First LaPa Ride In Clipless, Clip Stack 2, First Road Incident

So, this morning, I decided to go out in my new pedals and do the LaPa ride that I usually do on a Wednesday.  (I wasn't feeling well yesterday).

I have a general rule to get off the road by 7:30 / 8:00 because the crazies come out.  Especially on a weekday.

I should have listened to myself.

I had decided to fit in a run to breakwall (flat), and leave out Torrington (hill).

This was because - for some reason - in clipless, going up a slope, I mentally feel like I'm going to fall backwards off the bike.

I say mentally, because I don't see how this could physically happen.

Anyway, on my way back along Anzac to hit Mons, I couldn't get in the right lane to turn right because of all the (7:30am) traffic.

So I pulled into a driveway, and yep, forgot I was clipped in and stacked it.

But it didn't hurt.  And I laughed because it didn't hurt!

I also laughed because I never thought I would ever forget I was clipped in - even though people say that's mostly why people clip stack - I mean, how could you forget you were stuck to a bike?  But I did.  :)

(Bonus bruise from Clip Stack #1)

I think it was ok because I had a strategic sports bandaid on.  They're so cushy!

I strategically stuck it on the bone that sticks out when you kneel.

Anyway, I got up and waited for a break in the traffic.

Saw a break and pedalled across the 3 lanes into the right lane.

I was glad the lights were changing, as that would give me time to get to the traffic light and the traffic would be slowing down.

An SUV coming up the road seemed to decide that they didn't want to be behind me, so they accelerated up behind me and swerved around the left of me to get to the right lane ahead of me, and then braked hard to stop at the red light.

I braked as hard as I could and stopped just behind them, almost hitting their fender.

Lucky I was clipped out on my left.

However, I was quite shaken.  It seemed a silly move to me, for someone to do their utmost to speed up to overtake someone turning right, to go around the left of them, only to stop in front of them.

When the lights changed, I turned right and stayed in the left lane (I always do, so I can ride slowly as vehicles can go straight and overtake.

We were sitting in the lane together and I was so shaken (shaking like a leaf), I almost swayed and clip stacked on the other side.

I looked at the driver to see what their demeanour was.

It was a lady and she was concentrating very hard and not looking at me.  Her whole neck was stiff and she was looking straight ahead at nothing.

I kept looking at her and she kept looking straight ahead.

(This is weird - most drivers look at you without you looking at them).

Anyway, the traffic started and I was so shaken that I pulled over at a bus stop and stopped for a bit.

I had a bit of a cry, which turned into a while, and only stopped when a lovely man with a moustache (and in Attaquer gear - I think) stopped to check I was ok.

I was actually really glad he stopped because I was starting to get sucked in by the fear monster, this time about motor vehicles.

I ended up walking my bike across the intersection to go home.

Gingerly got back on my bike and basically with an unclipped left, followed a bus all the way home.

I think the thing that most got to me, was that the lady was going out of her way to not look at me - like she knew something was up - it was so weird.

There will always be people that just think they have the right over all other people.

I'm sure there'll be many more incidents like that.  I must focus on learning to compose myself quicker so I can get back on the road.

I'm totally ok.  Just shaken.

Working Through Fear Of Clip Stack

So, as most of you may know, I made it.

I did a ride today without another clip stack.

I went downstairs and first I practiced clipping in and out 1 foot at a time.

Then I clipped in my right and glided and stopped.

I still felt like I was not ready to go out yet, so then I leaned my bike up against the wall, clipped in my right, and practiced clipping my left in and out.

I did get stuck a few times, so I kept practicing.

Then I practiced stopping and starting and clipping both feet in.

My success rate was pretty good - about 90%.

Then I stood at the exit of the driveway and mentally tried to start cycling.

A neighbour came downstairs to put something in their garage and saw me just standing there on my bike, looking at the road, not moving.  I must have looked really weird.

After a little while longer when I couldn't think of anything else to do, I decided to just head to Centennial Park.

What everything says / thinks their clip stack looks like:

(image via www.backroads.com)

(Maybe I'm lucky I fell in the privacy of my driveway..)

I was going to take it conservatively and get off and walk across the major intersections.

But once I was rolling, I realised that if I needed to stop, my left leg just needed to be free, so I made the decision to free my left leg in anticipation of any risky areas.

Which was quite a lot of the way, especially with all the cycleways in the doorzone.  I was never sure if a car would pull out.

