Any other arthritic knee experiences to share?

Twisted my knee pretty bad at 20, and now over 2 decades later, it can act up something fierce.

I never have knee problems when I'm on the bike, however. The knee hurts the most whenever it stays bent for long periods of time. It's hard to sit in a movie theater or an airplane for longer than a half hour without having to straighten my leg to relieve the pain.

Stretching helps, as does regular yoga.

Compact double is not as horrendous as everyone makes it out to be. Compare this gear inch chart based on 170mm cranks and 700x23 tires.

53 12-25 and 50 11-25 then 39 12-25 and 34 11-25
You'll notice the five highest gears on the compact 50 ring are harder based on 11 12 13 14 15 than a standard 53 ring and 12 13 14 15 16. The lower five are slightly easier since the compact setup has no 16t cog and jumps from 15 to 17. On the inner ring you are gaining two lower gears with a 34x25 vs a 39x25.

So it shifts a bit clunkier than a regular due to the 16 tooth difference, big effin whoop. It's not that bad when properly setup. Buy a R700 or Ultegra SL compact to bridge the gap until the vaporware is actually available. The fine tuning can be done by swapping the 34 with a 36 inner ring or changing to a 12-27, 11-28 sram or making a hybrid 11-27.

You'll be all set for the first annual knee replacement ride I've thrown together for next month.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=458136