A friend of mine (who's about fifty-eleven years old) saw my facebook status about riding yesterday and he complimented me but said he can't ride because he had knee replacement surgery (almost a year ago).

I want to smack him around verbally for making excuses, but then I started thinking, "Maybe one can't ride after a Knee replacement surgery, or how long is the usual recovery period from that type of operation before one can ride again?"

So let me know if I'm being insensitive, or if I can lay the smackdown on him!

Of course you can ride again, it's just not as aggressive in most cases. I know several people that have had knee replacements and they have had varying results based on what appears to me to be weight and activity level before the surgery. Fat, lazy people that get knees replaced are still fat and lazy.

Used to ride with a good rider a few years ago and I knew he had knee problems but he disappeared off the Scene. Later I saw him and he had had both knees replaced over the space of a year or so. When I saw him he asked me if The gridiron Metric was still running as he wanted to do a decent ride after all those slow Flat one he had been doing. If he was thinking about the Gridiron- he had recovered.

My wife rides, knee replaced when she was 70. She was told by one physical therapist not to ride, but the MD surgeon said phooey, no limitations or restrictions on activities.

Cycling is one of the few things I'm allowed to do with a knee replacement.

A friend of mine had a double knee replacement, his Docs talked him into getting on a bike. Good therapy according to them.

My wife is going in to get hers replaced next month and the Doc said cycling would be the best thing she could do, I hope so I miss my ridding buddy.

During the last year and a half, the recovery / rehab from knee reconstruction in April of 2008 (replaced ACL, mended MCL, miniscus trimming, resurfacing of patella and femur - the full meal dead, and by many accounts a much more difficult recovery than replacement) is what led me back to serious cycling from a 30 year hiatus.

Although before the surgery I had been riding a cruiser around town and spinning at the gym, as soon as I was able after the surgery, I got very serious about spinning. Then this spring, my wife and I took the cruisers to do the 35 mile section of a local club ride, and a few months later, did a 50. It was at that point that I was bit by the bug. Later this summer I got a serious road bike. My wife who commutes to work on her crusier was inspired to get a road bike as well.

Over the course of the summer, I have progressed from thinking at the first club ride, "This is fun, but those guys in spandex riding a hundred miles are nuts," to yesterday, completing my first century myself. My wife did her first metric century.

Because of the miniscus wear and questionable ACL in my non-surgical knee, I don't run or play tennis or vollyball. I can ride and plan to do so as long as there isn't ice on the road. When I can't ride the road bike outdoors, I'll continue to do spin classes and ride on the trainer at home. I feel as though cycling has given me a new lease on my athletic life.

The point of my story is that your friend's knee replacement shouldn't be a reason not to ride, it shoud be a reason to ride.

I questioned him about when he could become more active, and he cited not being able to play tennis. I think he needs to get a bike.