On October 4th, 2020 I crested an eight-mile climb, high above the village of Spitzenberg on a dirt road in a rural part of Columbia County about 10 miles northwest of downtown Scappoose when I stopped and had an epiphany. I was 30 miles from home at that point and was just about to descend even deeper into the woods and logging roads between Highway 30 and Highway 47. With the “bullshit miles” behind me, the ride was just getting good.
But something didn’t feel right. A bump on the inside of my right knee had become too obvious for me to ignore. So I aborted my route and headed home. I had two hours to think about what was happening and I’d been down this road before (literally and figuratively). I knew I’d reached a point of no return. ‘Here we go again,’ I thought.
30 years prior to that ride, when I was 16, I tore the ACL ligament in my left knee in a junior varsity basketball game. I remember going to launch off the gym floor and looking straight down at my thigh while my foot was way off to the outside. That injury cost me an entire year of high school basketball. I spent a year rehabbing. Then just a few games into my final varsity season, I tore my other ACL. I knew I’d reached a point of no return. ‘Here we go again,’ I thought.
Not being able to play varsity basketball was a huge disappointment in my life (I’m still not over it!). But cycling helped steer me out of my funk. When I found competitive cycling in college, I didn’t even care about basketball anymore. I just wanted to be the fastest guy in town. I rode and trained and raced hard for years. Then I buckled down to graduate, got married, had kids, moved to Portland, started a blog.
I started racing again in 2011, doing Short Track at PIR and cyclocross races whenever I could. I raced most years between then and 2019, but I mostly loved big, solo rides. The more climbing, the better. And if it wasn’t hard it wasn’t fun.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was wearing out my knees. Those two ACL replacements and three other knee surgeries 25+ years ago meant I’d been gnashing bone-to-bone all those miles all those years. I remember in 2000 or so, one of my knee doctors told me after an exam, “You should probably not ride out of the saddle anymore.”
I obviously didn’t take that advice. Partly because I was young and arrogant and felt like my body could do anything. But also because climbing out of the saddle was my favorite part of cycling. And isn’t cycling supposed to be good for your knees?!
In hindsight, and in light of what happened at the top of that climb in 2020, I should have chilled out a bit. When most people say, “Cycling is good for your knees,” they’re not necessarily talking about a 100 mile ride with 8,600 feet of climbing.
It’s been nearly five years since I put on the spandex and did a real big ride. It was strange at first to just quit cold turkey. But I love all the extra time I have. Getting away from serious cycling has allowed me to find new perspectives, new parts of my life, and to rediscover old ones I’d sacrificed at the altar of training rides. That’s the upside.
The downside is my health and fitness have suffered. I don’t get much exercise riding around town for work. As my concerns about my knees worsened, I began riding electric bikes almost exclusively, something I’ve done for a few years now. I could feel the spiral setting in: avoid the pain, don’t exercise, get older, feel worse, avoid the pain, don’t exercise, get older, feel worse, and so on.
In 2022 I saw a knee doctor. He basically said there was nothing he could do. I was too young for a knee replacement and I didn’t have a severe injury requiring surgery. Just manage the pain and wear a big brace if I need stability, he said. I didn’t like that diagnosis, but I was too exasperated with it all to do anything about it. I’d given up until a few months ago at Bike Happy Hour I overheard someone (hi Scott!) talking about their knee surgery. It went great, they said, and they were back to riding hard and feeling good. I got the name of his doctor and grabbed an appointment.
After some imaging and an evaluation, this new doctor said I was a great candidate for total joint replacement surgery. We scheduled both knee replacements at that first visit. I go in for the first one tomorrow.
35 years after my first knee surgery, I’m choosing to go through it again. Twice. It sucks to be missing a bunch of bike events this spring and summer, and it will not be good for my business, but I’m tired of having “bad knees.” If all goes according to plan, they’ll be good again (after some hard days and lots of physical therapy), for the first time since I was a teenager.
Maybe I’ll trying dunking again. Just kidding! I just want to ride bikes and not think about how my knees will feel the next day.
So things will be slow around here for the next week or so as I recover. Hopefully I’ll be back out on the streets in May. Then I go back under the knife in mid-June for my other knee. A shitty summer for an amazing (hopefully) rest of my life. I’ll take it!
