Originally Posted by
deep_sky
Duh. You wanna grind along in some huge ass gear thinking you are being tough, you just trashing your knees for no good reason. But, I doubt you even ride, your position is so ludicrous and disconnected from reality.
what happened is as a kid when i lived in USSR i used to ride a bike, jog and swim all for fitness when i was about 12 years old. then i came to US and got a car, stopped biking, continued swimming ( on high school team ) and jogging. then after high school i quit swimming and started bodybuilding. then when i reached 200 pounds ( on steroids ) i quit jogging because i couldn't jog with all the weight any more. then i quit steroids and bodybuilding and switched to powerlifting. at this point i was 230 pounds and i am still 230 pounds so i couldn't jog and my muscle was turning to fat ( without steroids ) so i needed a way to burn that fat - so i started swimming again. then i hurt my shoulders because i was swimming at 100% intensity and my ligaments weren't quite as flexible as at 15 y/o any more. so i quit swimming and started biking again - that was a year ago. then i moved from NY to California and left my Mountain Bike in NY because it was heavy and slow and most of all there was no way to transport it easily. Just a few weeks ago i got a new road bike here in Cali and started riding it more or less regularly.
i started experiencing serious problems with joints when i was a bodybuilder. in particular my elbows. i didn't start to experience knee pain until i returned to biking last year. but i know this is no laughing matter and i am willing to change my riding style if that's what my joints need. i first heard that riding with this type of gearing is bad for my knees a few weeks ago when i was trying to explain to the salesman in the bike shop what type of bike i am looking for. it's slowly sinking into my brain. the forces even in the last gear are still quite low compared to the forces involved in powerlifting so i didn't think it was a problem. i thought my knee pain was more a result of too much repetition like carpal tunnel or something, rather than too much force.
if there is strong consensus that high cadence is easier on the knees i will work on that.
also i am grateful to be able to learn by being here. i joined this forum because it helped me when i was shopping for a bike recently. i love forums but i am new to biking forums. i only posted on a bike forum ( mountain bike forum, back when i had a mountain bike ) once in the past when i was shopping for a bike carrier roof rack. i got a great advice back then and very happy with my roof rack. i hope to get great advice here on my road biking as well.