BBB Retro Sportglasses

Posted on

Back when I rode a bike only occasionally, for fun, I didn’t understand how cyclists wearing lycra, padded gloves, and eye shields could be anything but posers. However, since becoming reliant on cycling to cover distances, I can confirm the utility of all the above-mentioned items.†

Taking things one step further, cycling accessories have become so well integrated into my life that I am working them into a new tradition, which is to to lose them over the summer so that I can buy new ones. My gloves vanished (likely dropped when I stopped to take a photo) several months ago, now, obviously, or it would have been odd weather for winter gloves.

More recently, my MEC Espresso eye shields evaporated one afternoon somewhere between the nursery and the playground. I had been annoyed to lose my winter gloves after only one season of use. I was more annoyed to lose the glasses, because a) I can’t buy them in the UK (shipping from Canada is silly-expensive), and b) I have several spare lenses for that frame. I am even more annoyed now that I look into it, because c) I can’t buy the frame in Canada anymore either, according the MEC website: they’re discontinued.

Because I don’t seem to be able to cycle five miles without attacking a flying insect with my eyeball, I quickly ordered some “budget” glasses online: BBB Retro Sportglasses, with clear, yellow, and dark lenses.

It’s hard to buy something online that has to fit in a certain way, and yet I try because I don’t like shopping. I look at what reviews I can find, and take a stab. Here are my observations on these glasses, in case someone else is trying the same thing.

Firstly, I think these are nice-enough looking glasses. They’re not flashy, but they come at a reasonable price, considering they come with three sets of lenses for different light conditions.

Swapping out the two-piece lenses on the fly is a bit of a pain: I found I was prone to dropping at least one piece in my efforts to avoid letting the lens pieces rub against each other. That’s no problem in the winter when all I wear is the clear lens. As I’ve proven already, if the glasses fit, you may almost as well get two pairs for different conditions anyway, and then you’ll have one left when you lose one.

Fit-wise, the lenses angle in significantly, and I find that either my ears are not low enough, my nose is not high enough, or my brow is not prominent enough to keep the bottom edge of the lens from digging into the bottom of my eye socket. The first day I wore these on the ride to work I had the disconcerting experience of glancing in the mirror to discover the sudden appearance of a second set of circles under my eyes!‡ It’s worth noting that I’m not a man, so these glasses were probably not designed with my face type in mind.

The top of the frame is quite curved, again lovely and spacious for a strong forehead but on my face it’s just a silly-looking gap by which bugs and rain access my eyeballs.

All in all, I think these glasses merit the term “good value” if they fit.  I was going to try to make them work for this winter, but I can’t seem to figure out where I put them.

†I still hanker a little after a Poseur jersey, even though some people might take it the wrong way given that my fastest ride has 26″ wheels with 1.5″ slick tires.

‡Perhaps I should say “sudden reappearance,” because in the first year of G’s life I had an actual second bag under each eye.

Doldrums

Posted on

Phooobooboo. We have had quite a week here. Which is to say: we’ve all been sick and it’s been really boring and not much has happened.

The weather has me practically hibernating, although it’s not really wintry, which is good because, in keeping with our family tradition, I appear to have lost my winter bike gloves.

The only possible blogging topic that’s made me feel at all animated has been the things I’ve seen on my bike rides to and from work, and I’m trying to avoid writing too much about that. I have a couple of ground rules for myself here, and that topic would break both of them. All of them. Wait. How many ground rules do I have? …ok, at least three. All subject to change if think I can justify it.

For now, one of those rules is to keep the strong language to a minimum, and to be honest, most of the fun of revisiting events from my commute that make me feel animated would be in combining all sorts of rude words in absurd, hyperbolic, oxymoronic, or simply moronic combinations.

Combined with my general animation shortage, this leaves me with not much to say for the moment.

I was going to just post a photo of our California poppies all twisted up and huddled against the cold, gloomy weather, but when I went to take the shot things were looking up.

Maybe not quite the summery weather I’m yearning for, but enough to mow the lawn.

Raindrops kept falling on my head…

Posted on

…but only through the vents in my helmet.

(A ride home, in disjointed vignettes. Artsy, non?)

(Non. Pas vraiment.)

What I was concerned about, as I started home, were the raindrops falling on my knees. There’s an uncomfortable period, at the start of a wet bike ride, when the water hits cold on your skin, and the motion creates a wind chill. It’s like getting in the pool. After a while, especially if you’re exerting yourself, it doesn’t matter that the water’s cold, or wet. Once you’re wet, you’re wet, and you don’t get any wetter.

Wait, that’s not true. It might be true if you weren’t wearing shoes and socks. If it’s REALLY raining, and you’re out there for long enough, your shoes fill up with water. And that is wetter.

By a few minutes into the ride, I was warmed up and able to enjoy the fact that this was summer rain — more than a few degrees above freezing.

Saw a van accelerate through a puddle to splash some guys waiting for the walk signal. The passenger-side door opened and a young guy leaned out and shouted back, and I quote, “haw! haw! haw!”

I hope those guys know each other so he and his driving buddy can receive the wedgies they so deserve upon their next meeting.

Overtaken by a grown-up man on a fixie.*

This guy won points for waiting until he was well past me before pulling back in, so I didn’t get rooster-tailed (nobody in their right mind would have a fixed-wheel bicycle…ahem…a fixed-wheel bicycle with fenders: that would ruin the clean look, and once you’ve crossed that line you may as well put the rest of the useful parts back on).

He also won points for continuing to be faster than me after passing me — this is less common than you would think.

Then the guy won more points for stopping at a red light. It must be very inconvenient to interrupt your rhythm like that when you only have one gear.

Made it home, using several of the working gears on my bike, and changed into some dry pyjamas. The end.

*For those of you not au courant with bicycle fashion, fixed-wheel bicycles are a HUGE fad right now. It doesn’t mean the wheel doesn’t go around. No, it is (slightly) less inconvenient than that. It just means the back wheel has no freewheel (or freehub), and no extra sprockets. Not only do you only get one gear, but you cannot stop pedaling. There is no coasting, and presumably fixie devotees would claim that this is awesome (though perhaps only riders of a certain vintage would use this specific terminology). On a straight stretch, you can tell a fixie from a distance by the hilarious frequency at which the rider’s legs go around.