Hey whats up everyone. Newbie checking in. Owned a fair few bikes over the years nothing special. MTB's and a few cruisers. Moved to CA via Ireland. So here is the situation;

I blew out my knee recently and so my cardio has gone by the wayside. Doc advised two forms of recreational exercise to help me get my cut on for summer. As you probably guessed cycling is one of them.

Ive never owned a singlespeed as an adult so that got me interested. Done a little reading and seen that new riders are pushed to the Windsor brand or the mercier tt...so now come my questions.

1. The Windsor Timeline draws my attention because of its SS frame. How light is this bike really? anyone have that info?

2. Im 5'8 wear a 30in-seem pant. I was wondering is the 52 frame a good choice for me with its 30.4" standover?

3. Bikesdirect, are they good to do business with?

Get a geared road bike if you are developing strength in your knee after blowing it. You will be able to start off in a low gear and keep a nice high cadence as you speed up. Nothing is worse for your knees than trying to transfer to much torque into the pedals. Also you will be able to control your cadence on hills for optimal heart rate.

The number of good used road bikes out there is amazing, and they are cheap, get an alu frame with a carbon fork, and maybe a carbon chainstay if you are lucky.

Here is an example on ebay.

Giant OCR 2.

A million times better than the Windor, a lot lighter too, and just a little bit more money. 2hrs left and no bids at $450.

No noobs were insulted in the making of this thread

You don't necessarily need a geared bike for a bad knee, and I honestly think the "fixed bad for knees" argument belongs with the brakes vs. brakeless crowd, even though Don's suggestion towards a geared bike had some good points.

I broke my tibia and ruined my ACL and PCL back in November. All I did was drop from a 49t to a 42, worked to a 44, now back to a 49 since yesterday actually. My knee feels pretty awesome and my right leg is nearly 100% in terms of muscle mass. I don't have full extension just yet, but that's a scar tissue issue that's getting resolved on Friday with the scope. My knee feels great no matter what I do on a brakeless fixed though...

If you have a knee injury, it's probably not going to help your recovery any to not let it rest when it needs to. While geared would certainly give more options than a single speed, going fixed with a bad knee is asking for trouble.