Quote:
Originally Posted by Redliner
I also race DH mountain bikes and am concerned about the risk of having to plant a foot in difficult terrain or having a high speed crash which could damage the joint either through twisting or impact. I would be curious to know what peoples' experiences have been with not having the surgery and just getting by with the brace, and whether they feel that they ever really get back to 100% or if the limitations of the "bad" knee require a major change in lifestyle.
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I can't offer the non surgery experience but as mentioned above I've had no issues riding bikes after surgery. I also used to race DH and have had my fair share of gnarly plants or bails post op and it hasn't been a concern at all.
One thing I did notice is I used to bounce between flats and clips depending on what I was feeling (always had clips on my XC bike and flats on my DJ bike so I'm equally comfortable with either on my DH bike) but now I ride clips exclusively on my DH bike. I find the float in the SPD pedals more comfortable when you've dropped your outside leg in a rough flat corner and the bike is kicking around. On flats you transfer all that twisting motion directly into your foot where as the float on SPDs takes the edge off. Might be worth trying out if you're finding rough terrain uncomfortable.