Various experts have said singlespeeding gives you bad knees.

I overtook one on my singlespeed once, my knees are fine

When do your knees start to pack in? I’ve been riding singlespeeds and fixies on and off for over 30 years. I’m just wondering when I should start worrying?

Some usfull info here.
http://www.cptips.com/knee2.htm

The tuth of ther matter is that pushing to high a gear can give you knee problems. “Can” is just that, loads of people are ok, but any objective advise is the way to look after your knees is to spin at a smooth cadence 70/90 or whatever. But if s/s works for you go for it.

36,14.. all good.

After about 5 yrs of exclusive SS riding I got some patella tendon issues, which was down to what lots of others have said – too much seated climbing. I’d been doing a lot of training and had developed quite a bit of power, so found I could do a lot of steep stuff seated. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should! A conscious effort to mix up my style more sorted it out.

I’m about 50/50 geared/SS now but find ssing great for helping with management of a traumatic knee injury from 2 years ago. There’s less opportunity for a weak leg to hide on a SS. And the more I ride the better it feels – best excuse ever, even if it is true 🙂

Riding SS and grinding up hills at a low cadence must put more stress on your knees. basic physics / biomechanincs. if you are climbing at a steady speed if your gearing is twice as high – then the cadence is half and the torque needed is double (as the power needed is the same) thus the loading on the knees is double.

However you will also tend to build quadriceps strength which helps stabilise the knee,

How much these two things effect you depends on your personal physiology

So far Ive had an acl reconstruction,a plika removed and meniscus trim/debridement on my left knee. Non of it caused by ss’ing I might add. Whenever Ive discussed ss’ing with my consultant he’s always said it can only be beneficial and help injury reoccurance. I’m inclined to believe one of the top orthapedic surgeons (he does most of the premiere league footy nonces).

TandemJeremy – Member
Riding SS and grinding up hills at a low cadence must put more stress on your knees. basic physics / biomechanincs.

Basic ss riding: much low cadence pedalling is done out of the saddle, minimising knee rotation & lessening stress.

TandemJeremy – Member

However you will also tend to build quadriceps strength which helps stabilise the knee.

Because of the shortening of hamstrings being the adverse effect of building the quads through cycling, I’m a great believer that stretching the hamstrings and glutes on a regular basis helps to keep the knees balanced.

Because of the shortening of hamstrings being the adverse effect of building the quads through cycling, I’m a great believer that stretching the hamstrings and glutes on a regular basis helps to keep the knees balanced.

That’s what my physio told me… hmm… must stretch more!

I’ve been SS’ing for about 3 years and never had any significant knee issues.

Got to wonder if crank length has more effect than SSing.

People with relatively short legs using 175mm cranks might be putting a lot more strain on their knees (bigger angles) when sat peddling up hill in the granny ring than if they were honking out of the saddle on an SS.

Ask me when I’m 80.

I don’t have the best knee’s and when on the ss I feel them beginning to push back I get off and push (as fast as I can), no problems if I remember to do that.

There is just some bits you can’t do on a SS bike. I never noticed any real pain in my knees. I think there good for light hills and longer rides with light long climbs. Some of the hills I ride up in the peaks though I would just not fancy putting that stress on my body joints no matter how practical it is for the mud and weather etc. Some hills I simply would not be able to get up them!

They are good for the winter though if you want to keep riding really muddy trails. I don’t so I can’t be arsed having one now. Would always choose a geared bike in the summer or dry parts of the year. I would say it could be bad for you if you do the wrong sort of riding on one. Just the same as if you used a pure XC bike for doing DH courses on and doing big air!