My cycling sunglasses are hurting my head

Question: Is it just me or do other cyclists get sore from wearing glasses with their helmet? The area between the top of my ears and my scalp gets sore from the helmet strap pressure, I suppose. Better to keep glasses arms outside straps or inside? I get pain either way after about 90 minutes of riding. I’ve heard it’s safer to keep glasses arms outside straps because in a crash the glasses have a better chance of falling away from you rather than digging into your face (causing additional injuries) if the arms are held inside the straps. Do cycling glasses with wider or kinked arms alleviate soreness? Appreciate your and others’ insights. —Velvet R.

RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: By “cycling glasses,” I assume you mean sunglasses, but you may be referring to regular eyeglasses as well. In either case, what you’ve heard about keeping glasses arms outside of the straps so that they fall off in a crash is general advice for cyclists wearing sunglasses, though it really comes down to personal preference and comfort. The notion of keeping sunglasses outside of straps is declared in the so-called “rule 37” of a list maintained by the tongue-in-cheek online cycling collective known as the Velominati (a play on “the Illuminati”), aka “Keepers of the Cog.” See their full set of “The Rules” here. In any case, that advice applies to large-shield sports sunglasses meant to fly off for safety reasons during a road crash.

But most riders wearing regular eyeglasses keep them inside the straps. That preference makes sense from a monetary, convenience and fit perspective. If you wear them outside the straps and pull your helmet off in a hurry, the straps can snag the glasses frame, fling them to the ground and shatter your lenses. That can be a real problem for riders who need the sight correction to even continue riding, to say nothing of the expense and hassle of repair or replacement. What’s more, regular glasses frames are typically narrower and less grippy than sport sunglasses frames. Putting them under the straps helps to keep them positioned correctly on your face while on bumpy roads.

But since you get pain no matter which side of the straps your glasses are on, the problem may have to do with either the glasses or the straps or both.

If you think the straps are part of the problem you’re experiencing, check how they are adjusted. The plastic Y-sliders where the front and rear straps meet should be set to form a clean “V” just below your earlobe. Also make sure the straps are not too tight. You should be able to fit two fingers between the strap and your chin. When you open your mouth wide, you should feel the helmet pull down slightly on your head. And check that the helmet itself is the right fit for not only the size of your head, but also the shape of your head. A narrow oval helmet does not sit comfortably on a round head, and vice versa.

I don’t generally wear sunglasses, but I’ve been wearing regular glasses since I was 12, and several times when getting a new pair, I would find them uncomfortable because the arms pressed too tightly against my head right behind my ears. Almost always, the solution was for the person fitting my glasses to bend the ends of the arms slightly outward, in effect, making the arms wider at those contact points. The same procedure could be applied to sunglasses. The trick is for the fitter to find the happy point where the arms are loose enough to not cause pressure pain but still snug enough to prevent the glasses from flying off your face with the normal movements of your head.

The staff in many eyeglasses stores will make small adjustments like that for no charge, but even if there’s a cost, it’s likely to be small.

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Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.