Is fixed bad for your knees if you dont skid / ride high gear?

BringMeMyFix
Is that in the south of France?

Yeah, right next to (an)Tibia and (k)Nees,

i'm riding on the crank brothers quattro sl's, after using atac's on my mountainbike. riding in general strengthens the knees, not just riding fixed, got dodgy ones, myself, dislocated one then broke the other, which now has a pin it. Riding means they don't give me jip, the dislocated one doesn't feel like its going to pop out at any moment, which it used to do, and the one with the pin feels like its getting stronger, building muscle mass and all that other guff. If I don't ride for a couple of weeks/months i feel the weakness in the knee, how it tends to want to give more than I would like. If i ride ont he regular like I'm doing now, they feel fine, better than fine actually.
Crank bros are great for a bit of float, knees not locked into one position, you can twist your heel a bit from left to right, finding the clicking in a bit of a problem as I still sometimes can't figure out whether I'm clicked in or not, but once in they are really cool.
the atacs were great as well, any clipless pedal is good in my opinion, roll on the man machine interface.

Buffalo Bill [quote]hippy
I'd love to try the ATACs though to see what the fuss is about. PITA though. I read they need more heel movement to unclip which is going to be both good (stopping accidental unclip) and bad (moving from spd you have to twist your foot further to unclip). Blurgh! Someone loan me some ATACs and shoes to suit - 47/48 wide. Ta! :)

I wouldn't switch if I was you. Guaranteed to cause some sort pain, possibly chronic. When I switched to the speedplay roads, my right knee went spacco for months.
Hope that doesn't scare you too much.[/quote]

You're awfully concerned with my knees Bill.. are you stalking them?
I can send you some compromising photos of them.. but it'll cost ya..

i used to ride a geared road bike ... knees used to pop all the time. everytime i walked down stairs or even just standing up after sitting down down for awhile. switched to single speed (48/16) and things got a little better ... switched to fixed with clips (48/17), didnt get much better so I switched to straps. now my knees hardly pop at all. maybe i didnt have the clips set up right. dont really care, i'd rather wear my adidas than spds anyway, plus i cant be arsed carrying shoes everywhere i go ! either way the constant pedalling has done my knees the world of good. also i read andy pruitts book on bike fit, which made me much more aware of what i was doing to my knees ... riding at too high a gear, lots of coasting, steaming up a hill before warming up etc etc . i thought it was a good read. Started learning how to skid stop a few months back (still have brakes tho) and the knees seem to be holding up. may try a higher gear and see how the knees go ....

"lots of coasting" is not bad for your knees.

I've had knee problems on and off for years (due to badly designed legs) and all i can say is that I have found riding fixed to be far better for my knees than riding freewheel.

I'd concur with that, my experience too. If you don't start with too high a gear and build gradlally. Braking with your legs strengthens the knee stabilising muscles in a way that a freewheel never can. It is like weight training, you wouldn't go in the gym and try to benchpress 200lbs first time. Same with fixed, take it easy to begin and give your body time to adapt properly.

I am thinking of trying fixed but have had cartilage surgery on both knees. Is this wise?

If yes then obviously low gearing is the way to go. Say 48/20?

Possibly with help from the new SA 3 speed ~ 30/20 in the bottom gear. Does any one have an opinion on this kit?

Ask a sports specialist medical professional.

GBS

I had cartilage removed from one knee and ride fixed, no problems

you may wish to consider riding ss first, to get your legs used to the variation in cadence of having one gear

I have to agree with all the people here saying that riding fixed has help their knees out, I used to have problems with my knees quite often but since switching to ss/fixed I hardly ever have these problems, but I don't ride brakeless. I imagine that riding fixed helps because you are building up core muscles much more than riding a geared bike.

I had the same concerns when I started riding fixed about 8 months ago, as I have had torn cartilage removed in the past. I set up my conversion with 42/16 which is pretty easy in west London, and never had any problem. However I just took my new flyer out for first proper ride on friday night which is set up as 46/17 fixed, did about 20 miles, next day my knees were very sore. Either it is the extra gear inches or some other aspect of how it is set up, as I have not got round to optimising it yet. But my hunch is that the extra inches caused it, and that is without any skidding which I've always been reluctant to try due to knee problems.

fixed/geared/whatever. all cobblers. incorrect bike fit, incorrect use of a bike or predisposed medical issues are what casue knee pain

That ^^ or a kneecapping.

