Sunglasses

I had a pair of plastic Oakleys (the cheapest possible) for their Iridium Black lens. Who could not be sold on Iridium Black? Whether they really do only transmit 10% of light through is, I would suggest, a bit hard to believe but surely they couldn't advertise something that wasn't true?

Anyway, after they suffered the rigors of traveling the world I decided to sit on them when I got back.

To be fair, they had begun to suffer from my inveterate need to stick them on my hat and then walk into low hanging branches. The lenses were getting a bit scratched to shit. I guess that isn't good if your eyes have largely opened because it's so dark all the better for that shaft of UVA/UVB gold to do its worst.

I then bought a pair of Oakley Whiskers (Iridium Black, obviously) when I went to Africa to see the gorillas. We were in a wild camp at Lake Nakuru and I distinctly remember thinking as I plonked then on my hat first thing in the morning in the rush to be ready to leave that they were doomed to fall off and down the ravine where I was brushing my teeth. No, they were fine. They did fall off, however, shortly after when I nipped over to the long drop latrine for a last minute pee.

So I bought another pair which have survived very well -- except for the low hanging branches thing -- until I trod on them with my Gaerne boots. Grr!

However, I can heartily recommend AlphaOmega's overnight repair service. £17 and the snapped C-5 alloy arm (C-5 alloy? Whatever!) repaired perfectly.

All I need do now is buy replacement lenses.

Which is something of a bore as Oakley UK don't seem to think that Oakley make replacement lenses for most of their eyewear range. Protip for Oakley UK: try looking at your parent's website to see what your company sells.

So it looks like the Irish are coming to my rescue:

Goggles

The really hardcore adventure bikers always seem to wear goggles. There must be something in this. I can sort of understand it if there's lots of dust around as the pointy-out front of an MX-style helmet will only mean that even more dust can swirl about rendering your sunglasses even more useless.

Accordingly, I bought some Oakley Crowbar MX goggles and a replacement VR28 lens (in case it's sunny too!).

I've not worn them yet.

I would point out that they're a real bugger to swap the lenses over on.