Blinded by the Sun

[Liveware Problem]

I commute West - East in the morning, and in autumn and spring really struggle with the low sun. Myvhelmer has an internal sun visor but it's not enough, I have had to ride one handed with the other hand shielding my eyes along a dual carriageway on several occasions!

Can anyone recommend anything, I was thinking an adventure-style helmet with a sun visor?

[Stu]

put a bit of black masking tape along the top of the visor to act as a sun shade

[mikestrivens]

As above use black insulation tape, replace internal sun visor with a darker one (if possible/available), new helmet with peak.

[Throttled]

As above, but having also commuted like you, a new helmet is the better fix. This the cheapest adventure helmet (the ones with a peak) that also has an internal sun visor I can find.

https://www.ghostbikes.com/14133-wulf-prima-x-dual-sport-helmet.html

£54 and they may be some post on top of that.

[bonio]

Change job?

Move house?

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I have sunglasses that fit easily under the flip down visor (discovered that accidentally when I forgot what I was wearing the sunglasses and flipped down the visor in the blinding winter sun) the two together do a cracking job- just sunnies when it sunny and doubling up sunnies with the flip down visor when it’s blinding. It’s really suprisinfly not dark!

Alternatively you could not use your flip down and buy some polarised sunglasses.

[Six30]

Close your eyes

[Liveware Problem]

Close your eyes

 

Finally a sensible suggestion

I will try the tape first, if that isn't enough then maybe a new helmet.

[mention]Slowlycatchymonkey[/mention] Good shout, but then I'd have to get a set of prescription sunglasses. If all else fails I may try that

[mikestrivens]

Get contact lenses, they have transformed my riding. Spectacles are such a pain, fogging up, blocking the peripheral vision, creating star bursts in sunlight etc. All these problems disappear with contacts.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I’ve tried contact lenses but they don’t work for me. I have misshapen eyeballs so I have to wear glasses. I always get photochromic lenses and find those plus the slide down shade works most of the time. But for those really low sun days a bit of tape as suggested above just takes the glare off.

[geofferz]

I use a smoked visor. Then when I drop the flip down visor it doubles the darkness. If that's not dark enough I use sunglasses under that. Then tinted contacts under those. And if you need more darkness then as six says close your eyes.

[Throttled]

Close your eyes

 

Finally a sensible suggestion

I will try the tape first, if that isn't enough then maybe a new helmet.

@Slowlycatchymonkey Good shout, but then I'd have to get a set of prescription sunglasses. If all else fails I may try that

 

My sensible suggestion is to commute the other way around the world so you go east to west.

[Liveware Problem]

Get contact lenses, they have transformed my riding. Spectacles are such a pain, fogging up, blocking the peripheral vision, creating star bursts in sunlight etc. All these problems disappear with contacts.

 

Thing is I only need to wear glasses for riding/driving, so it's not really economical to get contacts at the moment.

[mikestrivens]

For me it is far more about convenience. Economics didn’t factor at all in my deliberations.

[Liveware Problem]

For me it is far more about convenience. Economics didn’t factor at all in my deliberations.

 

But are you taking them in and out or do you just leave them in? It seems a waste to get lenses just for driving.

[mikestrivens]

Put them in after breakfast take them out before I go to bed. Some days I don't wear them if I'm not out on the bike. I just use my spectacles instead.

[Guest]

[Guest]

Dark visors or sunglasses just wont help. The problem is the iris. The human eye has been developing over hundreds of thousands of years and nature did its job well. The light intensity that an eye can cope with ranges by almost 1000 times from intensely bright to almost pitch black.

Any glasses that you fit or dark visor will appear to be a solution at first but then the iris does its work and the light is just as bright. Such is life.

Shading is I believe the only real way forward. Using the hand can be dangerous, riding behind a bus causes too many frequent stops, using tape or a peak on the helmet is a solution that I like.