[Closed] 40 yr old knees

second hand blur? It doesn't exist any more. the Solo is the not racy shorter travel trail bike now (650b), the Tr is the fun slack one (26") and the superlight is 29". They are also very different beasts 🙂

Solo, yeah would be nice but there's no way im going to get the wife (shes knows the price of bikes) to agree to that. Have seen blurs on here, still enjoy 26.

Surely your pedalling style is more important that the frame you ride? If you mash in a big gear your knees will ache; learn to spin like Wiggo and you'll even out the stresses.

(57 year-old knees and no pain)

Having been through a lot of knee pain this year (42), I've learnt a few things about my body.

Mountain biking on its own once a week is not enough. My quads needed some extra help & both my quads and hamstrings needed stretching.

Don't let that stop you treating yourself to a new bike though 🙂

What globalti said.

If it's just your knees causing problems then isn't that down to bike position?

- saddle height?
- saddle fore/aft position?
- cleat position if using them?
- crank length (try 170mm rather than 175mm) ?

You can't buy your way out of everything, 40 is young, try some core strength exercises.

Good luck.

i'm not 40, but will be rather too soon for my liking... my knees are fine - great even.

So, all you old giffers with dodgy knees: did your aches and pains develop slowly through your 30's, or, did you wake up on the morning of your 40th birthday to discover that the arthritis fairy had filled your knees with rusty screws and gravel?

Just trying different saddle height this week. I may seek out somewhere to check my spd position.

Globalit..yes I am a spin master.

Abwiles, it's one of those slow processes were you don't really notice it.

did you wake up on the morning of your 40th birthday to discover that the arthritis fairy had filled your knees with rusty screws and gravel?

Not my knees, they've always been a bit dodgy, but pretty much the rest of my body seemed to cry out in protest since hitting 40 in July..
🙁

spinning way forward for my 41 old kneess

As others I think your barking up the wrong tree, 40 isn't old! Biking is low impact on knees, so if your knees are hurting solely after biking then some thing is wrong in the setup.

After many years of skiing at competitive level my knees are not great, i stopped biking for about 3 yes, just because I couldn't be bothered. Knees started hurting. Started biking and knees no hurting any more 🙂

Op may I suggest you in fact have a sore back which is a much more valid reason for a full sus frame.

Have you tried a decent bike fit session? There are bike shops like Paul Hewitt who specialise in building to order and there are cycling physios like Nick Dinsdale who are excellent on the orthopedic aspects of pedals and cranks and any decent bike shop should have one of those protractor thingies for measuring your leg angle at the bottom of the stroke.

Similar position to you (but +50) re knees and, in my case, lots of Dales hills to worry about. Perfect excuse to buy a new Whyte 29C. For health reasons.

BTTW how old is the rest of you?

Try flat pedals.

Op may I suggest you in fact have a sore back which is a much more valid reason for a full sus frame.

+1 Epicyclo

Im in 40's

Get some flats, drop your saddle, focus on body position and core strength. Once you have that sorted then apply that riding style to whatever setup you want. This approach sorted out my lower back (which I was targeting) and also made knees feel better.

Feel better out on the trails too 🙂

I am 40, and my knees are crap. Right knee made a grinding noise from the age of 16, knee operation when 32 and then an operation on left knee 18 months ago. Surgeon said my knee was like rice pudding inside. Used to play squash but had to give up. Cycling doesn't make them hurt but did a downhill day the other month and that did. Cyclo cross blows them up with even a minimal amount of running.

You have to focus no developing the muscle in your thighs. I am choosy about what I do and avoid stuff that will cause me problems. Still ride 5 times a week though so not all doom and gloom.

cycling stengthens the muscles either side of the knee joints actually helping the knees as others have said.

reading between the lines I think you're maybe just finding it harder on the body, not specifically the knees, and feeling more 'beaten up' after a ride?

first thing is to make sure your body position on the bike is right. once it is and if it still feels like youre getting beaten up you could find doing some supplementary exercise like pilates might help. Light gym weights might help.

but none of this matters if youre just looking for a reason to justify a new to you bike. 😉

Nowhere on this thread has the OP actually said he has problems with his knees, or any part of his body for that matter.

Clearly he's only looking for justification to buy a nice shiny new bike and I think tonyd has the right answer.

OP, forget the lame (pun intended) "justifications" and let's just turn this into a "what bike" thread.

Bandit 26. Done 🙂

Had my first knee op at 19, rapidly approaching 42 and my knee is held together by scar tissue. Arthritis is manageable and knee pads are essential to keep them warm from autumn to spring. Oh, and ride a Bfe with flats and have no problems apart from sometimes a dull ache on long decents or pain when too much weight is through the pedals on a climb. So all in all fine and things are even better after moving to 2x9 from 1x9.

I'm 40, I ride a hardtail and I ****ed my knee up nearly three years ago.. No physio or injections seemed to improve it and I was eventually down to riding about once every five weeks due to the pain..

wierdly I discovered that short regular rides fully laden with trailer and two kids, three or four times a week, short rides of no more than an hour or two with as many outrageous hills as poss has cured the problem..
I now find that I can ride pretty much whenever I like, over whatever distance and terrain without any undue pain..

So I guess my advice would be mtfu, ride more and build some muscle

I don't think the HT is major problem, personally I get more pain in knees on a my dw-link bike if I ride long climbs on granny gear - especially in rough terrain.
Easy solution is to go for single ring front but I'm not really fit enough for that and that too feels bit hard on the knees.

54 and 11/12ths here ..... had to give up squash about 3 years ago due to knee pain, I was limping and feeling beat up after hard games.
Used it has an excuse to buy a decent bike light as I was told biking would be ok. Now, I ride 2-3 times a week and climb indoors if the weathers dodgy with only occasional aches from the knees.
Also use a skill compensating full suspension as my only bike !

40 middle aged? Not these days.

I think your problem's down to bad genes, high impact sports or poor technique or poor set up. Or possibly all of these 😉

I'm 375 days into being 40 😉 and not in denial at all. Luckily I don't have dodgy knees but have found that since wearing knee pads my knees feel alot better on the bike. I think the support and warmth they provide just somehow make the knee feel more fluid and better - can't really describe it. They also feel better post ride.

OP, I have a 2nd hand 1st Gen Blur Frame and shock sat in my shed if you're interested? Size Medium.

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Maybe down to the change in weather..think what I really need to do is move to a warmer climate. South of France has some good trails 😀

49 here and almost exclusively singlespeed for the last 4 years. Knees are fine but playing footie with my son sometimes makes my hips hurt.

if you want to buy something buy some cod liver oil..and maybe a new bike too 🙂