I’ll start with the question. This is the first time I have ever owned Oakley lenses with the anti-fog treatment and I have several questions about this coating.
1. How robust/permanent is this coating? Does it wear with time (regular cleanings, etc.) or is it pretty tough?
2. Can one use regular Oakley cleaner for these lenses or should I only use the cleaner that comes with them?
3. You said that you managed to damage/scratch the coating on one of your lenses (I believe it was the photochromic ones). How could you tell that the coating had been damaged? Was the damage visually obvious or was did the lens surface have a different feel?
4. If you are willing to share, how did this damage occur? Regular cleaning or some other mishap?
Thanks!
Now on to my impressions of the Alpha. Let me start by saying that this has NOTHING to do with the posting last week about a set I bought off of eBay. The set under discussion was purchased in the US, not off of eBay, and is definitely the genuine article.
Some information so the reader can understand what my personal requirements are and thus make more sense (hopefully) of my opinion. I am a cyclist and have been wearing Oakley frames/lenses pretty much since I started back in the early 90’s. I only use my shield lenses for cycling and, on very rare occasions, for hiking so polarization is of no importance to me—I actually don’t like my cycling lenses to be polarized. I started with M Frame Heaters and pretty much stayed with these frames/lenses until I got the Radar and Radarlock several years ago. IMO, and for my particular facial structure and requirements, the Heater is, was, and will always be, the pinnacle of the cycling lens. No one, not even Oakley, has ever made a lens that exceeds the Heater in performance. In my case this is partly due to my facial structure being such that frames sit high on my face therefore requiring the lens to be very deep to afford adequate coverage at the bottom. No other lens I have ever owned provides the bottom coverage of the Oakley Heater and I still wear mine regularly.
So far the only lens that comes close to offering the same peripheral and bottom coverage without the frame intruding into my field of view at the top is the Radar with a Range lens. Unfortunately, Oakley only ever produced the Range shape for the Radar and never for the Radarlock or Radar EV. So, after reading several reviews on the forum (including Rustpot’s review of quite some time ago) I decided that I wanted to try the new M Frame Alpha. Then months (and perhaps even years) passed and I never quite got around to taking the plunge. I kept vacillating over the purchase. Do I get just a frame and lens, the kit in the square box, or the hard case kit? In the end, and only very recently, I decided to purchase the entire kit in the hard case. This decision was partly driven by the collector in me and the fact that the square box kit would basically cost no more than buying the frame and all four base lenses separately. Of course, the hard case is somewhat more expensive but I decided to splurge. In all probability I will never use either the helo wind gasket or the goggles.
Anyway, the set showed up and the very next day I used them on a ride. Here is my (still somewhat limited) perspective on these frames.
The good…
The frame does not noticeable intrude into my field of view at the top. The Heater is still better in this area but the Alpha is at least as good as the Radar Range.
The peripheral coverage is excellent and quite comparable to the Range, I can’t actually tell whether one is better than the other and neither is quite as good as the Heater.
The bottom coverage is very good and quite comparable to the Range, again, as with peripheral coverage, I can’t actually tell whether one is better than the other and, again, neither is quite as good as the Heater.
On the shorter rides I did last week and over the weekend they were perfectly comfortable but I still have to wonder how the harder rubber is going to feel on longer excursions. I am going to come back to this point shortly.
Now this next observation is something that at least one other forum member has made (or at least said something similar). When I first put the frame on it felt somewhat loose. And without the rubber it definitely does not feel as ‘grippy’ as the Oakleys I have worn in the past. After about 10 minutes on the bike I found myself trying to push the lens back up on my face. My mind was subconsciously telling me the glasses were out of position. But here is the really weird thing… They had not moved at all! 10 minutes later I found myself doing the same thing, and once again the frames had not budged even a millimeter. Eventually, sometime during my second ride, I subconsciously got used to the way they felt on my face and stopped trying to push them back into place.
Even though I will probably never use the helo wind gasket I did try it on and it seems to fit perfectly. I was very surprised to note that the bottom of the gasket did not bother me. Since, as noted, frames sit high on my face I expected the helo gasket to be at the very least uncomfortable and at worse unusable.
