Tips to help choose the best sunglasses for your ride.
Your Eyes Are Important So Protect Them! So why not Shade Away When Riding, most assume that there isn’t much to think about when they pick out a new pair of sunglasses, that is is just not true. There are many things that should be considered when picking out a new pair of sunglasses for yourself. We at AMERiders have come up with a few tips to help choose the best sunglasses for your ride.
Not just a Fashion accessory
It should not be forgotten that glasses are more than just a fashion accessory they are a pair of protection gear for your eyes. Not many people know that your eyes can also be burned by the sun’s rays just like your skin can. Your corneas, lenses, and retinas are all vulnerable to overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. These invisible rays can harm your eyes if they are unprotected and with long-term exposure can lead to cataracts,skin cancer around the eyelids,macular degeneration, and other debilitating conditions.UV-blocking sunglasses are a must when you’re riding in the daylight to protect your precious peepers.
Some things to consider
When looking to purchase a new pair of protective eyewear ensure you search for a label that lets you know that they have UV block as well as how much they will reflect. Only consider glasses that block out 99 to 100 percent of harmful rays. This includes UV-A and the more harmful UV-B as well, believe it or not, tinted glasses with no UV protection can cause more harm than good. This is simply because the eye is attempting to compensate for the less light coming into the eye by opening the pupil a bit wider. It is important to make sure to cover your entire eye area including your eyelids as well. It is important to remember that tinted contact lenses do nothing in protecting your eyes from the sun.
Another thing to consider is the tint of your lenses, or that you may need. The answer is simple, it just depends. There are different tints to filter different wavelengths of light away from your eyes. Some enhance or distort, and other affect the contrast.
What tints do what.
Below is a basic list that highlights how the different tints work:
Green — Allows true color perception and good contrast in bright light; reduces eyestrain in bright light.
Gray — Allows true color perception; does not enhance contrast; good for cycling or running.
Brown — Good in the hazy sun; enhances contrast; good for high glare environments.
Amber — Brightens cloudy, hazy, or foggy skies; excellent for contrast; minimizes eyestrain; distorts color (images look yellow-orange).
Yellow — Improves contrast and depth perception in low light; good for overcast days.
Red — Excellent depth perception in low light; contrast objects against blue or green backgrounds.
Safety vs Conventional glass
When riding safety glasses really are the best to purchase. Conventional glasses may protect your eyes from glare but they do a poor job of protecting your eyes from objects that are flying from dust, rocks, and insects. It is highly unlikely that an object will crack or dislodge a lens, however, conventional lenses may crack or dislodge. This can be harmful to the eyes especially if shards of glass and plastic shatter back into the eyes, safety glass may shatter but it won’t shatter back into the eyes.
Some safety glasses can also have shields to help reduce the risk of objects reaching your eye from the top, bottom or even sides. Conventional sunglasses do not have this Remember not all tinted lenses provide the UV protection always look for the UV label.
Last but not least
In conclusion here are some of our final tips for choosing some great sunglasses.
- Check for the Z87.1 (safety glass) designation. We have some sunglasses in our eyewear section such as our AMBER BIKER SUNGLASSES
- The label should indicate 99 or 100 percent UV protection . You will find that almost all of our glasses have this protection.
- Make sure the glasses are lightweight and adjustable. We have many pairs of glasses that are very lightweight and many goggles that are adjustable
- Look for sunglasses that are close-fitting to prevent UV rays from filtering in. Check our features for which ones are and aren’t UV labeled.
- Look for larger lenses or wraparound styles to prevent light and other harmful substances from entering the eye (we have all types of styles to fit your lifestyle)
- Don’t be misguided by price — higher-priced safety sunglasses usually reflect fashion, not level of protection (our prices are very affordable)
- Understand that dark-colored sunglasses don’t necessarily provide better protection because the UV protection coating applied to the lens is clear.
Polarized are not good for motorcyclists!
A final note of caution involves polarized lenses. We know polarized lenses are supposed to reduce glare and be good for riding, but we found a potentially dangerous situation that can arise when using them. A lot of bikes have windshields, instrument panels and helmet face shields made from Lexan plastic. When certain conditions, such as when the sun is at the right angle and if you’re wearing polarized sunglasses your windshield, instrument panel or face shield may suddenly and without warning can turn totally black, or explode in a rainbow spectrum of bright colors — either of which most certain cause a blinding effect. This usually happens at the worst possible time, and can carry a potentially deadly consequence. With that in mind, We do not recommend polarized lenses for motorcycle use.
One thing we would like to remind you about is that Sturgis is right around the corner, please be safe when taking your trip. We would love to see all of our brothers and sisters make it back home in one piece. If you need any extra protection or gear don’t hesitate to check out our affordable prices.
~Live Free Ride Hard~
~AMERiders
and
AMERiders help Shade Away your lovely eyes with our large selection of affordable eyewear.
And as always don’t forget to send us your stories, pictures and events for posting to GALLERY.AMERIDERS @ GMAIL.COM and we will post them for you. The more people that know about your event the better and we are offering free advertising. We would also love to hear about your rides and love to see those bikes so send those stories and pictures.
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