I'm guessing my right thigh is going to get stronger for a while, compensating for my left leg which I had unclipped, but sitting on the pedal, not really applying much force, in case I clipped in accidentally.

I got to Centennial Park and did a few laps where I practiced clipping my left leg in and out, in and out.

My success rate dropped down to about 60%.  I'm not sure if this was because I was alert and processing everything else going on.  (As it was the middle of the day, the demographic were lots of slow kids and slow leisure cyclists, no fast lycra cyclists to be seen).

So it was fine, while my success rate is low, I figured, I just need to allow time to clip out and also allow for this and if I think I need to stop, just clip out early.

I feel pretty confident about it all now.

Husband also mentioned that it's important to place pressure downwards when unclipping, as lifting does nothing.  I think this may also be something that I need to focus on.

I think it's a matter of practicing and getting it into muscle memory.  I'm successfully unclipping most of the time, so I must be doing something right, I just need to work out what the patterns are.

I've also read (and my husband mentioned it), hill starts can be challenging.  So, something else to watch out for.

[Also tonight, I had a thought that maybe my cleat could do with a little adjustment, so we changed the angle a tiny bit.  Perhaps it was needing too much twist to get out of it.]

(Image via Hyperbole And A Half again)

NO.

(Even though there was one on the balcony as I typed this.  Bleagh.)

The Morning After The Clip Stack - Update

I would like to get back on the road bike.

I'm no longer scared of the bike.  (As I was yesterday).

I'm scared of the extra pain I will have in my leg if I fall again..

It's strange though, because in the last few months of riding, falling never occurred to me, so why should it now?

At the end of the day, it's just a scrape.  It's not like I got hit by a car and thrown into a barbed wire fence or anything...

(image via cjsmblog.com)

Although Hoogerland got back on and kept riding.  Immediately.  For the rest of the Tour de France.

My husband thinks it would almost have been better to have clip stacked on the road, as I would have been forced to get back on the bike and get over it to ride home.

And it would have been ok.

Anyway, I aim to do a small ride today on this Public Holiday (despite Mondays being my rest day).

I think it will be good to do a practice ride on a public holiday (so traffic will hopefully be more similar to a weekend than a weekday), so I can get back into my weekly routine as otherwise, my next planned road ride would be Wednesday early morning before work.

(image via harrietkempton.com)

Ah, so true.

Which pedals? Shimano SPDs

I realised I didn't actually describe my pedals.

Despite the road shoes being smaller and nicer looking, 

I decided to get mountain biking pedals because they are easier than road.

We decided on Shimano shoes and Shimano SPD pedals as they're pretty mainstream, standard and popular.

Even within the Shimano SPD system, there are various choices.

I actually received lots of conflicting recommendations, eg:

"These are good as the platform is wider and you can pedal without clipping in"

"These are not so good because the plastic makes it harder to get the cleat in the pedal"

"These are good because you can use 1 side for normal shoes and the other to clip in"

"These are not so good because you have the added complication of trying to work out which side of the pedal you're trying to clip in to"

In the end I went with the double sided pedal with no extra bits.

Even though the others were deemed easier starting points.

I figured it was a bit like my decision to buy the road bike, if you know where you're headed, you could just decide to commit and make it happen.

My journey

Bad day: pms + no sun + clip stack + fear

So, following the clip stack this morning, am having a really low day.

PMS + no sun (remind me never to move out of Sydney unless it's to Spain) + fall of bike = not wanting to ride my road bike any more.

The bruising has now presented and I feel like it's gone to a 3 out of 10.
It hurts to move my left knee and my right shin is quite sensitive.

I went from this:

(Image via one of my favourite blogs: hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au)

To this:

(Image via Hyperbole and a Half)

I don't even want to touch my road bike right now:

(Another Hyperbole & A Half image via otpwg.wordpress.com)

My husband suggested that maybe I hyped up the easiness of the clipless yesterday too much.

(Image via hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au)

Falling bent the hood of my bike so we went into the bike store and they moved the hood back into position.  Apparently this is really common and some cyclists have it loose so they can move it back easily when this happens.  So no damage.  (bummer hey? ;p)

I can tell that my road bike in my mind has been enveloped by a cloud of fear.

(Image via jason-hedrick.blogspot.com.au)

I feel like I've been a bit defeated.  Like I've been in a fight mentally & physically and lost.

