On a bike, not a unicycle, even though not at the same high speeds it could probably go the same way on a unicycle.
Was riding my bike this morning on a hard training ride, nothing protecting my eyes. Going somewhere between 20-21mph. What I assume was a bee, all I could really see was a big black thing, about the size of a bumblebee straight into my eye.
Couldn’t open it for about a minute, then also couldn’t keep it shut because the tears forcing their way out. Vision out of that eye was completely fuzzy for the next 2 hours, it was clear for two hours after that and now is a tad fuzzy again.
A lot of pain, and overall not a fun start to my day, however a lesson learned the hard way.
^ last winter, I wore a similar pair on my commute to avoid an inflammation of my eyes.
You can choose the way you want to look ridiculous.
The ones sold for cyclists make you look like someone who thinks he’s Lance Armstrong, rather than like a lab assistant. Or you can go the steampunk way and wear a leather helmet with goggles (combine this with a highweeler uni so that it’s more credible in terms of altitude).
Or you can have your eyesight lasered worse so that you need normal glasses
I started wearing cycling glasses for exactly the same reason - had a few scary insect/eye moments. The one that really convinced me was a big swarm of flying ants that managed to get into both eyes at once and release their stinging formic acid (on a fast downhill stretch). Scared the crap out of me, and I’ve been wearing the glasses ever since.
I already had a pair before that but only used to wear them when riding singletrack in forests (or anywhere else where things are likely to poke me in the eye), never for road cycling.
It’s quite useful in heavy rain with a headwind as well
Once when I was cycling the road bike in a park, loads of sawdust flew into my face. Someone was trimming the branches of a tree. So glad I was wearing sunglasses.
I’ve thought about wearing protective glasses before.
I was riding along a sidewalk in a small neighborhood, and it hardly gets any traffic from pedestrians or vehicles, so I began to play a game that I do when I get bored where I just try to roll over things I see on the sidewalk, and I aim my wheel towards them, be it a pebble, stick or crack intersection.
Anyway, my shenanigans were interrupted when a low hanging tree branch smacks me in the face. It was oddly sharp, so I had big scratches all over the left side of my face, a pretty good wound on my forehead that was dripping blood down to the tip of my nose, but the eyes were unscathed. I got pretty lucky.
Come to think of it, I’m surprised that a tree branch at 13mph can do that to a person. I get that it would scratch you, but it shouldn’t bleed as much as it did.
Sometimes it’s hard to find a good pair of specs for protective purposes. I’ve never worn them, but I’ve been wearing glasses daily since I was 1 & 1/2 yrs old. I guess they work okay, but I still manage to get some crud in the eyes. Early spring pollen really stings, so I’m thinking that the next pair I get will be feminine with huge ornamented wings.
I tried on a pair of Specialized MTB glasses (they only make one model w/ road or mtn leanses) and I was amazed that I could see even more clear when in the store than w/o. This was the first time I’ve ever experienced that w/ a pair of sun glasses. They were pretty expensive though ~$120 if I remember correctly.
When I b*ke I wear a cheap pair of lightly tinted wrap around glasses.
I have a pair of clear wrap around safety glasses that look like these that I’ve considered wearing for Muni.
