Quote Originally Posted by Pax View Post

...snip

The bad news is since my knee is so full of scar tissue from the five previous surgeries, my mobility is permanently compromised (you can still gain some increased range of motion in the first 18 months). I'm at 104 degrees of flexion and 5 degrees of extension; what that means is at 5 degrees extension I have a slightly impaired gait (I limp often since I can't straighten my leg all the way), and bike riding requires about 117 degrees of flexion so when I attempt it I end up tearing scar tissue loose. All in all it's better than before the surgery, but I sure wish I'd had a better result.

Pax, based on my experience you might recover your range of motion:

I injured my knee playing racquetball. After major surgery on the knee my knee froze in a bent position, probably due to inflammation. I underwent two manipulations under anesthesia to break the resulting scar tissue free. Despite several months of physical therapy, I was never able to regain full range of motion. After a year, I had more knee surgery in an attempt to fix the problem, but it did not help.

For many years I could not fully straighten my leg, I walked with a limp, and I needed to wear a knee brace. Then I discovered biking. After one particularly arduous ride into very strong wind my knee was extremely painful and I could barely walk. But to my amazement, the next day my knee felt great, I could fully and easily straighten it, and I didn’t need the knee brace.

Bottom Line: I have found over the years that biking is the only thing that keeps my knee free from pain and fully flexible - BUT, I have to set up my bikes for spinning (knee slightly ahead of pedal, easy gear and ~90 RPM) as opposed torquing (knee behind pedal, hard gear and low RPM) or else I end up hurting the knee.

Hope you too find a way to regain full knee mobility!