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Yellow lenses
I currently use a pair of Tifosi yellow tinted lenses when riding. A couple of times lately in this crap weather, I've taken them off when on the dirt (mud) so I could see better. Each time, it suddenly feels like I'm considerably closer to the ground, my forks are shorter and I'm at risk of going over the bars. Yet putting the glasses on initially (or like now) doesn't suddenly make everything seem further away.
Is it just the water on the lenses making things seem further away before I take the glasses off, or is there some other phenomena at work here?
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Orange and yellow lenses increase both contrast and depth perception, which would explain why the distance to the ground appears to change.
What's the opinion on tinted lenses for night riding?
“Yellow ‘Night Driving’ lenses have been shown to provide no benefit in seeing ability at night. They are even hazardous, because they give the driver a feeling of seeing better, which no one has yet been able to explain. Studies have shown that they actually impair visual performance and retard glare recovery.
www.laramyk.com/resources/education/dispensing/t...
I've used yello and blue tinted lenses at night, and they were particularly useful at the scott 2 years ago in very white dust and high temp LED's - so you would have way too much contrast between bushes and the white dust on the trail (and in the air for that matter.
Yellow lenses when using LED's would presumeably bring the scene back to a more natural set of colours?
I use yellow lens for evening/night so I can have the old eyes protected from wind and nasties in the air or branches. Haven't necessarily found the level of light to be better, but my perception is better contrast in loww loght conditions. I have a yellow-amber lens in my Oakley ski goggles which I wouldn't ski without in low and flat light conditions.
I've found yellow lenses work well in low light, but not poor light. It depends on how deep the tint is.
I used to use them when I raced R/C cars competitively. They were great for making the car jump out visually from the background. However, the best pair were a very pale yellow that weren't far off being clear. Another set I had that were a deeper, darker yellow were better for earlier in the afternoon, but were hopeless by the time it got to driving in the main event close to 5pm of a winter Sunday afternoon.
The pale pair were terrible in bright light during the middle of the day - quite uncomfortable to wear.
I've just bought a pair of presciption Oakley Flak glasses with Transitions lenses that go from clear to mid-brown. Haven't done much riding in them yet as I'm still getting up to strength after an injury, but they're excellent for night driving. Depth perception is the best it's been.
And lawns now have a texture that I haven't noticed for awhile
I use the yellow lenses all the time when riding in the day time. I find they give much clearer definition of surface conditions, and don't have the same adjustment problem of dark tints when going from sunlit to shaded areas. I've even used them driving out in the desert in the middle of the day because of that improved definition, which is handy on desert roads when there is no shadows to give rocks, potholes etc a bit of definition.
Haven't done much night riding, but used to use clear lenses (or none at the 12 hr races at Yellowmundie, when the dust would get thick as a fog and build up on the lenses - remember the drought??).
I was just wondering why the ground seemed appreciably closer when I took the yellow lens glasses off recently - was it the water on the outside of the lenses doing something to the focal length prior to removal, or just an optical illusion from being able to see clearly all of a sudden, or what?
I always wear glasses when riding to stop the dust/flies/branches getting in my eyes, as well as their optical benefits. Have some of those cheapo interchangeable lens glasses from CRC - clear lenses for night, yellow for under the trees, and tinted for sunshine.
When I was getting my bi-annual eye test recently, I mentioned to the optometrist that as I get older I find the clarity of vision when driving my car at night is getting worse. She recommended wearing my yellow cycling lenses because they prevent the glare from pinpoints of light 'smudging' the rest of your vision. Guess she hasn't read the link from bobozzie above!
hunters use them ive been told the colour lense cancel out the shadow