OT: apps for getting rid of your bifocals

[thwart]

I found this kind of interesting, and perhaps pertinent to me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/upshot/training-your-brain-so-that-you-dont-need-reading-glasses.html

I vividly remember a ride with a buddy on my 60th birthday, 60 hilly miles out in beautiful rural southwest Wisconsin, however we actually got lost.

OK, no problem. Get out the smartphones with the map apps... however, neither of us could read my iPhone (even at arm's length). As soon as we zoomed out to get a frame of reference for our location, the road names became too small to read. Tried his bigger Android... nope.

Two middle-aged guys on bikes staring at their phones with their arms stretched as far as they can go, squinting. :rolleyes:

Now I ride with bifocal cycling glasses...

[vqdriver]

Hmm. Interested

[thirdgenbird]

Interesting.

I have an employee that often uses the magnifier tool on his iPhone instead of reading glasses. I've seen him reading things like hydraulic schematics and printed numbers on wires through his iPhone lens. Simple and effective. Obviously, it wouldn't solve the issue of reading the phone itself :)

[Ray]

That sounds like a pretty intensive process for a relatively short-term delay of the inevitable... I started wearing progressive lenses somewhere around 13-15 years ago and I've never minded them. Bi-focals nearly killed me when I tried them - just couldn't seem to adapt, but I took to the progressives like a fish to water.

-Ray

[572cv]

Like Ray, the progressive lenses have been the bomb for me. Just generally satisfactory.

Also of value to some might be a trick I learned a while ago, to deal with those moments when you forgot your glasses and are out on a ride. It is based on the pin-hole camera concept. If you take your forefinger and curl it up, then put your thumb over the outside, you get a crack you can see through in the center. It is adjustable with thumb pressure, and if you get it right, and look through it, it can serve as a basic near surface magifying glass. On a bright day outside, it can get you through some basic reading tasks you would not be able to do otherwise.

[thwart]

Like Ray, the progressive lenses have been the bomb for me. Just generally satisfactory.

Also of value to some might be a trick I learned a while ago, to deal with those moments when you forgot your glasses and are out on a ride. It is based on the pin-hole camera concept. If you take your forefinger and curl it up, then put your thumb over the outside, you get a crack you can see through in the center. It is adjustable with thumb pressure, and if you get it right, and look through it, it can serve as a basic near surface magifying glass. On a bright day outside, it can get you through some basic reading tasks you would not be able to do otherwise.
Just tried this... it works. Thanks!

[makoti]

Like Ray, the progressive lenses have been the bomb for me. Just generally satisfactory.

Also of value to some might be a trick I learned a while ago, to deal with those moments when you forgot your glasses and are out on a ride. It is based on the pin-hole camera concept. If you take your forefinger and curl it up, then put your thumb over the outside, you get a crack you can see through in the center. It is adjustable with thumb pressure, and if you get it right, and look through it, it can serve as a basic near surface magifying glass. On a bright day outside, it can get you through some basic reading tasks you would not be able to do otherwise.

What the... this works!

[donevwil]

Also of value to some might be a trick I learned a while ago, to deal with those moments when you forgot your glasses and are out on a ride. It is based on the pin-hole camera concept. If you take your forefinger and curl it up, then put your thumb over the outside, you get a crack you can see through in the center. It is adjustable with thumb pressure, and if you get it right, and look through it, it can serve as a basic near surface magifying glass. On a bright day outside, it can get you through some basic reading tasks you would not be able to do otherwise.

As bicycletricycle would say, "I like this place".

[ultraman6970]

So if i train my eyes to read w/o reading glasses then hey will get better??? BS.

[palincss]

Two middle-aged guys on bikes staring at their phones with their arms stretched as far as they can go, squinting. :rolleyes:

Now I ride with bifocal cycling glasses...

Or you could just carry one of these, like I do.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/c5/d3/79/c5d3794bbe6acb9789c41b10f1616a81.jpg

[palincss]

Like Ray, the progressive lenses have been the bomb for me. Just generally satisfactory.

Well, fine -- until you get to the point that the cataracts have to be removed, and then unless you're willing to really splash out and accept the increased risk of stars & similar, you'll get single focus lenses implanted. At which point, if you had been nearsighted before, you will overnight become farsighted and everything you knew your whole life about how to cope becomes absolutely wrong.