But my 2014 New Years Resolution is to conquer fears that I know are false.

(Image via welcometoladyville.com

Like they say in Strictly Ballroom:

(Image via themoviescene.co.uk, text added by me - wow, I've turned into someone that adds text to pictures)

So I could see the cloud of fear forming and after lots of talking to myself, I forced myself to go on a ride on my commuter bike because I didn't want the cloud of fear to eat the concept of cycling in general.  

After all, it had already taken my road bike.

(I still haven't been able to touch my road bike since put it back in the garage after falling....  my husband had to walk it to the bike shop and back...)

(image via http://dreamreboot.com/tag/fear/)

I actually ended up doing 40km in total.  (Which is a lot on a commuter bike with a pannier / rack / fenders).

Actually, I wasn't sure what length I was intending to do, but I just kept going, lap after lap.

I actually had a bit of a cry while I was riding because I felt so annoyed / upset at myself for not wanting to get on my road bike again.  

(But then this guy tried to race me - you can tell because they keep looking back to see where you are - and so I took him on and kept on his tail for a lap and a half and that amused me for a good bit.  One of the reasons I like cycling is that you have lots of arbitrary goals - other cyclists - that come and go randomly and give you reasons to chase.)

Anyway, I know that it's just fear because I know that I love riding my road bike and I can't believe that I wouldn't want to get on it again.

I guess next time I get on the road bike, I think I will practice clipping and unclipping first, with one foot still on the ground.

But the sun just came out, so I'm going to watch Amelie to cheer myself up.

(image via dellawhite.com)

While eating Chicken Twisties & Campbells soup,

(image via creativechristianmama.com)

And maybe,

(Image via Hyperbole And A Half again)

AS IF!  That's one fear I'm definitely not planning to conquer in 2014!

[EDIT: After having some friends cheer me up, and now that the sun is out, I do feel like I want to go and have another go at it.  However, I'm feeling pretty tired from the emotions of the morning.  But I'm pretty happy that I'm at least considering getting back on the road bike!]

Clip Stack

So, it did happen, despite all my positive thinking.  :)

It hurts.

I mean, on the scale of 1 to 10, it's probably a 2 where a 1 is a papercut or something.

I got confident, clipped in both feet on the way out of the driveway, got ready to practice clipping out, and then proceeded to fall to my left while trying to unclip my left.

It did happen very slowly.

I think I forgot or underestimated the power / strength to unclip - something that I got used to yesterday.

I'm such a prissy person, and made a conscious decision many many years ago (perhaps in high school) that I would never fall ever again.  And since then I've only fallen once or twice.

[In other news, I wish I had a brother growing up - I feel like I would have grown up less prissy.  Although one would argue that my sister isn't prissy at all and even tried her best to make me less prissy.]

So I bent my left hood, and I'm not sure what that means, so I'll have to take it to the Local Bike Shop (LBS) when they open at 11am and see whether it's all ok to ride / whether it's a quick fix.

I'm getting new (smaller) handlebars put on this week, so I'm not too fussed as everything was being undone anyway - but it is a shame if I can't ride it until then.

After going upstairs to put some bandaids on, I went back downstairs and had a few goes of clipping and unclipping my left, to see if I could give it another go to get on the road, but I didn't want to.

I have to admit, then I sat down and had a little disappointed cry.

(image via livenerddierepeat.com from a post about how robots are going to kill us one day?)

However, I still want to put some kms in this week as I'm down 60km from my usual target.

I might take my commuter out, since I'm awake and it's 7:30am - to "get back on the bike" as they say...  :)

My clipless brings all the boys to the yard

Well, instead of "all the boys", more like 1 man.  And instead of "the yard", more like to the park.

I got bored and despite the crazy southerly winds, decided to venture out into the park to do some practice riding with the clipless pedals.

Get joined by random man.  I think he was bored from riding alone for a while.

I guess that's ok.

But how did you go with the pedals?

It went well!

It's almost anti-climactic how calm and not stressful it is!

I'm definitely confident about getting on the road.

My husband says that things I fear are a bit anti-climactic because by the time I get over my fear and do it, I've researched it all to bits and am so overqualified for the activity.  This may be one of those instances!

James at the bike store did say that picked up the clipping in and out much quicker than most people.

They put my bike on the stationery trainer so I could practice on a non-moving bike first.