Thanks for reading.
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Sounds like the beginning of a new, exciting, and gratifying chapter!
Sorry to hear you’ve been having knee issues, I had no idea! We’re about the same age and like you, I’m finding that all the abuse — er, make that “heavy use” — is starting to wear things down. No knee surgeries yet, but I recently had a surgical repair to my elbow. Surgery is no fun, but like you I have no wish to give in to the cycle you described – don’t work out, feel bad, don’t work out more, feel worse, etc. Best wishes for a good outcome, I’ll hope to compare scars at a bike happy hour sometime soon!
Thanks Dan! I appreciate that. And yes, we should have a “Show me your scars” night at Bike Happy Hour. That would be so rad.
Hope you have a good/speedy recovery!
As a swimmer who got into biking, I’d recommend trying some lap/open water swimming if you want a workout that’s even easier on the joints.
I love swimming Nick! And I’m always looking for something that’s easy on the knees. But it’s so hard to find pools in Portland.
There are also pools for PT if you need. I second swimming for the knees. Yea, Portland isn’t great for pools. Dishman and the East side community center are the better year-round ones.
Also, I’m gonna need corroborating evidence on that dunk 🙂
That photo is legit. We didn’t have AI back then!
That was my favorite dunk court. 9 feet high or so and I could all types of good dunks on it. I’d spend a lot of time there, by myself, just trying new dunks and seeing how high I could get.
And if anyone is curious, I only dunked 2 times on a regulation, 10-foot court. In pick-up games. Core memories for sure!!
Portland has lots of nice swimming beaches/docks. And the Willamette River is now usually pretty warm in the summer.
Try:
New swimming dock at Cathedral Park. Also beaches at the foot of Pittsburgh Ave and Burlington Ave.
Swan Island beaches.
Laps behind Duckworth Dock on the Eastbank Esplanade.
The cove in Waterfront Park south of the Hawthorn Bridge.
Poets Beach (west side, under Marquam Bridge.) nicest sandy shallow water for recreational swimming)
I’ve swam laps at all of these.
Not four season swimming. But very nice in the summer.
Just FYI,
Ted Buehler
After compiling this list, I have a few other reflections —
It’s curious to me that metro Portland doesn’t have a stronger tradition of “it’s hot, let’s go to the beach/go to the docks.”
There are another 10 or 15 good swimming spots along the Willamette in addition to the one I listed.
One common theme, though, is that there isn’t car parking at the swimming holes. Some don’t even have any road access at all.
So I suppose it is us as people on bicycles to really promote Willamette River Swimming for its appeal to the masses on a hot summer day.
The recent “Wednesdays at Duckworth Dock” are a good start. And the St. Johns Bridge/Cathedral Park dock is close to a parking lot. So it will help develop a culture. And the Sellwood Park waterfront beach also has parking and is popular. So there is material to start with. And Kelly Point Park is popular on the Willamette River side, and has parking. But it’s 10 miles away from most of Portland.
Here’s the full list —
Great swims at mostly bicycle-only spots on the Willamette River:
Cathedral Park — brand new swimming dock. Almost under the St Johns Bridge,but it’s pretty quiet, since the bridge has a 30 mph speed limit, and is 200’ above the river at the highest point (considerably higher than most other bridges). Lots of ladders. Plenty of families to make the place cheerful. And good ship-watching. The river is narrow here, so ships will be right in front of you. (Go to marinetraffic.org if you want to see if any ships are coming down or up there river in the immediate future).
“Burlington Beach” (my name). St Johns — foot of Burlington Ave — wheel your bike down the multiuse path, find a DIY path down to the beach, and you have a nice gravelly beach all to yourself. There are some old pier posts in the water, which are useful when swimming to set distance goals for distance.
Swan Island Beaches — east of the Daimler high rise offices, south of McDonalds. Easily the most underappreciated beach in Portland. It’s about 1/2 mile long, wide, sandy. Has a spectacular view of the Fremont Bridge, downtown, and the west hills. And a southwest aspect so you get warm sun on the beach even on the shoulder season for sunbathing. Or the best-possible sun as you dry off on winter polar bear dips. Or spring/fall cold swims. Zero public parking anywhere nearby. But you can park hundred of bicycles on the beach easily. Also quiet, with no highways in the immediate area.
