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I have had meniscectomies in both knees and now have osteoarthritis. I still ride fixed (48/19) but use a brake. All my geared bikes use compact chain sets as my knees really don't need or like to grind at 60rpm. Ride sensible low gears, keep your knees warm and you should be ok.
Riding around on track ratios pulling whipskidz brklz is a mugs game if your body is worn out.
dancing james-
ohhh that sounds bad man. take care of your knees, you need them. Mine keep hurting when cleaning my house, doing mechanics, standing too long, walking a distance, cycling. So annoying... I avoid walking with compression on them because it weakens them. I do make sure they are warm and do easy spinning to train my legs and do exercises at the physiotherapy gym.
I don't mind track ratio's as long as it's on an actual track. Going to do a training run when the drome reopens at the end of the year. And yeah, keeping it warm is essential.
Arawn
My first surgery was in March 2014, second surgery (other knee) in September 2014. Both inner meniscus. They removed about 15% on the inner on both knees. I can ride brakeless with extremely low gearing but skidding isn't an option. My knees still hurt so racing isn't an option either. I'm slowly getting back in the saddle for training and I'll probably keep on doing just that. No more alleycats, criterium racing or other difficult on the knee stuff. Crouching is painful, sitting cross-legged is a no-go and even running to the subway isn't something my knees like. But my physician said I walk a bit weird so I really need to make sure I never run because I apply pressure on my knees in a bad way (I hope I explain this right). Riding with a front brake is still ok, I can apply enough back pressure, just can't skid (that pulls on one knee and that's bad in my case). I hope that I will soon be able to grab the road bike again for some training rides, until then I stick to what I understand, and that's a low geared fixie with a front brake. But I know a lot of people who had the same surgery who run marathons.
Well ok I'll do some alleycats but the small ones. Just not the big ones with corporate sponsors and hundreds of people and teams that are competing.