Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - the knees, please?

What's up ya'll,

I know from other, old or aging posts, that some of us old or aging riders tend to develop some semi-chronic knee issues. This may or may not be happening to me depending on what the next few days bring. The day after a LONG ride 55-60 miles easy, (which i do fairly regularly... maybe twice a month) my knees seemed to be communicating their discontent. Now five days after that ride, the pain remains... Im still riding but not as happily, nor as rapidly. Same machine, same gearing, seat height... all remained constant.
What do you fellas do in the way of home treatment to speed the recovery?
Thanks...

ice and stay off it till it stops hurting then do strength training, probably swimming and high reps of bodyweight movements.

Lots and lots of water.
I've been outside and active my whole life and people always ask me how i still feel so good after 20 miles on the trail with a backpack or working in a recieving room moving boxes for a 10 hour shift or riding long distances, and the only thing I can figure out is the fact that I drink loads of water a day. When I started having to drink coffee to wake up before shifts at work and didnt drink much water I felt like hell the following morning/couple days, especially my knees, ankles and shoulders (I have some bad joints from climbing and stuff). Granted I'm considerably younger, but I think often times people overlook the smaller measures that help maintain good health. Lots of water before during and after you do strenuous activity.

Seatpost could have slipped a cm or two - unless you measure / have some sort of marking to indicate, you don't know that it's remained constant. Happens slowly of course, unless you get into an abrupt crash.

Try gearing down and seeing how it works, re-examine the post height, if all else fails try omega-3's and MSM/glucosamine. Everytime I have knee pain it's always due to saddle height and gearing...

I just had a Pro bike fit including cleat alignment (Rad). Just a few subtle changes made a big difference, seat hight, cleat tweaks and a shim in one shoe. My knees and hip are so much happier.

For the record my racing age is 43

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Cleat position makes a huge difference. (Un)Fortunately for me, my feet start hurting a hell of a lot more and sooner if my cleat is (or has slipped) ever so slightly in its position. But yeah, a lot of us are not symmetrical by any means and need to treat the left and right side different, and things like shims and differing cleat placement for each foot remedy that imperfection.

Gear down. How many gear inches is your current set up?

Booze.

hot bath

hot bath
With booze.

I feel your pain.

I'm off the bike for a while, and probably selling my fixed - riding brakeless is so much fun, it just felt wrong to impede my fixed by putting the brake back on - like clipping wings of a bird. I've come to the conclusion that brakeless fixed is like that girl you went out with when you where 20 who was great in bed, very sexy and totally unpredicatble and crazy. It's very consuming, very exciting and intoxicating; but ultimately it's gonna cause you heartache, fear and ruin your life.

I've got plans for a classic blinglespeed, though.

Glucosamine 2000mg is great, anti-inflammatories too. Go to the doctor. Gear down. Get a brake?

buy a car, and booze

Since you posted this in SSFG, I'm guessing this is something you're experiencing with your FG, and not your other rides... because of this, I'd say the best thing would to be throw a front brake on.

You can do other things as suggested (like drink lots of water), but instead of responding to the issue at the end of the smokestack, why not respond to it before it even gets in it?

/\ your boring.



thinking ahead can only lead to one place, being grown up

/\ your boring.



thinking ahead can only lead to one place, being grown up

Yeah, and not thinking ahead leads to a GED, which is evident from your verbiage.

And I guess I'm wrong for using logic? Whether or not I am actually boring, has no impact on the fact that adding a brake will help his knees feel better, IF, the root-cause is him lacking a brake and constantly trying to stop on his fixie... now, if it's an issue that he has across all of his bikes, or if he rides out in the country and almost never attempts braking, the solution may be different. But from how I interpret the problem, I stand by what I said.

So keep your ad hominem attacks elsewhere. OP, seriously, save your knees now. I still think adding a front-brake would be best.

idig you're a genius and it is evident in your gilded prose

bro i'm on all the above cleat, gear and saddle position maybe your brakeless technique need some touchup
cheers imho

water, medicine, beer
let your legs rest

Yeah, and not thinking ahead leads to a GED, which is evident from your verbiage.



GED? Don't give him too much credit.

Gear down and dial in your fit.

That's a start, but even that may not be enough.

I had to switch to single speed and give up fixed. My right knee was always sore, even after getting fitted. I geared down and it helped for a while. But I finally figured out the problem was skipping. Or any kind of back peddling. My technique was to use my right leg as the power leg, and one day it just about brought me to the ground in pain. That was the end. I kept the same gear ratio, same frame, same everything, but flipped the wheel over to single speed and set up road bars and brake levers. The knee has thanked me since

Sure I really miss riding fixed, but I've learned I can't deal with it on a regular basis on the street. I intend to race track sooner or later so will bring it back. But not for the street.

second to most of the serious advice on here. i don't experience the same. i'm young. so i don't know. i could only speak from my philosophies and bull****ting expertise. which would say that the strength training, flexing, etc would help. here's my addition, though. i see you live in philadelphia. i'm from pittsburgh. i live in grand rapids now. i found 800 cans of "joint juice" in a dumpster, a little drink mix with glucosamine and chondroitin, for healthy joints. they're just sitting in my shed. so, if you or anybody you knows goes to the west half of our state, pick some up, or, if you want, i'll send it along to your place if a friend goes that way anytime soon.

daily vitimans and Glutimean.

works wornders for me after work, gym, riding all day. And i've had knee surg. a few years back. If you decide to try this out, dont bother buying the expensive ones at GNC, or anywhere like that, just go to Wal-Mart.

Thanks for all the advice ya'll... it's all greatly appreciated. I was/am doing alot of what you recommend and Im seeing teenie little improvements... sooo... seems a symptom of my NOT gettin any younger. Im still kinda scratchin me noggin at the generous gent who is drinking the magic joint potion from the dumpster... anyway... Much gratitude and love for the time and knowledge.
Z