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I am trying to decide on a suitable eye protection for city riding (like transporting kids to school). I live in a small town with little traffic dust (not like New York/Paris/London/Amsterdam) - my immediate problem is mostly little insects that get into your eyes and blind you for a few seconds (or sometimes longer), which I feel as pretty dangerous. It is a problem only for the periods from late Spring to early Autumn, and only when it is not sufficiently sunny to wear sunglasses.

One option is investing in a helmet with a "windshield" - my worry here is not so much the price, as that the models that I have seen might be too hot for Summer. Another option is cyclist goggles - but these seem too "gudgety/sporty" for my level of cycling, so I am not sure if they come with pitfalls that I am not aware of.

Related:
What are the features that I should seek in cycling glasses?
How to protect yourself from pollution in city cycling

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    I feel like there is a wall being built around cycling by equipment manufacturers who are trying to make riding bikes seem way more difficult than it really is in order to sell all kinds of useless equipment. Just get any pair of sun glasses that have a nice look, correct price and an adequate tint for your needs. If you use a helmet, try the glasses on while wearing it. There's nothing more complicated to it. Commented Jun 10 at 7:48
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    BTW those helmets with an aero visor are often rather hot. Commented Jun 10 at 7:54
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    @RogerV. Get a pair with a tint that suits your needs. I have a pair of yellow ones. Commented Jun 10 at 8:49
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    @mkrieger1 The amount of flying insects is extremely specific to the area where you ride. I ride without sunglasses, except for a one week period during early autumn when it's pretty much hazardous to go out without eye protection. Commented Jun 11 at 5:10
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    I have some pretty casual “sports” prescription glasses. I got them with photochromic lenses (i.e. transparent but get dark-ish in sunlight) and I’d probably wear them even if I wouldn’t need them to correct my near-sightedness. Commented Jun 11 at 8:45

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I use cheap safety glasses, like the type you'd use when chainsawing, grinding or chiselling at rock.

Any set that is comfortable is fine. They are often available with a yellow tint, too.

enter image description here

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    Thanks for a good tip - no need to struggle with pro stuff and features. Commented Jun 10 at 8:40
  • One problem I've found with such workers' protective glasses is that raindrops running off of them had a really weird taste - perhaps some anti-fog coating that dissolved. Not sure how common this is. Commented Jun 10 at 16:01
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    @leftaroundabout give them a warm wash when new, and it should remove any such loose coating. Commented Jun 10 at 18:45
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    yellow tinted are the way to go for the night if aftermarket headlights are populat in your area. Commented Jun 11 at 7:07
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    @Michael I did not find any issue with reflections, the plastic these are made of is really way better than glass in this regard. And in regard to scratches, well - these cost between 1 and 5 euro and their primary users change them as soon as the surface gets unacceptable. No reason for a bicycle rider to do something else. My experience with them is that a day of grass trimmng or 2 hours of angle grinder use makes them worse than 2-3 months of cycling. You can even polish them back with a some toothpaste, a rag and a bit of patience. Commented Jun 11 at 12:03
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You can get some rather nice safety glasses, that look pretty decent, and crucially, have arms that work well under helmet straps. I tend to buy the sunglasses versions, but they're available in clear as well. My current pair are Bollé Silex - like many they're a wraparound style that doesn't block your peripheral vision, and by sitting closer to your face leaves a minimal gap for stuff to get in. The downside is they're prone to fogging if you enter a cool area while sweating. This is my old pair, "Mamba" style, sadly discontinued, but I had them to hand; we use the clear version in work as safety glasses.

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I quite often end up wearing my sunglasses in the early evening when it's not bright enough to need them, but not too dark that they're a problem, because that seems to be when a lot of insects come out and I don't usually carry two pairs.

You can also get (including fairly cheap - I tried a pair of these) wraparound glasses with interchangeable lenses. I don't get on with them because I find myself trying to see through the top frame on some of my bikes. Yes, they look a bit sporty, but that doesn't really matter.

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  • Thanks, that the glasses hold tight on the head and do not obscure the peripheral vision are important points. Commented Jun 10 at 8:38
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Any glasses will protect your eyes from flying insects etc: Since you are moving forward while looking forward, the slip wind is in your face, and any insects will collide with the glasses first. This collision robs them of their relative momentum, and they'll just be swept away from your glasses by the slip wind. They won't come around the sides to hit you in the eyes anyways.

As such, buy and use any set of glasses you like, and which is compatible with your helmet. You don't need safety glasses, or anything special. Just arms that are as thin as possible in the area of your helmet straps.

Safety glasses and even more so specialized biking glasses have the benefit of also shielding your eyes when you look over your shoulder, and of keeping the slip wind from your eyes (which can be irritating). However, they also lock in any sweat that your skin emits around your eyes, and that can be a problem as well. So that's a question of climate and preference. Personally, I've never bothered with them as I'm already wearing eye correction glasses anyways, and they have successfully served double duty as moskito shields all along.

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    I can't confirm this. With some sunglasses I regularly got stuff in the eyes, both dirt spraying up from below and light things / insects that were apparently swept around the rims by turbulent air. Goggles need to somewhat surround the eyes to avoid that. Commented Jun 10 at 16:07
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    @leftaroundabout Yes, I can see why dirt would bypass normal glasses. That's basically balistic projectiles with a low drag/mass ratio. And yes, very light stuff can be carried around to the eye via turbulence. Like some light seeds from trees and such. The protection is not perfect with normal glasses. But the dangerous stuff is securely deflected. Like moskitos, sizeable flies, bees, or wasps. And the stuff that corners around hits with only a fraction of the kinetic energy and at a shallow angle. I.e. more a nuissance than a danger, imho. Commented Jun 10 at 17:37
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    @leftaroundabout IME, if air can't get around the glasses, there's very little to no evaporation of sweat as it works its way towards your eyes. If you want to guarantee no insects or other debris in your eyes you effectively guarantee sweat eventually getting into your eyes. Commented Jun 10 at 22:15
  • Insect can also land on your face and crawl round even close-fitting glasses, but gnats and midges, being much smaller than mosquitos, do seem to be swept around glasses in the airflow - after all they weigh ~µg but have mm-scale wingspans. And being so tiny they're a pain to remove from your eyes when you stop. Commented Jun 11 at 9:52
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I disagree with the 'any sunglasses stop insects'.

For a city that might be true but in an insect-rich environment is not. Also the summer Sun likes to peek in. Also there's the wind caused by riding.

Thus I pick glasses(safety glasses for up to 5 EUR as already indicated: from a hardware store) by the following criterium: hug my face perfectly. No space above, preferably no space on the side.

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