I'm a bit of a car nut too, so I read a bunch of the car mags. In one particular review, the writer mentioned the LCD display on the car's instrument panel was hard to read with polarized lenses. Hmm... being a regular full-time glasses wearer, I noted the story as intriguing and let it go.

Now I've just (a month ago) done the LASIK bit (Yay! Love it!). Just before going I recognized I needed to get on the stick and get some sunglasses. My optician was aware of my upcoming eye surgery, and made some recommendations and let me try several pair. I ended up with some nice polarized Maui Jim shades -- one of the fellas at work calls me Neo now (any Matrix fans out there?).

Soooo... the weather was beautiful when I got home today and I haven't had the Honda out in a couple of weeks. So I started her up, slipped on a lid and the new shades, and headed out of the garage.

"Hey! What's this? Where's the daggoned display!?" :shock:

Sure enough, at certain angles (lots of them) I couldn't see the LCD -- all I had there was a black rectangle. :(

Crap. I've got great shades now, and they've got the straight (paddle) temples so they're easy to slip on after the helmet goes on. And with them on, I can't see the IP. Bummer.

Yeah, the easy solution is to go buy another pair of sunglasses, but I do have consider the dollar$. (And I really wanna get those Givi crashbars, among other things.)

Has anybody else experienced this no-see-um effect? I know the cause and (obviously) the effect. I guess I'm just whining. :wink:

The LCD isn't the only thing you won't see with polarized lenses. Water, ice, and other (slippery) things may not be visible either.

:shock: Yikes!
Thanks for that heads-up!

Gonna have to get another pair of glasses, huh? :?

Can't use them when you fly either... for the very reasons listed above - best for fishing but just get normal lenses for riding. Also if you have a less expensive visor...you'll see all the stress lines in it, looks like oil on the water...very distracting.

Well, now that you mention the oily look, I have been noticing that on a lot of other cars' lenses and such. Thanks again, guys.

Back to the optician....

8)

Anyone ever looked at the paint on a flat black 04 599 with polarized shades on? Pretty trippy! 8)

I had LASIK done about six years back and bought Maui Jim shades, too. 8)

Yes, the IP washes out at times, but I haven't noticed other issues such as with ice. The polarization really helps me with glare and the "rainbow" effect. I find I really see a lot better than with plain lenses. The main time I lose the IP is when I'm riding towards the sunset (it's just hard to see anything) or when the sun is shining right down over my shoulder onto the screen.

Anyway, shouldn't you be keeping your eyes on the road? Heck, you'll know you're out of gas when the bike gets quiet! :wink:

Good points there... the road is more important than the inside of the tank. (Sort of...) :o

I came home at lunchtime today. Put the truck away, made a sandwich, and hopped on the Honda to go back to work. A beautiful day for two-wheeling today. I used the MJ shades, and learned to deal with the oily-look thing. Not so bad. And when I got home, I noticed that the only time I couldn't see the speedo at all was when I got back into the garage. So perhaps it's not so bad!

Oh, yeah. Had to stop for gas on the way in this evening. :D

For what it's worth: this tank netted me just over 40mpg, for a lifetime (7 months) average of 45mpg.