Duckworth Dock — on the Eastbank Esplanade floating section. Strong current, deep water, lots of ladders for getting in and out of the water. Really nice open water swimming on the west side, somewhat protected swimming on the east. Zero car parking within 1/2 mile… Highways overhead, so it’s pretty loud, but they’re high enough that there’s not much immediate highway noise, just loud grey background noise.
Pirate Island — (Commonly used name, not an island) Eastbank Esplanade, between the Burnside Bridge and Morrison Bridge. What looks like a limestone outcrop is actually the pier of one of the previous Morrison Bridges. An old party spot after bike rides, I don’t know if rides still end there anymore. But a great place for a swim on a hot summer day. I think there are 2’ and 6’ “cliffs” for jumping off of, too. But of course, swim around below first to make sure there is enough depth. Also zero parking. But pretty loud because I-5 is at ground level just 50’ away.
Battleship Cove Beach — (my name) in Waterfront Park, the “bowl” south of the Hawthorn Bridge. (Where when you are riding south on the waterfront the paved path cuts inland in a big swoosh). I somehow had never discovered this until last summer. It’s a cobbley beach, so a little hard on the feet. But dramatic, shallow water good for easy swimming, and seems to not be used for swimming or sunbathing,which is odd. The beach was “built” in 1935 in a broad curve, to match the hull shape to the battleship USS Oregon, which was moored there as a permanent museum ship from 1936 to 1942. But, 84 years (and the coming and going of Harbor Drive Ramps) later, the ship-shaped beach remains in the middle of the city, in the middle of its most popular park, as an undiscovered swimming and sunbathing spot. Perhaps the lack of parking helps keep it quiet, but there is certainly a lot of *bike* traffic that could easily stop and use it for a bit on a nice day. Also. The quietest beach in the downtown area — sell set back from roads and highways.
Poets Beach — the best overall swimming beach in central Portland. Shallow water extends very far out, with a soft sandy bottom. Under the Marquand Bridge (*directly* under) so it’s quite loud, with the bridge itself rumbling, as well as truck engines, truck jake brakes, revving motorcycles, riceburners, muscle cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and everything else that routinely operates on I-5. But other than that a nicely developed beach with a pretty trail down to it, and regular use by respectable people, if that’s your crowd.
Other swimming spots of note:
Columbia River
Broughton Beach — Marine Dr north of the PDXairport. About “45th Ave” to “65th Ave” Super pretty beach, with a huge parking lot. River is cold, and kinda fast.
Rickey Point, east end of Hayden Island. No parking nearby. It is privately owned and was officially closed to the public about 12 years ago. But people have told me it is not fenced, and you can still bike there. Shallow, minimal current.
Vancouver waterfront beach. 500’ east of the I-5 bridge. Very nice beach. Almost nobody ever goes here. About 1/4 mile long, sandy. I haven’t swam here for years, so I don’t remember the current. Also, south-facing, so much better for sunbathing than the Oregon-side beaches
Kelly Point Park — most people swim/sunbathe on the Willamette side, which is very warm and sunny on summer evenings. But the Columbia side is also a very nice swim. And on hot summer days during a hot summer, the Columbia itself warms up to the point where it is pleasant and refreshing, rather than cold or frigid. The Willamette Side has wooden towers out in the water, good for “lets swim out to that post and back” distance activities with your friends.
Willamette River
NW Portland. Old pier/dock at new housing buildings. About 1/2 mile downriver from the Fremont Bridge. Very pretty views. Climb down a goat path through the blackberries at the downriver end of the dock/pier. Nasty concrete/rocks to get into the water, but great swimming after you get in. There is an empty industrial cove with no current you can swim around in. And some sort of a steel industrial tower (maybe originally to dock a ship to) that has a ladder on it, and you can climb up the ladder as many rungs as you like and jump into deep water. It’s the only good place for swimming I’ve found on the west side of the river north of downtown.
Marina dock. Between the Hawthorn Bridge and Tillicum Bridge. Big long dock, with watercraft on one side, open water on the other. on the edge of downtown. The catch is that there are *no ladders*. The only time I swam here was on a Mellow Mondays ride, and I think someone had to help me scramble back onto the dock. Otherwise you could just swim to the bank and clamber out on the riprap.