It took a little while to get used to finding where the pedals were, and we had to adjust my right shoe because the pedals needed to line up with the ball of my foot more, rather than the middle of my foot.

It also took a little while to get used to clipping in and out.  I noticed:
IN needs some weight downwards.
OUT needs some force to flick your heel outwards, while your foot is flat.

For some reason, I found the clipping in and out action much easier once I got to moving around in the park.

Before switching the pedals, it was also useful that my husband noticed I was already putting down my right foot consistently when I slow down, before putting my left leg on the ground to stop, so it meant that I was almost going through the consistent motion I needed to be doing, even before upgrading to the special shoes. 

The drills I decided to do in the park were

• Practice starting and stopping slow.
• Practice starting and stopping fast.
• Cycling without being clipped in.
• Clipping in and out while moving.

I was going to practice falling towards my right and trying to unclip, but I chickened out..

Good tips I received

• The foot that you would kick a soccer ball with, this is the foot that stays clipped in when you're riding.  (For me, this is the right foot)
• This means that you get used to clipping and unclipping the other foot mostly.  (For me, this is the left foot).
• This means that you need to lean the bike to the side AWAY from your clipped in foot, which is also the side of your foot ON THE GROUND.  (For me, this is the left).
• If you don't clip in straight away, don't panic, just keep riding and clip in when you can.  This is actually really easy to do because the shoe is so stiff you could be pedalling a music box handle.

My process for starting:

1. Clip in your right foot - by finding the pedal and applying weight downwards.
2. Raise your right pedal to get ready to take off.
3. Start pedalling.
4. Put your left foot on the pedal.
5. With your left foot, find the bit you need and apply weight to clip in.  If you don't manage it first go, keep trying, or just keep pedalling until you get momentum and can try again.

My process for stopping:

1. Brake
2. Clip out left foot.
3. Once bike is almost stopped, put left foot on ground. I guess it's important to lean slightly to the left, but I find I do this anyway without thinking to put my left foot on the ground.

(Another person's experience: http://www.hellodaly.com/2009/08/ready-to-ride-giro.html)

Useful articles

• Bike Pedals: How to Choose and Use
• How to: Master clipless pedals
• Video: Skunk River Cycles: Why You Should Ride Clipless Pedals

I love my thighs / Does everyone have to clip stack?

Apparently the average person loses 5.8kg when they start bike commuting to work.

None of my shorts fit my any more because my waist has gotten smaller.

(image via www.dailymail.co.uk)

But, my pants all still fit because my thigh muscles are holding them up.  HAHAHA.

I love my thighs so much!

(It's also funny how much society seems to have a stigma on women loving their thighs.  Watching people's facial expressions when I talk about my love for thighs is very interesting).

In other news

I got clipless pedals installed!

(They're called clipless because they came after the toe-clips style, so essentially they were relatively clipless).

So everyone keeps telling me I'm going to fall.

Except most of the people I know that cycle a lot.

And I met a girl this morning on my group ride that was saying she's never fallen the whole time she's been riding.

I think people say that "you have to fall", "you're going to fall" so you don't feel bad if you fall.

But it still feels weird that people are in a sense, telling you that you're going to fail at something new that you've decided to take on.

It's obviously not true that EVERYONE has to fall, because I have actually met people who never "clip stacked".

I'm planning to do some practice and then go for a short ride over this long weekend.

I wonder how I will go.

Don’t ask, “What do you think of my bloomers?”

A List of Don’ts for Women on Bicycles Circa 1895

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/03/donts-for-women-on-bicycles-1895/

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I don't know whether my favourite is:
a) Don’t ask, “What do you think of my bloomers?”
or
b) Don’t scream if you meet a cow. If she sees you first, she will run.

Fighting Bus Hadoken

I went for my usual mid-week LaPa ride on a Thursday this week because of the rain.

I usually aim for leaving at 6ish, but I usually end up leaving around 6:30am.

This means I don't have time for Breakwall.  But 24km is starting to become too little training for me.  I think I should starting adding in an extra Mons.

I smashed my record on Mons by 17 seconds - on my own - with no external challenge (which usually spurs me on faster).

When I go to the roundabout at Maroubra Beach, I had to stop for a bus to go past.

It stopped to pick up passengers and I went past.

Then it overtook me on the slope and as it went past, I felt a massive WHOOSH of air pushing me away from the bus.  I didn't know that's what happened when buses got too close, but now I do.  It was a bit scary but now I know what to expect.