Too much too soon.

"incorrect use of a bike" would cover what Hippy calls the "too much/too soon" syndrome- as in: yep you could do standing starts in a 100 inch gear, but best if you spend 3 month creeping up on it from a 50 inch gear.

Or the dreaded nothing/too much/nothing/too much "training" regime.

Bloody copycat

I saw that ninja edit!

I have a sore neck at the moment.. fucking aerobars..

I reckon the whole "fixed sorted my knees out" stuff we always hear is probably down to the fact that the constant pedaling action forces some amount of warm up and cool down, and rounds out the pedal stroke to a certain extent. Certainly some of the outlandish bike positions I see on the roads would contribute to no end of problems.

"incorrect use of a bike" would cover what Hippy calls the "too much/too soon" syndrome- as in: yep you could do standing starts in a 100 inch gear, but best if you spend 3 month creeping up on it from a 50 inch gear.

Yep, I purposely used that phrase as a "catch all" ;)

I reckon the whole "fixed sorted my knees out" stuff we always hear is probably down to the fact that the constant pedaling action forces some amount of warm up and cool down, and rounds out the pedal stroke to a certain extent. Certainly some of the outlandish bike positions I see on the roads would contribute to no end of problems.

+1

Some of the bad habits people have when riding geared. Are not possible riding fixed. But if you have half decent technique, 'its all just riding a bike'.

"lots of coasting" is not bad for your knees.

I guess everyone's different... SS works better for me. I really tried to go fixed for 3 months, but just didn't get on with it - I certainly didn't have the "glorious awakening" that many seem to - I just found it annoying (and harder on my knees). I ride a fairly light gear (69gi) and just spin more - I like coasting and find it means I can cycle further, I feel more in control down ascents etc.

However, I can imagine fixed is good for strength as riding gears seems to help my SS stamina - probably because I pedal more (stepping up gear to pedal down ascents rather than coasting). I don't think cycling is a "one size fits all" activity - just do whatever gives you the most fun...

I commend anyone who was able to read the above reference to "glorious awakenings" without thinking about doodle.

I got on with fixed very quickly, but it took more than three months for my knees to adjust. I had the knees of an old man for months and thought for a bit I would have to give it up, but suddenly they seemed to strengthen up and now I never have problems with them. But it took quite a long time to get to that point.

I guess everyone's different... SS works better for me. I really tried to go fixed for 3 months, but just didn't get on with it

I still find that trying to slow down fairly quickly from speed & relying less on brakes aggravates my knees and as a twat..only doing that as have non-machined rims and don't want to spoil the pretty paint too much..

Apart from that, having had to stop other sports due to knee/ankle damage, cycling fixed has been fine

I have been a bit worried about my knees of late. Am cycling 100+ miles a week fixed with brakes at roughly 70GI.

Only started to become paranoid about my knees after I was finding doing lunge positions in yoga a bit painful of late.

Could my pedals and/or seat position (it's slightly off centre but have been too lazy to adjust) be causing my knee pain, or do I need to lower my gear inches?

^ I'm not sure about your GI as that sounds prety low - but everyone is different.
I did my knees in running - mal tracking patella - so switched back to the bike.
For years now I've not had any probs on the bike but recently my knees started to hurt.

This coincided with a change in saddle position following a broken seat post. Not long after the change they started hurting. I fiddled about with the position but it didn't really help. In the end I dropped the GI by about 12 to 70GI and difference was amazing. All of a sudden the knees are fine and I'm having fun doing a lot of spinning. It seems odd though that this has made the differenec as I was runnign the bigger gear for a year with no probs.

The only disadvantage is that I can no longer go as fast - I spin out about 45kmph/140+ rpm. This means I can no longer keep up with some of the geared riders who only need to switch up a gear or four to pull away.