Johns Landing waterfront. A nice place to swim on the relatively newly constructed park and multiuse path system. An advantage here is that you are not downriver from the Ross Island lagoon, where toxic blue-green algae blooms in some summers come out and render the downstream beaches unswimmmable. Again, no easy public parking. But a great place to swim.
Fire station dock, east side, just north of the Hawthorn Bridge. Nothing special, but it’s another swimming hole, and has a ladder so you can get back up on the dock after swimming
OMSI dock — also nothing special, but, it’s another place to swim. And, I think it has ladders.
Sellwood Park beach. Just north of Spokane Ave in Sellwood. Classic, pretty sandy beach.
Just FYI,
Ted Buehler
Thanks for this list.
The dock just south of the Hawthorne Bridge on the East bank was very heavily used in the summertime, and was a fantastic place to swim. Sadly, Prosper Portland removed the dock and has never replaced it.
I used to swim there several times per week, until they ruined it. I don’t know where the 100s of people who used to swim there every week went. Highly diverse crowd by any measure.
It’s a real bummer, as that place was so great. Not much noise for such a central location. For me, the relative calm, being able to swim without touching the riverbed, having a low dock that didn’t require ladders for most people, easy eastside bike access, and having a clean place to put your towel were big draws. Duckworth offers some of that, but I don’t like the highway.
And we had it; all Prosper Portland needed to do to make it perfect was… nothing.
So glad you’re able to get the help you need. If you follow local artist and cyclist Lisa Congdon on insta, then you know she’s at the tail end of having both knees replaced. Her posts are uplifting and she’s on the bike again! Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Thanks for the reminder Maria. Someone mentioned Lisa and that’s great to know. I’ll follow her for sure.
Best of luck Jonathan – never easy to get surgery. Hope you have a swift recovery and are back on the bike soon! I really enjoy looking back on some of the long ride reports you’ve done over the years. The Coos Bay Wagon Road one is of particular interest to me as it relates to my pet obsession of the Oregon & California Revested Lands stuff, so I’m hoping to get down to Roseburg to check that off this summer.
I’d also recommend getting some swimming in as yet another swimmer turned cyclist. If you need a good pool in N/NE, Dishman is pretty nice and they offer a free pass for North Portland residents.
I see lots of guys (mostly older guys) out riding recumbent bikes. Maybe one of those would be easier on your knees?
I’m glad you wrote this article cuz I’ve been thinking that anti-cycling types could use your surgery to argue that biking is bad for people in general. But really it was basketball that blew out your knees and they have never really recovered.
Good luck with the surgery.
Best of luck Johnathan!
Wish you a speedy recovery Jonathan! Hope to see you out on the bike soon!
Please do a follow-up when it’s all over, I’d love to know how it goes and I’ll be hoping for the best! I have a somewhat similar story…I’m almost 50 and had two ACL reconstructions in my early 20s. They held up well until the last couple of years but now the arthritis has set in. I’d love to ride pain free again someday and use my mountain bike more often than I do!
I remember u in the Cyclocross days and more recent sightings on your E-bike (I have same model). Just wondered about the changes and appreciate hearing your story …and sorry to hear of the struggles. Happy and excited for u… wishing u the very best
Jon, you’re describing something I’ve been dreading for years now. Like you, I tore one of my ACLs in my youth. But like, I really tore it up. It was bad enough that the doc had to remove most of my meniscus as well, so I’ve been bone-on-bone in one knee since I was 20.
As I climber higher into my 40s, I can feel that knee ‘wearing down’ for lack of a better phrase. I’m sure you know the feeling – I’m sure a lot of readers here do! I haven’t had my point-of-no-return moment yet, but I know it’s coming. When I was 30, an osteopath told me I’d need a total knee replacement by the time I was 40. So every year that my knee still feels healthy is a blessing at this point.
Godspeed on your surgeries and subsequent recovery! Here’s hoping we see you zipping around town in no time!
