Help...! Juliet BIP lenses just died! :o(

[Aesculapius]

Hello all. I'm new here, seeking advice re. lenses for my Juliets.

I have an old pair of Carbon / Black Iridium Polarized that are generally in very good condition and well looked-after. First really sunny day here for a while so pulled out my old faithfuls, which were fine when I left the house. Got caught in a flash downpour and when I came to put the Juliets back on, the inner surface of both lenses was all puckered, like the polarising film was lifting off the lenses (or something similar).

To all intents and purposes, they've gone from being near perfect and scratch-free to almost useless, pretty much instantaneously -- and, yes, they were the original Oakley lenses! I'm very sad... I have no idea how or why this should have happened. Does anyone else have any experience of this? I'm guessing it is not easily fixable (if at all) and that replacing the lenses will be the only option.

Given that the OEM replacements are no longer available from Oakley and there are very few options on the 'Bay or elsewhere, what are the forum community's feelings on the various after-market options? Is there some alternative miraculous rescue that you guys are aware of? Custom cuts...?

I'd dearly like to put OEM BIPs back in these immaculate frames if I can find some (or even plain BI lenses, if that's all I can get) but I accept that this might not be possible.

Can you help?

Thank you!!

 

[Slojack]

Custom cuts abound on here. As do OEM Lenses. You'll get back in the game in no time.

 

[kronin323]

The anti-reflective coating delaminated.

 

[Aesculapius]

Thanks -- I'm hoping...! I was pretty p*ssed at the state of the lenses. I had no idea what happened to them!

Yeah, it was the inner surface so problem with ARC would make sense.

What causes that? Don't want it to happen again!

 

[OakleyFrankFMJ]

Hello all. I'm new here, seeking advice re. lenses for my Juliets.

I have an old pair of Carbon / Black Iridium Polarized that are generally in very good condition and well looked-after. First really sunny day here for a while so pulled out my old faithfuls, which were fine when I left the house. Got caught in a flash downpour and when I came to put the Juliets back on, the inner surface of both lenses was all puckered, like the polarising film was lifting off the lenses (or something similar).

To all intents and purposes, they've gone from being near perfect and scratch-free to almost useless, pretty much instantaneously -- and, yes, they were the original Oakley lenses! I'm very sad... I have no idea how or why this should have happened. Does anyone else have any experience of this? I'm guessing it is not easily fixable (if at all) and that replacing the lenses will be the only option.

Given that the OEM replacements are no longer available from Oakley and there are very few options on the 'Bay or elsewhere, what are the forum community's feelings on the various after-market options? Is there some alternative miraculous rescue that you guys are aware of? Custom cuts...?

I'd dearly like to put OEM BIPs back in these immaculate frames if I can find some (or even plain BI lenses, if that's all I can get) but I accept that this might not be possible.

Can you help?

Thank you!!

Welcome to the forum

Both posts above answer the question

 

[kronin323]

It just happens sometimes. There are enough reports about it here to maybe make it sound commonplace, but really it does not happen to every set of lenses, just a small percentage.

Theories why abound - exposure to some kinds of chemicals in hair products, body sweat, salt water, acid rain, dingo's breath, etc. But it's all just speculation, there haven't been any proper testing where the effect is reproduced on demand. All of the suspected causes, others of us have exposed our lenses to the same things (except for dingo's breath) and they've been just fine. It could be a combination of several factors plus age, who knows?

But I wouldn't worry about it too much. You've had them this long with no problem. Just get a replacement set and don't spend all your time worrying about it happening again.

 

[SecretNinja]

If you stick around for a bit, and meet the right peoole, you can get some awesome custom cuts. If you want to save a buck, but get a nice lense, I highly reccomend Ikon lenses.

 

[NoFair]

Put up a "want to buy" when you qualify and you should get some offers. It might be worth it to send the lenses in to Oakley (they usually give you a discount code on new items if they don't have replacements). It is possible they might have a pair or two of replacement lenses stashed away even if they aren't on their site.

 

[GRFMotorsports]

My wife lost the lenses in her back up pair over vacation. Did the same thing. Went in the bag fine, came out are crackled except hers was the front of the lenses. 3-4 year old pair, went from a couple light scratches to ruined in a matter of a couple hours in the bag. Temp changes? It was next to some frozen water bottles on a hot day.

 

[Aesculapius]

Hi guys -- thank you all for your welcome and your responses; very much appreciated! Thanks for being kind to a newbie!

I wondered about causes as I don't think I did anything different than I'd done a thousand times before. However, I also have another really nice pair of Juliets in plasma / ice polarised (with all-round rootbeer rubber) and I really don't want the same thing to happen to them (!), so just needed to check that there wasn't something obvious or well-known to you guys that I should avoid doing.

I know I left them perched on the top of my head after the sudden rain shower and went into a restaurant wth my kids -- and then they had "gone" by the time I came to put them back on when we left the restaurant. Bah! It really was nothing I hadn't done loads of times before over many years and I'm not really one for hair products so perhaps a freak combination of humidity and temperature change...? I guess it's one of those things that sometimes just happens. Oh well...

It sounds like getting custom-cut will be the long-term solution to new BIP lenses if there aren't any Juliet originals out there -- but good to know that this option exists!

Thanks again for your input!