In the past I spent many waking hours trying to battle mis-information on the internet in vein. You'll notice that the people on here who are the most intelligent never chime in on all these topics, because they know the truth, and they know that they can't change the minds of the masses and it isn't worth trying. "but of course it is!" you might say. The problem is that the majority of the people carrying the mis-information are those who aren't thinking critically for themselves. It is so easy to convince someone of something false if they are making assumptions. When you read something enough times on a forum, you start to assume these people know what they are talking about. "Why should I re-invent the wheel and think about this. People have already thought about this and they can just tell me!" Trust me, it's a losing battle. (As I'm sure will be demonstrated in this thread as I'm overwhelmed by non-arguable responses that I'll ignore).

The people who do end up trying to battle mis-information just end up labeled like dutret (I hope you're reading this). While I agree about 0.1% with your approach (read:tact), I understand it to some extent. I agree about 99% with your content though, and I wish you the best of luck for the duration of this hopeless battle.

I'm not being snarky either, and not trying to single you out, but there is a lot wrong with your comments on the knee. I know enough to know that it is wrong, and I know enough to know that I'm not the one to explain the inner workings of knee issues to the world so I *try* leave it alone.

To make a basic comment regarding your earlier statement, you implied that the forces on the knee during pedal resistance (downstroke) are the "same" as during forward pedaling (downstroke). While the direction of the loading is the same, it's a pretty complex system and the magnitude of the forces is extremely different.

The technical definition of the word jerk (as in, you jerk your knee in the opposite direction to start skidding) is acceleration divided by time. When you're pedaling forward the compressive loading on your knees isn't bad (true), when you're resisting pedaling to slow down, the compressive loading on your knees isn't bad (true), what is being over looked is the exponentially higher loading that takes place during the change from the loading, unloading (direction change) and re-loading.

I'm not at all arguing the feasibility of braking distances and the moral choices of riding with or without brake. I'm talking purely about forces applied to the system (your knee).

I'm sure this isn't helpful so I'll just stop talking. I REALLLLY have too much work to do today to start a knee loading debate.