Thanks Nate. Yeah those ACL repairs always lead to osteoarthritis. That’s what I’ve got. Lots of growth on the ends of my bones. that’s where the misalignment and pain is coming from. My knee I’m getting fixed today is starting to collapse on one side and it’s expanding a tendon on the other side, which is sore to the touch and if I let it go, the knee would collapse and I’d be knock-kneed, and so on. Anyways, thanks for the kind words and don’t let your situation get so bad before you do something.
OK, since we do the same thing for ODOT reports and PBOT PR pieces, I gotta ask, was the second doctor, the one who is going to do surgery, going to get paid for their work? Were they really unbiased? Or were they trying to sell you a bill of goods?
Like anyone else with a chronic age-related ailment, I too prefer to hear good news from the happy doctors that everything is going to get fixed in no time, and I like to avoid hearing the penny-dreadfuls from other doctors that my condition is more or less for the rest of my life, that I’ll need to make lifestyle adjustments and so on, that I may never fully recover, that my pills are pretty much permanent. We are all like that. It’s a lot like hearing that ODOT will always be focused on highways, that we will probably never see Portland with a 25% bike mode share no matter how much we hope for it, certainly not by 2030 at any rate.
According to many doctors I’ve talked with over the years, invasive surgery is generally pretty bad for the body, any kind, best avoided if possible. Sometimes its necessary, even vital, but never something to take lightly. It’s a lot like building freeways, it permanently ruins everything else, but especially the environment. If I were you, I would have gone back to the first doctor, the negative one, and find out precisely why they thought it a bad idea.
Making judgments about the medical care that people seek for themselves sucks, no matter their gender identity and the purpose of their medical care. If you wouldn’t do it, that’s fine! You don’t have to make the same choice! Maybe you and Jonathan know each other in the real world, but why are you judging his medical choices on his blog? Getting a second opinion on a major medical decision is 100% a great idea.
Best of luck Jonathan! My dad had a total hip replacement several years ago now, and while it did take him a year to get down to minimal pain, he’s back to walking and hiking for many miles. The mental toll of compensating to deal with pain is awful and I’m glad you found a doc who can help you do something about it!
Thank you Paige. And just FYI David and I know each other a bit from his days doing advocacy here in Portland. I found his comment a bit off-putting, but I also know his commenting personality and I was more like, “classic david!” than anything. I’ll reply to him as well.
Hi David,
I’m a person, not a state agency, so it’s odd you’d compare me to ODOT! But really, I understand your questions. I’m not naive and I understand the power of profit motives. I didn’t like that first doctor for other reasons. He barely listened to me, he didn’t even acknowledge my two-knee problem, and was just in-and-out. His idea was that I would wear out my new knees so I should just sit and wait and buy some time. But that logic makes no sense to me: Why waste my good years now so I can have better knees when I’m really old and don’t need them as much? And the tech will keep improving in the future so who knows what options will be available when I’m 80 and my new knees are wearing out. (and FWIW they will be titanium, so they should last a long time)
And FWIW my new doc is really really well-reputed, he was “Doctor of the Year” from Portland Monthly a bunch of times and I got him on a referral from someone I know and trust. And what Paige said! My knees are f’d and it’s hurting my quality of life right now. This seems like a great remedy. Thanks.
JM, I really appreciate your response. As this is your blog and to a large extent reflects your personality and your views on life, I expect and hope that as you age further there will be more frank discussions of aging and our responses to it, new technologies to reverse its effects, surgeries and drugs to cope with aging issues, and so on. You’ve always had commenters who are older than you who themselves are dealing with various issues, but now I dare say you can sympathize even better. I interact with many people older than myself who find that they can’t bike like they used to, that even raising their leg to get on the saddle is a serious hassle (aren’t dropper seat posts great?), that they are losing their sense of balance; others are wondering, should they get an ebike, if so which one, and if not, maybe a Swytch front wheel instead? it would be great if you could produce a series on bicycling for those who are no longer as mobile as they used to be, those who no longer feel they are 16 unless they are on an ebike.
I would think of it more like this: if I have to replace the knees “too young” and I get 15 more years of activity, enough that they need to be replaced again at age 60 or 70, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The alternative is decreased activity and enjoyment, which can lead to many problems.
Of course surgeries can go wrong, but the risks of doing nothing seem so much higher in your case.
If you have the insurance and the money to do it, I think it’s the right call.
