. He poked fun at me about it, then when his contact rolled up into a joint, he was begging for a mirror. I was kind and didn't point out the irony of his need. (at the time).

At least three of those KDX owners had contacts on that day and the 4th (Wibby) wore glasses. I don't know what that says about KDX owners, cept maybe only a blind man would buy one. And it makes a slow bike feel like you're doing about 70mph when you don't bother wearing your glasses or contacts!!!!

I LOVE my contacts for dirtbike riding. It is the only way to go if you wear glasses. Cheap? no. But what in motorcycling is? It really, really, really helps you with perif vision. I think it is a safety thing as well. Better vision to the sides can really be a blessing. Who knows when it has saved my bacon. I do know I don't crash as much now that I wear contacts.

Also, for a young man, they can really boost the self esteem. There isn't a one of us that wore glasses as a kid that didn't get picked or made the butt of some joke.

For me, glasses are more comfortable. I suspect CC and Farmerj feel the same as the only time I saw them with contacts was when we rode. Evening and morning time, it was glasses.

So spring for a fitting and have the lad try them out. A good eye doctor will work with your son on getting a fit that is comfortable and of the correct refraction. Get recommendations. Go with an eye doc who specializes in contacts. That's VERY important.

****EDIT****

Dust: It has not been an issue with me. The main issue about contacts for me anyway, is my eyes dry out with wind blowing across them. Good fitting goggles will reduce the drying effect of the wind, so get good goggles. Also with contacts I can now wear sunglasses that have style. I put them on top of my head when going inside. In a word, I feel much cooler with some neat shades that I don't HAVE to wear and can pick and choose the style. This is really going to help the boy's self image. At 46 when I first got contacts 2 years ago, it really made me feel more confident.

If they are hard contacts I pity any poor bugger thats has to cope with them. I tried for 3 months to get used to hard contacts withvery limited success. They HURT my eyes something fierce. I got upto wearing them for 10hrs a day for about 3 consecutive days before my eyes would become that red, watery and sore I could hardly open them for next few days, let alone try and wear the contacts. With any sort of luck he will only need soft ones which from what I hear you don't really feel after a while. I wish him the best.

Hey Wib, Isn't that your bike bringing up the rear in that photo?

SAY!! Who's that old gray haired guy sitting at the picnic table?!

Colorado Mike: Your observation convinces me you HAVE to go for a ride with us up in CC country. YOu sound like you would add a bunch of life to the party!!!

Thanks for the advice and the invite Ski, you guys sound like a blast. I could see coming out there to meet up with you folks, but probably not till next season. Trying to get my son up to speed right now. Of course at 14, he's learning mighty fast! I'll look into some contacts for him, hopefully his eyes are good enough to use them.

Thanks guys,

I do not wear glasses, i have friends that do though. I wear Scott, no sweats goggles, they really suck at super slow speeds and always fog up when i stop. They do however, unfog very easily at moderate/faster speeds, within seconds. Your son may want to try these. Another thing to check for is if his hair is in the goggles, i have somewhat long hair and if it is sweaty and in my goggles they constantly fog up.

re: glasses and dirtbiking.

Bad idea. No no-fog treatment is going to solve that situation, not to mention them sliding around on your face, peripheral vision being nonexistent etc. etc.

re: contacts and dirtbiking

Not perfect, but much better. Yeah...I've had problems a couple of times..dust is NOT friendly to contacts, and no goggle is going to keep fine dust out (that you can still see out of anyway). Sure, there are some setups better than others...a good double lensed goggle will help..hell, Wibbens got a FAN on his goggles!!! Better than other basic setups, but still not anything that is worry/fog free.

In the pic above I did have a contact move off where it should'a been..I was rubbing an itching eye..moved the contact back to my optic nerve someplace. That has happed a couple of times (riding and other times), in this case I couldn't see where the thing was 'cuz it was NOT folded over (it has in the past).

Anyway...it's just something to deal with. I do know riders that use glasses when they ride..they also don't use goggles...I also have NOT seen them in the freezing cold, rain, sleet, snow and such.

Contacts are much better. Easy? No. It took me over a year to 'get used to' having something stuck on my eyeballs. Contacts don't cost NEAR what they used to. Give it a shot!!

Thanks for your kindness, Ski!!

Good points CC. My kid has a real tough time skiing with his glasses fogging too. Sounds like contacts would help there as well. I just always thought his eyes were too bad for contacts, but it turns out that a kid on his hockey team has even worse vision and wears contacts. Just found that out tonight. Another case of dad's ignorance affecting others.

Thanks,

CC I had what you speak of happen to me nearly everyday with the hard contacts. It aint fun trying to fish a contact out of the back off your eyeball. Mine would move even if I blinked too hard. I was sitting here with goosebumps reading your post. I just taped over some of the foam when I went away riding to keep some of the dust out. It seemed to work ok and it didn't fog any worse than normal.

Skiing is greatly improved with contacts. Any time going into and out of buildings with glasses is an instant fog condition.
I remember once, landing in Dallas in June during the World Cup. The flight landed about 9 pm, I went to catch a shuttle to the rental car place and upon leaving the terminal, my glasses immediately fogged up. Wow!! It was about 90 degrees and 90% humidity at 9pm. I could not believe it. I drank more beer on that trip than at any other event of my life, and never caught a buzz because I sweated it out as fast as I could down them.

When you come out, bring your son. That would be a blast!

Hard contacts are pretty much a thing of the past, I think. The newer soft ones are very comfortable! Well...it's not like eyes that WORK or anything...but pretty good.

You can fix some pretty bad eyes with contacts..I don't know what the limits are. Because the are closer to the retina,they don't have to have the physical correction factor that a glass does and inch+ from the eye.

My right eye is 4.5 diopters off..that relates to 20-450 vision. Man...that sucks!!

One thing...if you tend to have a sensitivity to light, contacts will make it worse. Great! So buy him some cheap non-scrip sunglasses!!

FYI The hard ones I used because the shape of my cornea is cone shaped due to Keratoconis (sp?). They use the hard lenses to try and reshape the eyes surface. Due to the contacts not working, I had a corneal graft. My finance wears soft contacts and so she could understand the feeling of the hard ones she put one in her eye. Big mistake, she nearly had a panic attack before I could get it off her. It feels like a finger on your eyeball all the time. I now get the sympathy I much deserve though.

I've had hard contacts in before...I know what they're like.


I'd rather someone peed on my koran than make me wear hard contacts.