The bad…
Well there is not much here. They still are not quite as good as the Heater for my cycling needs but they come darn close and are definitely ranked in what I consider the top tier among my cycling frames/lenses. The only other two frame/lens combinations that I place in this category are the Radar/Range and, of course, the M Frame/Heater. I am not quite sure whether I prefer the Alpha or the Range and that actually says a lot for the Alpha as the Range is an excellent lens.
The only real issue I have with these frames is one that I believe Rustpot mentioned in one of his posts. There simply are not enough tints to cover my needs. Of course these are tactical/shooting glasses and so the tints available are targeted to that audience but I do wish that Oakley had made a few more tints available. So far I have used the clear for a night ride and the TR22 for a daylight ride. The TR22 actually appears to be a decent lens tint for riding but it’s relatively high VLT will probably make it unusable for me during the summer (I live in Phoenix). I also purchased all (as far as I can tell) the currently available tints for this frame (PRIZM Rose Snow, PRIZM Jade Iridium Snow, and PRIZM Black Iridium Snow). I have not had an opportunity to try these other tints yet but I am hoping that the PRIZM BI Snow is going to prove dark enough for mid-summer use—it appears to be darker than the VR22. Hey, snow/desert they are both ‘white’ to some extent and I like rose-based tints anyway. I have not actually been able to find the specs for any of these three lenses.
Just for fun, I also tried on the goggles and this time the results were as I expected (as opposed to my experience with the helo gasket). The goggles are very uncomfortable for me. They either intrude into the bottom of my eye socket or, when positioned lower on my face, the nosepiece is painful. Oh well, as I said, this is not why I purchased this kit.
Now back to that extra hard nosepiece… Before I even tried them on a ride I was worried that the rubber would prove too hard for comfortable extended use. So, I hunted around for a solution. It turns out that the M2 nosepiece is a near perfect fit for the Alpha lens, and if you want even softer rubber the EVZero/Tombstone nosepiece (they appear identical to me) is also a very good fit. With the latter there is a slight gap where the Alpha nosepiece notches into the lens at the top but it is barely discernable.
If you got this far thanks for reading!
1. How robust/permanent is this coating? Does it wear with time (regular cleanings, etc.) or is it pretty tough?
2. Can one use regular Oakley cleaner for these lenses or should I only use the cleaner that comes with them?
3. You said that you managed to damage/scratch the coating on one of your lenses (I believe it was the photochromic ones). How could you tell that the coating had been damaged? Was the damage visually obvious or was did the lens surface have a different feel?
4. If you are willing to share, how did this damage occur? Regular cleaning or some other mishap?
Thanks!
Now on to my impressions of the Alpha. Let me start by saying that this has NOTHING to do with the posting last week about a set I bought off of eBay. The set under discussion was purchased in the US, not off of eBay, and is definitely the genuine article.
Some information so the reader can understand what my personal requirements are and thus make more sense (hopefully) of my opinion. I am a cyclist and have been wearing Oakley frames/lenses pretty much since I started back in the early 90’s. I only use my shield lenses for cycling and, on very rare occasions, for hiking so polarization is of no importance to me—I actually don’t like my cycling lenses to be polarized. I started with M Frame Heaters and pretty much stayed with these frames/lenses until I got the Radar and Radarlock several years ago. IMO, and for my particular facial structure and requirements, the Heater is, was, and will always be, the pinnacle of the cycling lens. No one, not even Oakley, has ever made a lens that exceeds the Heater in performance. In my case this is partly due to my facial structure being such that frames sit high on my face therefore requiring the lens to be very deep to afford adequate coverage at the bottom. No other lens I have ever owned provides the bottom coverage of the Oakley Heater and I still wear mine regularly.