Best of luck. I understand that knee ligament surgery has improved a lot in recent years. I am much older than you and know a lot of “old athletes” who share your experience. A lot of them have had different types of knee and shoulder surgery and everyone went well.
I’ll be thinking of you. Good luck, and here’s wishing you a speedy recovery. —Lisa
I went on a mountain climb with a local mountaineering club years ago. I was in my early thirties and the leader was in maybe his late fifties/early sixties. He’d had knee replacement surgery recently and kept joking about his new bionic knee… while putting in a successful 5,000 vertical day.
I’m optimistic for your surgery!!!
Good luck with your recovery, Jonathan. Once your on the other side, we’ll need to get out for a ride in the hills.
Oh, if I could only get a referral for a replacement hip, elbow, and spine. I’m only asking for L1 down, is that so much? Kayaking, not basketball got me. Sit cross-legged and drop 10 feet to a hard floor. Yup, I am measurably shorter.
and thumbs up on the e-bike love, of course! Heal well and fast.
Always appreciate your reporting and perspective. Hoping you have smooth and speedy recovery. Sounds like you’ve got a good doc too. My dad had both knees replaced and he went from not being able to get off the couch to hiking all the way to Everest base camp. I’m sure it’ll feel good to get back out on your acoustic bikes again 🙂
My left knee has been a problem for several years. It would painfully “go out” leaving me with weeks of recovery, use of a cane and painkillers. One thing I did to relieve pain was first, to wear an elastic knee bandage on my left knee and secondly to wear a matching elastic knee bandage on my right knee. The two knee bandages together helped me return to my normal walking gait and pace.
Hey Jonathan,
I had both my knees “scoped” in the 90’s…much less serious than ACL, but after both the doc said “we got the loose Cartlidge, but now you haven’t got any!” Same for my 84 year old sister who’s X-rays show bone on bone. She does 20-30 minutes every AM on a stationary recumbent; I do ten minutes plus of “bicycling” on my back with weights. “Motion is the lotion” with as little impact as possible.
That said, good luck with the replacements, and from all I hear, PT is still the key to a speedy and full functioning recovery.
Thanks for the insights Lenny. Just keep moving is always the answer right? Hope you are doing well.
A hard choice for sure, and I’m definitely wishing you a smooth recovery (and patience about being off bikes while your body heals). I was in a very different situation years ago w a ruptured disk but managed to avoid surgery with an excellent physical therapist (after seeing five or six NOT excellent ones) . My takeaway is that for prevention and also for rehabilitation after surgery, a good PT is sooo important. Mariah Frank at SoundBody is great. They are smart, compassionate, and empowering; basically I now see them several times a year for “aging fiercely,” meaning they make sure I’m keeping my body strong and agile to minimize problems down the line. I am hoping to be in this body for a while, so PT as I go is like keeping the bike chain oiled!
Thank you Lois. Glad you found a great PT person and this is great advice. I’m excited for PT and am already doing exercises at home. My surgery went well and I’m feeling good so far.
I had a total hip replacement when I was 49 (approaching 64). I recently tore my medial meniscus and am slowly rehabilitating that. Sucks to get old, but the alternative isn’t better. The best advice I got from a (now retired) occupational therapist was that when the physical therapist comes to see you shortly after the surgery muster all the enthusiasm you have and get to work because the quality of your recovery has a lot to do with what you do right after it.
Jonathan, I wish you luck and healing. In time it will be worth it. I look forward to seeing you out there.
Thanks for sharing your story, Jonathan, and best wishes for a strong and steady recovery. I’m turning 70 this August and finally getting back on my bike after a 15-year hiatus, so I’m especially eager to see more stories from those of us navigating the ride as we age.
I’m sorry for the quality bike time you’ll miss this summer, but it’s a great time to listen to The Body You Have and negotiate how you and it will get along going forward.
Wishing you a complete and successful recovery!
Thanks for the article, and I wish you a good recovery, twice. It was none of my business but it did seem e bikes were a little out of character for you. They have their uses–hopefully you’ll be able to put those more in the back of the shed!
I’m going send this link to my friend S. who’s a PT and a strong rider. I always admired her for putting in the work before the sport, a thing I hardly ever did.
