Murray Missile 

Looks interesting.

canklecat

Yup, when I resumed cycling in 2015, I was badly out of shape. After a 2001 car wreck broke my back and neck I needed a cane to walk any distance until 2014. All the fitness I'd gained in my teens and 20s in the 1970s-'80s was long gone. I was starting from scratch.

I got a comfort hybrid with a foot-forward pedaling geometry, not quite as extreme as some of the Giant and similar crosses between a recumbent and hybrid. But a very upright position with no knee strain. And 170 cranks.

I rode that bike for a year before getting a more conventional hybrid with 175 cranks, and almost immediately began to notice some strain in the knees and hips. That bike needed a lot of tweaking to fit properly, but I enjoyed riding it. Another year later, in 2017, I got a road bike, my first since 1976. That took a lot more conditioning to adapt to the more aggressive riding position. But the 172.5 cranks and overall riding position never caused me any knee or hip problems.

After I was hit by a car in 2018, breaking and dislocating my shoulder, a friend loaned me his recumbent (bike, not trike), hoping it might suit me. But I never could adapt to the recumbent riding position while balancing the two-wheeler. If I ever do need to switch from a conventional upright bike to a recumbent it'll probably be a three wheeler. By then I'm hoping an electrical assist recumbent will be affordable to help a bit on hills.

Murray Missile 

Well, after one false start and some unseen setbacks knee replacement No.1 is now complete and No. 2 is scheduled in 6 weeks. My left leg is now straight and noticeably longer than the right and I keep walking in circles LOL. My physical therapist said I could possibly regain up to 2 inches of leg length! It will be some time before I'm back on a regular bike BUT....... the bikes I was thinking might have to go because of my loss of leg length now look like they can stay.

Even with the pain it's been a great couple of days, I feel about 20 years younger........ might be the oxycodone talkin' though LOL.

daverup 

Good luck with knee #2, and getting off the meds.

wrk101

To anyone considering knee replacement, sooner beats later. My father in law avoided replacement far too long. He finally gave in, but he had way too much other damage.

Like others, I am a big fan of rigid frame MTBs. My one go to is my drop bar conversion Schwinn Cimarron. My other is a Raleigh HEAT that I put trekking bars on.

Pcampeau

Congratulations on the successful knee replacement and may the second surgery go as well. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you’ve outgrown the Raleigh Carlton.

Murray Missile 

Oh no, I can ride a 23 just fine, Carlton ain't goin' nowhere LOL!

repechage

Thanks for the serial reports.
may the next go well too.

I have always been careful, no guarantees that will help. My wife sits in ways that make me cringe, and is complaining of discomfort now.

stardognine

Congrats on your knee remodel, and good luck with the next one. 👍 I have a sister who had both knees replaced, and she also says she wishes she did it sooner.
I have bad knees too, but it's primarily the lefty that gives me trouble. I guess I was 38 when I had a major ACL reconstruction done, and at that time, the Dr. said I had the arthritis of a 70 year old, in that knee. It started from a motorsickle mishap, when I was 13.
I also got an infection in the ER, so things took far longer to heal and strengthen than they should have.

But that's what got me into riding bicycles, far more seriously, so it was a mixed bag. 🤨😉

I'm 60 now, and I can feel the need coming on, for a replacement. I take heart from all the positive things people say, but also worry about another infection. Once bitten, twice shy, I guess. 🤔

But back to your situation, best wishes for a full & speedy recovery. And get off those Oxys as soon as is reasonable, lol.

Murray Missile 

Thanks everyone. I asked the physical therapist about getting back on the bike and he said that's great but it would be sometime before I'll have the needed range of motion to actually ride it. He recommended getting on my bike on the trainer and moving the pedals back and forth as far as I can to help my range of motion. I'll give it a try in a few days when I've limbered up more.

philbob57

Best of luck with your recovery and with knee #2 and recovery from that. A good PT is worth their weight in gold.

Murray Missile 

Knee No. 2 is now in the books. They also had to do a "manipulation" on the left while I was under. Something happened at therapy last week and I got set back about 10 days on my range of motion. Basically the manipulation was them cranking it as far as it would physically go......... glad I was out and it's going to hurt like a SOB tomorrow BUT I have all that range back and maybe a little more. Now I have to have PT on it every day until I can make one full revolution on a standard upright bicycle. That's going to be hard with the other leg all bandaged up. I'll have to dig out my spare Power Grips and swap out the left side so I can pull the cranks around with my left foot. I'd do an SPD but still a little leary of rotating the knee right now. I can't recall wanting to get on my bike and ride quite this badly before.

stardognine

So, ya done got old-ER, huh? 😉 Glad to hear you got it done, and hopefully it's not too painful. ✌️

Hey, I just bought a few books today, in a thrift store, and one is an anthology of short stories, from around 2003 or 2004. The Stephen King novella (around 75 pages) is called "Stationary Bike". Maybe you can track it down online, if you're a fan of his. 😎

I imagine you're using a stationary bike, so maybe this'll motivate and/or distract ya. 😁

EDIT: It was supposed to say around 35 pages, lol, but it's actually 43, in this version, the first pressing for paperback.

Murray Missile 

I just finished Neil Peart's "The Masked Rider" which was very motivating in several ways, for me at least. I've also read "Ghost Rider" and I have one other to read. I find his books as interesting as his song lyrics and drumming. I knocked off "The Masked Rider" in 2 evenings. Couldn't put it down.