So I played leapfrog all the way up Torrington.  I was using cycling past the passengers as motivation to keep going.

The bus beat me along Malabar Rd (the cycleway does not make me feel so safe so I go pretty slow), but I beat it onto my turn to Moverly.  (It stopped to pick up passengers just before the intersection.  MUAHAHA.

(image via cyclinginfo.co.uk)

Anyway, I smashed a bunch of my records on Strava, so I'm pretty happy.

However, my average speed was lower than my last good ride on the weekend.

But I think this is primarily because I ride slower along the main roads on weekdays due to more traffic.

P.S.  Googling "bus" and "cyclist" for images has scared me a little..  Seems this may be a dangerous combination.

Huge Achievements!

(Image via SBS Cycling Central - In-form Elvin hoping to perform in Santos Women's Cup)

Belated post!

Saturday

(image via en.wikipedia.org)

On Saturday, I did my first average speed of 24km.  I'd been aiming for 24-25 for a while to try and get up to speed with the local group rides.  However, I'd been sitting at 21 for a long while and thought it would be another month before I did 24km/h.  It even surprised my husband!

I had given myself a 15 minute head start of the MC Cyclery Classic Ride and the group came in 11 minutes after me!  I was very happy.  However, I must say, the fear of being caught works very effectively on me!

Sunday

(image via www.dolphin24.org)

On Sunday, I did my first > 50km.  56km to be exact. 

I felt pretty bad in the morning as we had gone out the night before so I didn't get to sleep by 10pm (my usual pre-ride goodnight time).  We planned to do La Perouse and then finish off with some Centennial Park laps.

Mentally I felt pretty bad but tried to get over that.

I went really hard (as hard as I could) at the Breakwall.  I think that opened up my legs.

Then we went to Centennial Park where my husband tried to crack me on a lap and couldn't.  (He actually set some PRs doing this!)

So a pretty good weekend.  My stats are climbing up and I'm in the league of the other road bikers now.  Also, I'm ready to ride on the group rides!

Very exciting!

(image via MC Cyclery on Instagram)

Happy Birthday Me!

Don't you love it when your parents give you cash?

I bought:

I'm not sure if I'm cool enough to wear one, but there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Leo-pard Trek.

Yay!  Now I have 2 jerseys!  There's probably time to wait for them to dry before wearing!

No more wet jersey for me!

AND, big news - I've ordered in a clipless mountain biking shoe.......

Well, "shoes", I'm getting 2 obviously.

IN OTHER BIG NEWS, I did my first > 50km yesterday, but I'll try and write more about that soon.

Distance, Strava Premium (I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman) & Heat

Distance

This is how I feel right now.

My cat Bea

I did 114km on the weekend and I'm pretty sore.  The total cycling for the week was 202.8km.

Week before = 129.4 km (New Years week)
Week before that = 167.3 km (Christmas week)

I remember my husband said once he reached > 200km each week it felt like being burnt out, and I kind of know what he means.  I feel dread at the thought of getting back on the bike.

But I've heard - and I'd believe it - it's all bleagh until you get on the bike and then it's WEEEEEEEEEE!

Strava Premium

(image via theunlockr.com)

I wanted to support Strava because it's a pretty cool app and I would be a bit sad if they shut down from making no money, so I joined up for the premium service.

It's only $59 USD for the year which is $5 a month which is almost nothing.
So I signed up, and then afterwards the message said:

SIGH

Anyway, I get to set a target distance for my week, so I have set it to 173 km (very specific) because it's 4 days of commuting (Monday is my rest day) + 3 x 30 km rides.

I think I will try and keep it not much over this to avoid burning out.

Hopefully it will become easier soon and I can ride a little bit further.  There's always just increasing the amount of hills over flats if I want to make it more challenging without adding distance..

Heat

We rode to the city on Saturday and it was awfully hot.  Felt pretty wrecked afterwards.

The rest of the week looks to be > 30 degrees.

Hopefully my commute won't be too bad being outside the highest points of the day...

Image via http://tunedintocycling.com/2012/07/15/cycling-in-heat-and-humidity/ 

which actually turned out to be a pretty good article about cycling in the heat and humidity.

Speaking of which, I think I may need to invest in more "wicking" material..

The bad thing about riding in normal clothes is I can get sunburnt on the shoulders quite easily as most of my clothes have spaghetti straps / no sleeves..