So far the only lens that comes close to offering the same peripheral and bottom coverage without the frame intruding into my field of view at the top is the Radar with a Range lens. Unfortunately, Oakley only ever produced the Range shape for the Radar and never for the Radarlock or Radar EV. So, after reading several reviews on the forum (including Rustpot’s review of quite some time ago) I decided that I wanted to try the new M Frame Alpha. Then months (and perhaps even years) passed and I never quite got around to taking the plunge. I kept vacillating over the purchase. Do I get just a frame and lens, the kit in the square box, or the hard case kit? In the end, and only very recently, I decided to purchase the entire kit in the hard case. This decision was partly driven by the collector in me and the fact that the square box kit would basically cost no more than buying the frame and all four base lenses separately. Of course, the hard case is somewhat more expensive but I decided to splurge. In all probability I will never use either the helo wind gasket or the goggles.
Anyway, the set showed up and the very next day I used them on a ride. Here is my (still somewhat limited) perspective on these frames.
The good…
The frame does not noticeable intrude into my field of view at the top. The Heater is still better in this area but the Alpha is at least as good as the Radar Range.
The peripheral coverage is excellent and quite comparable to the Range, I can’t actually tell whether one is better than the other and neither is quite as good as the Heater.
The bottom coverage is very good and quite comparable to the Range, again, as with peripheral coverage, I can’t actually tell whether one is better than the other and, again, neither is quite as good as the Heater.
On the shorter rides I did last week and over the weekend they were perfectly comfortable but I still have to wonder how the harder rubber is going to feel on longer excursions. I am going to come back to this point shortly.
Now this next observation is something that at least one other forum member has made (or at least said something similar). When I first put the frame on it felt somewhat loose. And without the rubber it definitely does not feel as ‘grippy’ as the Oakleys I have worn in the past. After about 10 minutes on the bike I found myself trying to push the lens back up on my face. My mind was subconsciously telling me the glasses were out of position. But here is the really weird thing… They had not moved at all! 10 minutes later I found myself doing the same thing, and once again the frames had not budged even a millimeter. Eventually, sometime during my second ride, I subconsciously got used to the way they felt on my face and stopped trying to push them back into place.
Even though I will probably never use the helo wind gasket I did try it on and it seems to fit perfectly. I was very surprised to note that the bottom of the gasket did not bother me. Since, as noted, frames sit high on my face I expected the helo gasket to be at the very least uncomfortable and at worse unusable.
The bad…
Well there is not much here. They still are not quite as good as the Heater for my cycling needs but they come darn close and are definitely ranked in what I consider the top tier among my cycling frames/lenses. The only other two frame/lens combinations that I place in this category are the Radar/Range and, of course, the M Frame/Heater. I am not quite sure whether I prefer the Alpha or the Range and that actually says a lot for the Alpha as the Range is an excellent lens.
The only real issue I have with these frames is one that I believe Rustpot mentioned in one of his posts. There simply are not enough tints to cover my needs. Of course these are tactical/shooting glasses and so the tints available are targeted to that audience but I do wish that Oakley had made a few more tints available. So far I have used the clear for a night ride and the TR22 for a daylight ride. The TR22 actually appears to be a decent lens tint for riding but it’s relatively high VLT will probably make it unusable for me during the summer (I live in Phoenix). I also purchased all (as far as I can tell) the currently available tints for this frame (PRIZM Rose Snow, PRIZM Jade Iridium Snow, and PRIZM Black Iridium Snow). I have not had an opportunity to try these other tints yet but I am hoping that the PRIZM BI Snow is going to prove dark enough for mid-summer use—it appears to be darker than the VR22. Hey, snow/desert they are both ‘white’ to some extent and I like rose-based tints anyway. I have not actually been able to find the specs for any of these three lenses.
Just for fun, I also tried on the goggles and this time the results were as I expected (as opposed to my experience with the helo gasket). The goggles are very uncomfortable for me. They either intrude into the bottom of my eye socket or, when positioned lower on my face, the nosepiece is painful. Oh well, as I said, this is not why I purchased this kit.
Now back to that extra hard nosepiece… Before I even tried them on a ride I was worried that the rubber would prove too hard for comfortable extended use. So, I hunted around for a solution. It turns out that the M2 nosepiece is a near perfect fit for the Alpha lens, and if you want even softer rubber the EVZero/Tombstone nosepiece (they appear identical to me) is also a very good fit. With the latter there is a slight gap where the Alpha nosepiece notches into the lens at the top but it is barely discernable.
If you got this far thanks for reading!
