Burley bents and knee arthritis ?

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Have sold the road bikes and am contemplating a Burley "bent". The problem is knee arthritis
pretty bad.Any comments ?

Just the usual. Recumbents _can_ be harder on the knees than DFs. However, this is easily overcome
by using good spinning techniques vs. 'mashng' the pedals.

If you are not already, you probably can benefit from taking Glucosamine.

--
Cletus D. Lee Bacchetta Giro Lightning Voyager clee.orgclee.orgOpen ↗
- Bellaire, TX USA -

I have a bit of arthritis in my right knee and had some pain on my Burely bent at first. After several rides, I found I had no more pain than on my upright. Not only that, but now that winter is over and I am able to strengthen the muscles around the knee even more, I am having less pain than during the winter.

What you will find is that you have to learn to ride a bit differently, especially up hill. Since you can't stand on the peddles, you'll have to use your gearing smartly. Don't crank harder, right smarter!

FWIW,
Ben >>>>Canto>>>>

Have you tried PK5 ? ( pk5.compk5.comOpen ↗ )

I have been 'road testing' it for about 3 weeks and it seems to help me.

Lewis.

tinyurl8vvhOpen ↗

...........

"Peter Hagberg" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Have sold the road bikes and am contemplating a Burley "bent". The problem is knee arthritis
pretty bad.Any comments ?

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Have you tried PK5 ? ( pk5.compk5.comOpen ↗ )

I have been 'road testing' it for about 3 weeks and it seems to help me.

To my knowledge,there are no scientific controlled studies that support the efficacies of P-K-5.
I'll stick with Glucosamine.

Answer:

P-K-5 is a proprietary blend of albumin proteins, essential oils, oriental herbals, enzymatically
predigested botanical extracts, mineral and vitamin complexes, antioxidants and glucosamine.

--
Cletus D. Lee Bacchetta Giro Lightning Voyager clee.orgclee.orgOpen ↗
- Bellaire, TX USA -

If your knees are questionable, then you may want to proceed with caution in the 'bent world.
Recumbents are great for upper body ailments, but with knees...riding a recumbent could possibly do
more harm than good.

As mentioned, you should be prepared to spin lower gears at higher RPM's. It can be tempting to use
the seatback as leverage to push big gears, but this of course can lead to knee trouble.

My wife and I both have patellar misalignment problems leading to arthritis (that we are in the
process of getting fixed; cheering may heard in the background). We've found that depending on what
the problem is, recumbents may help rather than hurt. The seat position seems to favor work the VMO,
the big muscle on the inside top of the knee right next to the knee cap. If you have problems with
misalignment, that can strength the muscle and pull the knee cap back to where it should be. If you
have problems with wear of the cartilage within the knee joint and away from the knee cap, I don't
know if recumbents could help at all.

I will add though, we've done a great deal of looking at different ways to treat arthritis. There
are several methods of dealing with low grade arthritis and several methods of repairing cartilage
surfaces. Websites such as Knee1 and Knee Guru discuss them. I'm assuming that you are in the US as
my wife an I are. We've also found that several surgical procedures are not regularly performed in
the US, not because local surgeons don't think that they will work, but because US patients don't
generally obey the movement restrictions. The procedure we are pursuing requires 8 to 12 weeks of
non-load bearing recovery, as an example.

Peter Hagberg said:

Have sold the road bikes and am contemplating a Burley "bent". The problem is knee arthritis
pretty bad.Any comments ?

Well I must say that I am very happy with my first 'bent.

I cannot give you any scientific observations, just that my wobbly knees were pretty sore for the
first three or so rides on my new Taiko , but now that I have ridden it for a few months I must say
that my knees seem to be stronger and its soo nice to not have a sore neck and wrists at the end of
a long ride (diamond frame maladies), and besides I can ride much longer distances now and not be
totally exhausted...

I really love my new Burley Taiko, but the only thing I don't like about it is the tires, it sucks
when you are twenty miles out on your ride and didn't bring a spare tube and you get a nasty flat on
the front tire ( I know stupid me)...

The Primo Comet that Burley puts on the Taiko (don't know about other models) is a great tire when
it comes to low rolling resistence but it sucks when it comes to being paper thin , so as long as
you only ride on closed tracks no sweat, otherwise make sure and carry tire levers and spare tubes
or patch kit (I never have had a flat all these years until I bought this 'bent with the Primo
Comets) as the glass and road nasties will puncture them...

Make sure and test ride a bunch of different models first, you really need to get the feel of a
'bent and then different models to really appreciate the model that "works for you"...

Good luck !

--
Douglas Cole users.qwest.net~cdoug3Open ↗ Registered Linux user # 188922

[email hidden] (Jim Plaia) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

My wife and I both have patellar misalignment problems leading to arthritis (that we are in the
process of getting fixed; cheering may heard in the background). We've found that depending on
what the problem is, recumbents may help rather than hurt. The seat position seems to favor work
the VMO, the big muscle on the inside top of the knee right next to the knee cap. If you have
problems with misalignment, that can strength the muscle and pull the knee cap back to where it
should be. If you have problems with wear of the cartilage within the knee joint and away from the
knee cap, I don't know if recumbents could help at all.

Interesting. Apparently I have patellar misalignment issues as well. In my case it was about the
knee caps being out of alignment toward the outside. IT band stretches were recommended, as well as
trying to strengthen the muscles on the _inside_, which you seem to be saying a recumbent does.
Maybe not enough in my case?

I think it is difficult to generalize about seat position too, since a range between a Bacchetta
Strada and a TE are readily available in N. Am. Seems like the mechanics would be quite different?

By accident, I discovered that a low Q and a low BB seem to help my issues.

I will be interested to hear how the procedure goes.

johnriley1 (at) rogers.com