Old motorcycle accident and bad knee!

[Bill Reynolds]

In 1975 while riding my Yamaha motorcycle, l had a car run into me more or less head on,and messed all of my lower joints up! The latest old injury to surface is a painful left knee, which prevents me from riding my Dahon folder, by not letting my left pedal do a full rotation. The painful part is the approach to the top of the pedal stroke. I find that sitting on a chair and pedalling my stationary cycle from the rear, l can pedal normally as my left leg does not rotate to a high position and remains much straighter. Could a smaller ladies frame and a higher saddle position allow me to pedal like l do on my chair and stationary exercise cycle...!? I don't want a recumbrant cycle, just a normal cycle.

[Paulatic]

A shorter crank length should do it I would think.

[Jdsk]

There are several interventions that might help including a shorter crank (as above) and a floppy "swing-arm" crank. I would certainly explore that smaller frame and higher position.

Where are you?

Jonathan

[853]

Sorry to hear about your accident, and that it is now causing you trouble with your cycling.

I, too, had some problems with my knee some years ago. What I found was that a higher saddle position and a 'straight leg' position at the bottom of the pedal stroke helped a bit, but in order to really gain from it I had to buy shorter cranks and raise my saddle even higher. Really good cycle shops can supply cranks down to 150mm, but they are niche, so there is a considerable cost involved.

What I would recommend, based on my experience, is to borrow or buy some children's cranks (which were, and probably still are, available in a length of 145mm) for a cheap price first of all. You could then try these to see if this was a viable route to take before spending a large amount of money. You would have to use lower gears, too, as the lack of leverage with shorter cranks is noticeable.

[Paulatic]

certainly explore that smaller frame and higher position.


Jonathan

The higher saddle position I understand. Can you explain why a smaller frame might help?

[grufty]

I've gone for shorter cranks, having had similar problems. Shorter, square-taper cranks are available from Spa Cycles or SJS (Thorn). Shorter cranks may require the saddle to be raised, to enable full extension on the "down" leg.
As JDSK mentions, pendulum or swing cranks are also available, which I believe are designed to cope with knee problems.
Islabikes currently has some good deals on step through bikes with low gearing and shorter cranks.

As other posters have suggested, shorter cranks may be worth trying first. I would also suggest that if you have access to hub gears, it avoids having to start off in the gear that you stopped in!

[531colin]

A "swinging crank" is probably the best solution....look at the animation here....https://highpath.co.uk/pulse-swing-cranks/

Fairly recently (well, the last few years!) there was a bit in the CTC magazine (sorry, CUK) where somebody had welded an extra bottom bracket shell below the original one on a frame; this of course drops the pedals down nearer the road, so you can leave the saddle height where it is and still have less knee flexion; the drawback is you can't pedal like mad round corners!

[853]

Further to what I said earlier, I just remembered that I also moved the saddle to an extreme position of far-forward or far-backward. (It's so long ago I can't remember which one it was). Although this only has a slight bearing on knee bend angles, when used with shorter cranks and a much higher seat position it made a positive difference for me.

[Bill Reynolds]

Thank you all for the replies. The Dahon bottom bracket housing is ten inches off the ground and my saddle set so high that my toes barely touch the ground...! I purchased short cranks off Ebay, but think l must explore a a small frame and a long? seat tube. There is a large second hand place in Stirchley, Birmingham that might have small ladies frames...or have one made to measure....as l miss dawdleing along on a bicycle...!

[853]

Thank you all for the replies. The Dahon bottom bracket housing is ten inches off the ground and my saddle set so high that my toes barely touch the ground...! I purchased short cranks off Ebay, but think l must explore a a small frame and a long? seat tube. There is a large second hand place in Stirchley, Birmingham that might have small ladies frames...or have one made to measure....as l miss dawdleing along on a bicycle...!

Although you may well need a longer seat pin, you don't necessarily have to get a smaller frame. My experience, (from some years ago), of limited mobility was that for getting on the bike I used to lay the bike flat on the floor, and then step over the frame and bring the bike up to vertical between my legs. This avoids swinging your leg over the crossbar and saddle. This might not be relevant in your case, but it might help someone reading this.

[Bill Reynolds]

Since l wrote the above query things have moved on! After some thought l decided to purchase a Highpath Swing crank to fit to my left hand pedal crank. I fitted it this last Wednesday and found to my utter relief l could pedal the full pedal rotatation with no knee pain...! Then 'Sod's Law' stepped in. I have been on the main Worcester hospital waiting list for Varicose veins for some time, as the above crash gave me very bad veins on my right leg with side effects! On Thursday of this week the hospital rang my wife to say I was to attend on this Friday to get the awfull veins fixed. They have been done...but... no keep fit/weight lifting or cycling for three weeks....leg covered in bandages, but cannot moan really, the swing crank awaits...!

[Jdsk]

Sounds like a good solution. Thanks for letting us know.

Three weeks isn't long... what are you going to do within the bounds of the permitted exercise?

Jonathan

[Bill Reynolds]

Hello Jonathon, Thanks for the query. I am restricted by the hospital to daily walking light exercise such as walking with a stick...nothing else.... and have to wear a special Anti deep vein thrombosis elasticated leg stocking for two weeks....THEN!!.... onto my cycle and 125cc motor scooter plus the D.Y.I. jobs not been able to get done....

[pjclinch]

I'd suggest having a physio look at your knee. Sometimes things like muscle imbalances (which can happen if your leg's been messed with in a crash) can cause a kneecap to mis-track, which is a) rather limiting and painful and b) potentially quite easy to correct with some exercises.
IME physios know rather more about this sort of thing than quite a lot of doctors...
You should be able to get a referral to physio as part of your operation follow-up: if they don't suggest it, have a moan!

Pete.

[briansnail]

‘Cycle to avoid replacements’
Prof Alister Hart, chair of orthopaedics, University College London

People often think that exercise will damage their knees.

Cycling can be very good for working the knees and hips with its simple, inline motion. Building up to 30 minutes of movement on a bike every other day can really help to reduce the destruction of our knee and hip joints. Even though we have metal joints that we can surgically substitute, nothing quite compares to our own bone and cartilage, so we must look after these joints to begin with.(Guardian Newspaper).
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I ride Brompton,Hetchins 531