A few small things

Commuter Bike Wonky

So my commuter bike (bought from Paddington) was a bit wonky when changing gears and so I took it to my local shop (MC Cyclery - who I think are the best) for a service and it turns out the bike hadn't been built properly and the derailleur was essentially set up too wide on both sides and was flicking my chain both into the frame and into the pedals. 

That's a lesson in - if it feels wrong:

1. Take it to the shop and, 
2. Find a good bike shop you trust. 

I was unlikely to go back to the original shop - as towards the end of the purchasing they made a rude gesture when they thought I wasn't looking - but I'm definitely not going back now.

Rain

I made the decision NOT to get fenders on my bike because:

1. I don't intend to ride in the rain.
2. Fenders are expensive.

So this week, there was a bit of light rain here and there and I thought, oh, as long as it's not raining heavily, I'll be fine.

What I didn't expect were the puddles left over from the rainy periods.

But I thought, you know, back wheel flicking water / dirt on my back, that's fine, I can wash my clothes.

What I learnt was, you actually should think about your front wheel a bit more when approaching a puddle.

This is what happens:

(image via beckysaysthings.com)

I love that someone already took the effort of drawing the pleasure of this experience.

And because I'm trying to commute in my work clothes (ie. dresses), it was highly embarrassing not knowing if I had maintained my pretty state of appearance, or if I now had a mud splat across my face / front.

I took my glasses off and wiped my face, and hoped I had gotten most of the debris off..

I've slowed down when approaching future puddles from now on.

Riding To Important Things

I thought I was trapped at work with crappy food choices and then I realised I had a bike and could essentially ride somewhere to eat! So excited!

Bourke Street Bakery here I come!

(image via bourkestreetbakery.com.au)

[EDIT: I had a sausage roll from them today and it was amazing!  Who knew you could get sausage rolls with actual food in them.]

Current Progress / Plan For The Start Of 2014

As I've only started work again (and dropped the ball in the first week of January), I am trying to commute every day (unless for time / weather / drinking constraints, it is easier to drive / bus in).

I'm planning to ride at least 30 km every Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday morning.

I aim to work up to adding the MC Cyclery LaPa ride on Tuesday mornings.

Commuting

I've discovered that commuting is possible in most situations but that the following factors should be considered:

• Max temperature / time of day - riding to lunch can be hot.
• Humidity - mid temperature + high humidity = high temperature

Yep.

However, in other news, my commuter bike has not been stolen yet.  :)

(image via just4lolz.blogspot.com.au)

All Gear No Idea?

So today I bought a $530 pair of glasses for cycling.

Yep, Rudy Project.

Full on.

(image via blog.massagetoday.com)

So yeah, they're pretty much the most expensive cycling glasses..  Most cyclists wear pretty cheap sunglasses.

Reasons why I bought them:

1. My husband has them and they feel really light.
2. You can adjust the nose bits - this is important because I have a flat nose and for my whole life, I've never ever found glasses that sit on my face properly.
3. You can adjust the ear bits - my ears are actually lopsided.  (Although I think this is really common).
4. They have different methods to allow for prescription lenses.  By the way, I went the cheapest option and got the prescription lens clips.  Most expensive at around $1077 was getting the lens built into the frame - this is the most robust option.  I thought this was a bit much since my road bike cost less than that...
5. The glass in the frame are photochromatic (transition from clear to dark depending on the sunlight like transition lenses) so I can use them for cycling and don't need to change them when the sun goes up / down.

So I think it was a pretty good investment, my prescription is pretty weak - I'm shortsighted and don't need my prescription lens in the daylight, I mostly wear glasses at night or at dusk / dawn when the light is low (my husband thinks I'm a dragon because apparently they are the best times to slay dragons because they can't see very well either!)

I'm currently not really cycling at those times, but I guess as Summer starts to / Daylight Savings end, it is likely to be darker when I will be cycling in the morning.

(image via www.rudyproject.com)

The optometrist - Eyecare Plus on Jamieson St at Wynard - are the only Rudy Project dealers in Sydney - suggested the mirror lenses - as they will hide the prescription lens a bit better than the clear glass.

ANYWAY, so it was quite expensive and it's a pretty high profile brand, but I think it should be good quality and suit my needs.

And it's important that I can see as effectively on the road as I can.  That is priceless, right?  :)