Water shedding glasses?

[Greenbelt]

OK, this question might be pretty silly, but I’ll go there anyway.

Anyone know of a lens treatment or something that discourages water from beading on your glasses, especially in drizzly or misty rain?

Usually regular rain just sort of beads up some big drops and runs off — visibility still OK. But this drizzle-mist stuff like this morning causes my glasses to bead up with tiny droplets and they stay there, eventually causing a performance-reducing opaqueness.

The only solution I’ve found is to squirt water from my water bottle directly on the lenses while riding. This tends to flush off the little water beads for a while. However, I’m pretty sure I look stupid riding along squirting water in my face. Besides, I like to save some water for drinking. The other alternative to take the glasses off and ride with them in my mouth, since I don’t have a place to stow them without taking off my backpack. I’m sure the glasses in mouth thing also looks pretty dumb, besides defeating the whole eye-protection purpose.

Is there a better way?

[OneEighth]

http://www.aerostich.com/aerostich-veewipe-squeegee.html
They also carry a finger version, but that appears to be out of stock at the moment.
I used the thumb version quite a bit when I was still riding (as opposed to “cycling”).

[jrenaut]

Have you tried Rain-X? It works for car windshields.

[Greenbelt]

Thanks! I love the itty bitty squeegee thing. Gotta try that. I’ve done the gloved- or ungloved finger wipe, but usually my hands or gloves are so skanky that it just smudges the lens. Not sure about Rain-X on plastic lenses, but I might sacrifice an old lens and do a controlled experimental trial.

[Brent]

My first thought was Rain-X as well. Make sure you let us know the results of the trials.

[Tim Kelley]

I’ve found that Oakley’s higher end stuff beads up and wipes clean pretty easily (rain and dirt/mud even!).

[Dirt]

@Tim Kelley 9099 wrote:

I’ve found that Oakley’s higher end stuff beads up and wipes clean pretty easily (rain and dirt/mud even!).

Huh? You called? Takes more than overpriced, fancy-pants, “Shaun White” wanna-be shades to repel me.

You could always try cat crap. While it isn’t perfect, it helps.

Love,

Pete

[DaveK]

You shouldn’t use Rain-X on coated plastics – anything with anti-scratch or anti-glare coatings. I would think most good glasses fall under that. I use a plastic-specific polish called Plexus left over from my (continuing but currently unfulfilled) obsession with cars. I’ve heard you can also use Pledge on plastics without damaging them.

[MCL1981]

When I need to take my sunglasses off, I hang on the brake/shift cables.

[OneEighth]

If you are wearing cycling glasses, they should have bayonet temples—those fit pretty easily into the ventilation holes you find in most helmets. Not hard to do one-handed while riding.

[pfunkallstar]

Cheapo Nashbar clear shades and Rain-X work okay – not great. I usually just end up taking them off it gets real bad – like yesterday. Downside being my contacts start adhering to my eyeball, which gets pretty distracting.

[Author]

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