I spoke with a rep on the phone at 7eye and questioned them about the longevity of their LA lenses. The warrantee is only for 12 months and she did say that eventually their LA lenses will also stop darkening, but she felt confident that they should continue to function properly for a much greater period than 2 years.

 

I've had two pair of riding goggles with with LA lenses. First bought a pair of Bobbers. They didn' work for squat. Tried the freezer thing, left them out on the bike in direct sunlight for 6 hours, still didn't get dark enough for me. Bought a pair of Wileys thinking that maybe they would work better since they cost twice as much. That was nothing but flawed reasoning! They didn't get dark enough to satisfy me either. Nowadays I just carry 2 pairs, a dark pair for daylight riding, and an amber pair for night riding.

 

never heard about the freezer thing before. How long do you put them in the frezzer???

 

Sometimes I do it for 2 or 3 nights, I wear them during the day.
Actually the optometrist has a refrigerator in the office so I have the girl stick them in the freezer as soon as she calls to tell me they have them. They are in the freezer for about 24 hours. The first time I asked her to do it she thought I was crazy, then a different girl was working when I went to pick them up, she couldn't find them. I told her to look in the freezer and she thought I was nut too. Until she saw teh lenses.
I also have her tighten the screws as soon as they come out of the freezer (maybe I am nuts) but she gets another 1/4 to 1/2 turn on the screws and they don't loosen up.

 

light adjusting, transition, day/night all use a chemical process that does have a shelf life. The warmer the climate the slower the chemical reaction hence the quicker darker reaction time in the freezer. It’s ok to test the lenses but I wouldn’t do it for long as it will cause the chemical reaction to work even harder under freezing conditions. Most materials in this application do have a 18 to 24 month life span depending on usage!!!!If you’re an everyday user, your life span will be less than a that of a weekend rider.

NXT lens (used by 7eye before they were sold) actually imbed the material when casting the lens and you get a better shelf life but it doesn’t get quite as dark. I do know for a fact the HD “replacement” lenses are Acetate and have zero impact protect properties.

ALL (100%) of light changing lenses have a chemical window in which they change from light to dark… most are in the 17% to 88% light transmission value range. I my 30 years of dealing with eyewear, I haven’t seen one greater than 17% on the darkness scale. If you are looking for DARK than transition lenses are not the best option.

Fixed tint lenses are generally in the 14% to 10% range… anything 9% or darker are considered illegal as street riding glass’s, but then many states are different. Brownish colored or copper lens are best for distance and contrast for bikers at speed, grey lenses are best for true colors…

Living in Florida, dark and polarized are best… don’t believe all the nonsense about polarized lenses… they are fine if you understand the properties of polarization and how it cuts glare.

 

Yep. My panoptix glasses are 3 years old and still get as dark and light as if new. I am having some lens issues on the inside but it doesnt affect the photo optic shading. Good info.

 

I tried LA lenses and hated them. I have a pair of Wiley X glasses and never wear them. To alleviate the problem of carrying 2 pairs of glasses I bought Oakley split jackets and a pair of yellow lenses. It takes longer to unzip the case then it does to swap the lenses

 

I've been in the optical industry for nearly 10 years and the transitions regardless of the brand, they all start to wear out about 2yrs. Transitions just released in my opinion the best lens so far called the Vantage. This is a polarized transitions. So it not only has the capability of changing with light conditions but it also cuts out all the glare. It's not available in stock pairs yet. But I do expect that it will be available sometime in the next year. 7eye uses similar technology that everyone else uses. Just has a different name. If your looking for something that has a darker tint..Extra Active Transitions...but it's only available in prescription. It has a light tint but it gets darker than most photocromatic lenses and does change better behind the windshield.

We have all the best quality biker sunglasses on our site including Wiley X, 7Eye, Bobster and Harley. We would be glad to help in any way.

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Specializing in prescription on non prescription biker sunglasses!

 

I bought a pair of Wylie X Gravity with LA lenses, paid $144, HATE THEM. They do not fit well, they are FUGLY as sin, the seals are bad and after 90 days they have yet to darken even once. By way of explanation - if 1 is clear, and 10 is mirrored sunglass darkness - these have a range of 1 to 3 (light grey, but so light you can distinguish the wearer's eye color with ease).