I’m thinking of swapping my VR28 lense for a transitions one – the Infrared/VR50 – anyone used one – comments? I’m not expecting it to change immediately but more to change with the light through the day.

I’ve seen this thread but I’m not really sure which tint lenses they’re referring to and also I think the current ones are better than the ones that were out at that time.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/oakley-transitions

The lenses people were talking about are the clear/black transitions which go a lot lighter in tint than most and therefore are likely to be a lot better for UK riding than other transitions.

I’m not sure for which frames they are available as accessories yet though. I know for Jawbones they are available as complete glasses but not yet as just lenses (I’d love to be proved wrong though).

Transitions are top. You never notice them changing but you are always comfortable.

Yeah, only the vr50 seems to be available at the moment as a lens.

molgrips – is that what you’ve got?

How light/dark do they go?

I’m quite intrigued by them too, especially for long all day rides and the like. The VR50 ones look pretty good.

Unless it’s pitch black out there I generally use my VR50 as the go to lens. It’s never too dark for the woods etc and takes enough glare off in the bright sunshine, I’ll only consider the black iridium if I’m going on a road ride and it’s absolutely blazing all day.

Not sure how it would work as a transition lens if you wanted to wear it at night though – I think it’ll be too dark.

I’ll never use it as a night riding lens so not too fussed about that.

Dammit – where’s molgrips gone?! 😉

I ride night and day with my Grey MAR trasitions and great for both. Used them for a weeks riding in spain and whilst not the darkest they certainly weren’t poor.

There is also the clear black transition which starts a little darker than mine and goes slightly darker. You can see the difference on the transitions website and I’ve also seen them in my LBS.

I did a quick write up of my oakleys when I bought them Here (prescription though so not sure what you can get off the shelf).

VR50 and clear, all the lenses you need.

I have a pair, they are 5 years old so not sure what they are. I think they are excellent, never notice them change and never feel like they are to dark/not dark enough.

The only time you notice they have changed is when you wipe the dry mud off on a Sunday and left with little light spots 🙂

What happens if you wipe mud off on a Saturday? 🙂

Thanks all – sounds like the VR50 transition will be right.

Bit if a follow up for anyone searching for this.

I’ve now used the VR50 lense a few times.

Most of the rides have been dull mixed in with some sunny periods. They’ve been spot on there with me never really noticing the lenses which IMO is a good thing. I certainly never noticed them being too bright or too dull. In dull conditions, I’d equate them to persimmon lenses, in the brighter, something similar to a non-iridium grey lense.

I haven’t done any really sunny rides so can’t comment on whether they go any darker but my in-the-garden test of holding the lenses up to bright sun for a couple of minutes and comparing to my grey lense suggests they’re similar. Compared to black iridium, they’re less dark and compared to blue iridium maybe a fraction darker (though that might just be because the blue iridium is yellowish to look through which tends to brighten things).

And as a final test, I did a night ride with them! They definitely don’t go completely clear but they’re light enough that I had absolutely no trouble with them despite it being proper dark (eg no outside light). I was using a DX 900ish lumen light for reference.

All in all then, very happy.

One final follow up – I used the transitions lenses on my recent holiday in Greece which had everything from overcast, cloudy weather to brilliant, bright sunshine. The transitions lenses were spot on – never too dark or too light. The pic below shows the lenses on one of the really sunny days – they went noticeably darker than they’d gone on the sunnyish bits of rides I’d done before in the UK.