My loss of flexibility was, according to my surgeon, unexpected. It has not impacted my ability to cycle at all (in fact cycling is the easiest thing I do with respect to my knees). Depends on what you do outside of cycling as well. I was already in my mid 30s when I had that procedure done and it was in the mid 90's so there are nearly 2 decades of possible improvements. I thought repairing would be better than removing since I already had all the cartilage removed in my left knee before that surgery but in my case it probably would have been better and the recover quicker to have it removed. If it gets too bad I'll have to have that done but for now I deal with the discomfort so long as it doesnt lock up too much (or lock without being able to unlock)