Using a heavily modified large frame step thrugh '78-ish Schwinn Traveler. Now a flat bar with 3 X 7, 700c, full fenders. Cranks are 175mm.......... for now. Somewhere I have a 165mm triple of a Schwinn LeTour Lux that may find it's way on there, IF I can remember what box it's in. Once I'm all healed up it will become my 3 season errand bike.

stardognine

Very cool! I was a huge fan of Rush, back in the '70s, mostly because of "The Professor". I kinda drifted away, in the mid '90s, due to living in Seattle. Too much grunge influence, I guess. 🙄😉

I still need to read Neil's books, motorsickle touring would be way cool. 😎

Murray Missile 

There are at least 2 other books and I plan to get them while I'm recuperating. Great insights to how the man thought. I found that except for musical and lyrical creativity and pure talent I had a lot in common with him as far as my views on society, religion, spirituality, etc. OK I was a drummer in the school band but I was at cave man beating on a log level compared to him LOL. My musical taste covers a VERY wide spectrum but RUSH is in my top 5 favorites and Neil has become one of my favorite authors, his passing was great loss and not just to the world of music.

stardognine

Yeah, I was in band in 7th & 8th grades, and really enjoyed it. I was always tall & skinny, and playing the bass drum in marching band just kinda fell on me, but I didn't mind.

Concert band was way more interesting, we got to play a lot of the cooler stuff, like tympani drums & bells (the giant upright xylophone-looking thing, lol).

There was a song called "Gold", about the gold rush days, where I played on a steel plate, with a hammer. 😎
So yeah, I was definitely interested in percussion, but came from a pretty dysfunctional family, and kinda drifted away from it. 😟

But it's cool, I've done a lot of cool stuff in life, no big regrets. ✌️

Murray Missile 

Tall and skinny here too. I was "lead percussionist" my Sophmore through Senior years LOL, very small school so the drummer pool wasn't very deep and the lead percussionist my Sophmore year got kicked out of band because he wouldn't play the score on the sheet music and improvised EVERYTHING. John Philp Sousa with Ringo Starr drumming didn't mix well...... and confused the Hell out of the rest of the section. He got belligerent with the director when she called him out on it so she gave him the boot, you did NOT mess with her! I was really only a so so drummer but I could play intricate marches like nobody's business and I was the king of long super tight continuous drum rolls. My Sr. year I took the bass drum in marching band (long story) but when we played the Star Spangle Banner the director would have the lead snare and I switch places because my snare drum rolls sounded like one continuous drum beat if you can imagine what that would sound like. Even though the other snare drummer was killer on a trap set and a very good drummer he just couldn't get that tight sound on a roll like mine. My one big claim to "fame" LOL.

Murray Missile 

Well, tomorrow it will be 3 weeks since surgery No. 2, I've been on my trainer the past couple days, I'm supposed to work the right knee back and forth as far as I can to stretch out the muscles and ligaments but today unintentionally made a full revolution with my right leg..... and boy did I stretch them out! YIKES! But, I gained a little more rotation after that, I'm paying for it right now but it was probably good for it, I iced it for awhile then took some Bayer Back & Body and it's doing OK right now.

I have regained a good inch in lower leg length due to the implants so my concern of not being able to ride my 25" frames has been put on the back burner for hopefully a few years. Right now I'm itching to get back on a bike and actually GO somewhere! The view from the spare bedroom where my trainer is setup is somewhat lacking, hopefully it won't be much longer. We're coming into my favorite time of year for riding.

stardognine

Hey, there you are. 😁
🚴🚵 I just found those 2 bicycle thingies, looking for a waving hand. Didn't know which you'd prefer, so gave ya both. 😉

I agree, Autumn/Fall is the best time to ride. Similar to Spring, but way better looking, with all the leaves changing colors. 😎

I still haven't scored any Peart books yet, but did read Catcher In The Rye and 1984. Both are considered classics, but somehow I never read them before. 🤔

Gotta go, already, take care of yourself. ✌️

Korina

If you can, read Orwell's Animal Farm. Because some animals are more equal than others.

Murray Missile 

It's a milestone day! I made 3 full "intentional" revolutions on the trainer with my right leg! It hurt but at the same time it felt SOOOO good!

Update: Had PT a little bit ago and told the therapist I got 3 revs on my trainer. He was so impressed he made me do 2 on theirs.........

stardognine

Right on, no pain, no gain. 😬😉

I was just thinking about some of the weird stuff in physical therapy. I liked the plexiglass tank full of cedar mulch, that kept tumbling the mulch over your leg. It was very relaxing, and you just knew your leg would at least smell good, afterwards. 🥰😁

Or the electrical pulse zapper, to wake up dead nerves. That one wasn't as comfy, but was still cool.

Murray Missile 

I was having a lot of pain in one session awhile back and they used something like that to reduce the pain. It worked too.

Murray Missile 

WooHoo!!! Got 30 revolutions on my trainer today then I went to PT 2 hours later. They put me on their semi-recumbent trainer which usually kills me and I averaged 40RPM for over 4 minutes and easily could have kept going but they had new tortures devised for me LOL. I'm going to try my folding bike tomorrow if weather permits. That first ride is going to be so, so sweet......

Edit: First ride was a scratch.