Oakley Prizm road or trail for mixed use?

[cuda]

I'm in the ready to buy phase of getting some RX cycling glasses and I am 99% positively sure I want to go with an Oakley frame with their Prizm lenses.

I do road and trail(gravel) riding primarily 70/30 road. That said a fair amount of the road are shaded.

I can only afford 1 pair of $600+ RX glasses.
What lens should I go with the road or trail?
thx

[dbnm]

I've been using prizm road for everything and I think they are terrific, including for tree covered dirt roads.

[madsciencenow]

I have both and prefer the trail for days when there is less sun and the road for days when it’s brighter. I think both work fine. If you have many days of sun where you live I’d go with road and if less, maybe the trail.


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[jpang922]

I opted for transition lens and a non cycling specific style for my one pair of Oakley Rx glasses. For “serious” days I’d just put on some contacts

[benb]

I think I'm going to go transitions next time I get cycling lenses.

I'm overdue.

I have a set of "Rose Copper" lenses from Sports Optical which are similar color to the Prizm trail. I think anything reddish/orangeish is something you'll be very happy with for cycling, but it's not rocket science.

I will say having had two pairs of Rx Oakleys for sports glasses + 1 pair of every day Oakley Rx glasses I'd never buy them again. I think they're pretty poor glasses at this point if they are being considered in the Rx realm. If you're getting them with Rx lenses as opposed to inserts you're getting bog standard Rx lenses at this point as Oakley is just an EssilorLuxottica brand name at this point. Rx lenses won't likely even have the little "O" on them anymore. The ones I bought after the transition didn't. Going through normal Rx channels you have to have almost no prescription at all to get Oakleys without inserts as well.

Most guys who sing their praises are not Rx wearers and they're not comparing them to anywhere near the same quality level Rx wearers expect.

I have been a zillion times happier with my Rudy Project Rydons. They're better glasses, more comfortable, much tougher, and much easier & cheaper to find and buy replacement parts if/when you actually need them. They're so much better it's very likely I'll reuse them when I get new lenses which is something I never did with Oakleys.. the Oakley frames were ready to be retired the same time the lenses were.

The reason I say I'll do transitions next time is I have transitions for my regular glasses at this point and I'm 99% sold that the latest Transitions Signature is completely sufficient for cycling. They're awesome, and changing lenses on a ride in bad weather is not such a great idea with expensive Rx lenses IMO. The cost differential for Transitions is much smaller than a 2nd pair of lenses as well. If you've never had transitions it's hard to get how well they work at this point.. it's not like they switch between clear & full sunglass, they basically always go to just the right shade, you can't really even tell they're working, everything always just looks fantastic. The only time they could ever be an issue would be a winter ride where you're riding in snow in freezing temperatures and then you're going to ride through an extended cave or tunnel. In freezing temperatures they get darker and take longer to turn back to clear. It's actually fine because freezing temps often mean snow and you want them extra dark. I've never gone on a snowy ride with extended tunnels so no big deal.

The clear lenses I have for my Rudys are not my favorite.. I basically avoid wearing them unless I have to. I didn't get antireflective coatings on them and so I basically wear the Rose copper lenses as much as I can possibly get away with... which is a lot of the time as the Rose Copper works very well in overcast conditions.

[weiwentg]

I've got no experience with the Prizm Trail. I've heard Rob of Sport Rx, who's a MTBer, say on his YouTube channel that it's pretty different but really effective for trail riding, so lots of in and out of shade. I have no insight into how it would look for road use.

If you're doing 70/30 tarmac and gravel, then it could be worth trying on one of the Prizm Everyday colors. I like high contrast for cycling, and some of the Prizm Everyday lenses are a bronze base, e.g. Prizm Ruby (bonus, it looks pretty striking). If you prefer a rose base for riding, then both the Prizm Road and Trail (and actually the Road Black and Trail Torch; those are just darker versions of the original lenses, e.g. Road Black has 11% visual light transmission versus 20% on the Prizm Road) are rose base, and I don't think that any Prizm Everyday lenses are rose base. For 70/30 road and gravel, if not a Prizm Everyday lense, then I'd probably go with one of the Prizm Road lenses.

Aside from the base colors, the sport-specific Prizms are really tuned for the colors you encounter in the sport. I'm not sure exactly what colors are emphasized in the Trail series. I know the Road lenses let in a lot of yellow.

Unfortunately, this is why I went with contact lenses - getting to know what you prefer can take some experimentation, and it's a bit absurd to to experimenting with $600 Rx lenses. And you don't really know how the lenses look in your preferred environment when you're in the store.

[eippo1]

So I have a fair amount of Oakley. For my prescription, I have a grey polarized that seems fine but the prism lens didn't exist yet.

For trails, I always do contacts but have a pair of Path Advancer with Prism Trail. Love this lens and after using it in many conditions would not want anything darker for the trails. I've used them for road and they've been fine except for the brightest conditions and I have some Iridium Flak jackets for that.