I got mine so I could drive, ride and bike & read cue sheets without glasses. To read I need 1.5 readers. To find glass shards in order to fix a flat, I need 2.0 or 2.5, hence the folding readers I carry with my tools.

[OtayBW]

Or you could just carry one of these, like I do.

I carry something like these, too. Mine are flat and about the size of a credit card. Easy peasy. They go right in my phone case with ID and a few sheckels.

[Ralph]

I'm far sighted. Need help reading. I found some Tifosi Cycling sun glasses on E bay....that were readers across bottom. For when I ride. But bottom part doesn't interfere with top part. They come in 2.0, 2.25, and 2.5. $35 or so. Work perfect...fit good also. (Actually...believe my glasses were made for a golfer...who think progressive lens interfere with swing)

[classtimesailer]

Two phones? Use one to take a picture of the other and enlarge the photo. Taking pics of labels at the grocery store keeps me out of trouble. I spend a great deal of time formatting/enlarging cue sheets so I can barely read them and print them on a bunch of pages. Learning Brail might be useful. For fishing, I use some flip up magnifiers that clip onto my sunglasses.

[oldpotatoe]

I found this kind of interesting, and perhaps pertinent to me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/upshot/training-your-brain-so-that-you-dont-need-reading-glasses.html

I vividly remember a ride with a buddy on my 60th birthday, 60 hilly miles out in beautiful rural southwest Wisconsin, however we actually got lost.

OK, no problem. Get out the smartphones with the map apps... however, neither of us could read my iPhone (even at arm's length). As soon as we zoomed out to get a frame of reference for our location, the road names became too small to read. Tried his bigger Android... nope.

Two middle-aged guys on bikes staring at their phones with their arms stretched as far as they can go, squinting. :rolleyes:

Now I ride with bifocal cycling glasses...

http://www.dualeyewear.com/

[thwart]

I'm far sighted. Need help reading. I found some Tifosi Cycling sun glasses on E bay....that were readers across bottom. For when I ride. But bottom part doesn't interfere with top part. They come in 2.0, 2.25, and 2.5. $35 or so. Work perfect...fit good also. (Actually...believe my glasses were made for a golfer...who think progressive lens interfere with swing)

I use the very same. Well designed, not obtrusive at all.

About $75 for the photochromic variant.

Found that they also sell replacement lenses. Don't ask me how I know...

[youngman]

I have a pair of flat reader glasses from thinoptics.com that come in a thin plastic hard case the size of a credit card that are very useful in my seat bag. $20

[2LeftCleats]

When my cataracts were removed, I opted for the flexible implants that use your eye muscles to adjust the lens to see close up through long distance. One eye is relatively better at distance and the other better at closeup. Works nicely, though in really dim light I have trouble with small print.

[Saint Vitus]

http://www.dualeyewear.com/

Spot on! The SL2's look reasonable and are reasonably priced.

[teleguy57]

Turning 63 in just over a month, and my Lasik monovision correction (one eye for distance, one for closer, let the brain sort it out) has worked well for the first 11 years, but in the the past 12-18 mo have needed readers when I'm in dimmer light conditions. I find I'm grabbing them more often for reading in other situations now too.

For the bike I'm thinking the fold-up style would probably fit in my Weatherfield Ride Pouch. Just got my first Oakleys (Radar Path EV w/Prizm Road lens) for Christmas and I do love the clarity compared to my previous Tifosis. However, the Tifosi is a great value and while I'm still OK reading my Garmin in decent light, there are times....

Eyes, legs, lungs.... and I forget what else.... oh, memory:crap:

[Don49]

One eye is relatively better at distance and the other better at closeup.

Turning 63 in just over a month, and my Lasik monovision correction (one eye for distance, one for closer, let the brain sort it out) has worked well for the first 11 years, ...It's called "modified monovision" (google it). I do that with soft contacts, the dominant eye (R for me) gets a correction for distance vision only, the non-dominant eye gets a bifocal contact. The result is perfect vision from newsprint size close up to 20/15 distant vision. The reason for not using bifocal contacts in both eyes is that a fixed correction contact is superior to a bifocal contact for distance (20/15 vs 20/40).

[Anarchist]

Seems to me I remember seeing "stick on" reader sections for riding glasses.

Basically half moon shaped pieces that stick on to the bottom of the lens and make a "bi-focal" out of a regular lens.

Anyone remember these?

Do they work? Are they still available?