I'd also highly recommend the lens for impact because they saved my eye with a direct hit via a faceplant on a rock. Face got many stitches, concussion, serious rock rash etc., but I believe that the glasses saved my eye and my orbital bone from getting broken. Lens has a massive deep scratch and I can still see fine out of it too hah.

[thirdgenbird]

I haven’t tried the trail but I agree with this:

Originally Posted by dbnm

I've been using prizm road for everything and I think they are terrific, including for tree covered dirt roads.

[d_douglas]

Originally Posted by cuda

I'm in the ready to buy phase of getting some RX cycling glasses and I am 99% positively sure I want to go with an Oakley frame with their Prizm lenses.

I do road and trail(ravel) riding primarily 70/30 road. That said a fair amount of the road are shaded.

I can only afford 1 pair of $600+ RX glasses.
What lens should I go with the road or trail?
thx

I use the Road ones for all purposes except for night riding. Theyre great glasses!

[cuda]

Wow! Thanks everyone. Lots of solid experiential info to digest. I really appreciate it.
I hadnt spent much time looking at the Rudy Project but I plan to take some time on their site.
I have considered transition lenses. I currently dont do contacts but seeing my optometrist tomorrow so I may as well discuss this option.
The impact resistance of the Oakley lens is probably the single most important factor in leaning toward their product.

[stackie]

I had prizm road in my oakleys before switching to trail. I always felt like the road could be a bit dark in the shadows. So when I needed replacements I went trail and the fact that they were in clearance cemented the decision. Don’t regret it for a bit.

Most of my riding is road.

That said, I live in an area that is overcast a fair bit and super bright days are not that common. I love being able to see in the shadows, I think I’ll stick with these from now on.

Jon

[eippo1]

Originally Posted by cuda

Wow! Thanks everyone. Lots of solid experiential info to digest. I really appreciate it.
I hadnt spent much time looking at the Rudy Project but I plan to take some time on their site.
I have considered transition lenses. I currently dont do contacts but seeing my optometrist tomorrow so I may as well discuss this option.
The impact resistance of the Oakley lens is probably the single most important factor in leaning toward their product.

One thing to keep in mind with transitions is how they behave in changing light. I have them in my regular glasses and used them once on a trail ride and never again. They were too slow to lighten as much as I needed them to when going from clearings to woods and their constant fluctuation gave me a huge headache -- and I'm been using them for years for general use prior to this.

[Crotchrocket]

I like to switch between the two so I found a good deal on a spare lens on eBay.

[parris]

I have several pairs of Oakley RX glasses that I use for road, skiing, shooting, and general wear. I live in Upstate NY which has a good amount of greens and blue without so much sun for light conditions. Here's what I have and where I use it the most.

Persimmon for low and flat light. I use this on lousy weather days when the light's dim/flat. It works but I'm not a real fan of how it tends to wash out colors over time.

VR-28 was bought as a "do everything" lens. I REALLY like this lens. Although it's not supposed to be a lens that's good for sunny conditions and such I can wear it for just about everything from flat light to full sun in my region. The color shift is there but it's not overpowering. I've owned this lens for the longest time and it's seen a good amount of abuse without getting too scratched up.

OO Red Iridium Polarized I bought as a darker lens for general wear and on the bike. It has a slight rose hue and is a very nice all around lens for brighter overcast to sunny conditions. It's also not fatiguing to my eyes over time.

OO Black Iridium Polarized I picked up after spending some time on bright water a few years back where the OO Red wasn't quite enough. It's a darker version of the OO Red and my favorite lens for sunny days. It's a really good sun lens.

Prizm Dark Golf I picked up this past winter in the new Flak frame. My other lenses are in the original Flak Jacket frame and althoug the lenses are good the frames tended to allow more wind to get to my eyes than I care for. The Dark Golf works almost as well for me as the VR 28 in flat light and is better in bright conditions. It has a rose tint in line with the OO lenses that I like so isn't a fatiguing lens to wear for extended times. The Prizm tech seems to do what they claim for "tuning" colors. I find that this lens works surprisingly well on the Skeet and Sporting Clays ranges. It's also really good on the road bike.

I went with the Dark Golf over some of the other Prizm lenses because my eyes tend to be affected by some of the stronger color shifts of various lenses such as Trail, and regular Golf. The Dark Golf for me is similar but more versatile than my OO Black. If I were going to change anything about the lens it would be to add Polarizing to it. It's a personal choice that just works well for my eyes though.

I hope this helps.

[ToonaBP]

I use Oakley grey and Road Prizm lens for road riding and tried them when I began riding gravel earlier this year. But my eyes had trouble picking up pot holes on tree covered roads, especially with sunlight filtering through, so I switched to the Trail Prizm lens. It's now my go to lens for gravel and overcast road rides.