People hate on the BP comments but at times they do add quite a bit to the article. You strike a pretty good balance in moderation. In 2025 that’s kind of Niagara-Falls-on-a-high-wire level agility.
I had both hips replaced 12 years ago at the age of 44.
Being able to ride bikes again without pain has been amazing for the spirit.
A year after my second surgery, I was riding the Stelvio pass in Italy to culminate my recovery.
I hope you’re able to heal up quickly and resume your passion, and setting a goal around it, like Cycle Oregon gravel, where I first saw your Ti Desalvo(?).
There should be some kind of local ride group where membership is contingent upon some kind of joint removal.
Feel better Jonathan and thanks for letting us all know!
Best of luck with the surgery. Mine was the left hip-total replacement. When skiing I cranked a hard turn and felt the cartilage get crushed to the bone. Hips are more simple than knees but they cut my buttock open like a piece of beef. There was pain during recovery. Now there is no pain and I never even think about. Bike riding is still an activity I enjoy frequently and you (at your young age) should heal well and recover fully.
I remember heading into the operating room and looking at all the power tools they had. Looked like a mechanic’s garage.
Best of luck Jonathan!
Thanks for sharing, Jonathan – best to you on your road to recovery!
I finally went to the doc last year for various pains I’ve been ignoring for years. Luckily, almost all of them have been greatly helped with physical therapy and bike adjustment. Hopefully I can get another 20-30 years of riding.
So glad this is happening for you – can’t wait to see the epic rides that you’ll be doing in the coming years!
Hope you have a swift and successful recovery, Jonathan! Didn’t realize we had that in common – I also tore my ACL in high school basketball, robbing me of a varsity lacrosse spot (still mad about it) and then 5 years later tore the other one and had a meniscus surgery in there too. Fully expecting an early knee replacement like you. I hope your pain is relieved and you’re back riding ASAP! Take care.
Oh gosh NMB. Sounds similar to me. Sorry that happened to you. I understand how you are still mad about it. I worked so hard and had everything destroyed. I was really depressed after my injury. I went from a 4.3 GPA before my injury to a 1.6 GPA in the following quarter. I was so sad. Basketball was my life. And it was so hard to see everyone else’s life go on when my dreams were dashed. Ugh. But it also helped me grow up and mature in some big ways too. Dealing with adversity, not taking things for granted, and so on. Thanks for sharing your story. Hope to see you around soon.
WTF, man, if there is a surgery that can (mostly?) fix the problem and the doctor says you’re not “old enough” for it? That’s incredible. These are the years where it will make the most difference! What good is it to have good knees when you’re in your 70s after having wasted the last 30 with bad knees. It is ridiculous how our healthcare system has such obvious holes in it, that you had to get lucky and overhear someone say that.
I’m starting to have problems, e.g. with knees and back, which haven’t yet stopped me to the same degree but I worry they may, so this hits particularly close to me (I’m sure many readers here actually).
Anyway, I hope for the best for you, that would be amazing if it makes such a huge improvement!
Thanks John V.
Who would be interested in a “Joint Replacement Ride” during Bike Summer? I’ve heard so many folks in our community share their experiences in the past few weeks. Maybe we could all get together and ride. We could stop and share our favorite PT exercises. Have a bonfire effigy for braces and bandages and other stuff we wantto put past us, share spoken words, and ?
That sounds like a great idea! I’m not yet anywhere near any joint replacements as far as an X-ray can see at least. Fingers crossed. Just, starting to notice pain where there wasn’t any.
Are you going to be able to do a ride that soon? That’s pretty awesome if so.
Yeah… get used to it.
This is your chance to tell people that despite how well the surgery went, you’re no longer able to dunk. No need to volunteer how long it’s been since you could dunk.
Hi qqq. I think maybe you misread what I wrote. I don’t care about dunking any more. I am not trying to play basketball again. I just thought it’d be a fun thing to share for context and because it’s something I am really proud of! Thanks for the comment.
I realized that. I think my comment was triggered by remembering a friend of mine in high school who jammed his thumb dunking and had to wear a splint on it. He kept in on for weeks after he didn’t need it anymore, just so people would ask him how he injured it. Unlike you, who’s been writing for years without ever mentioning dunking, he’d work it into any conversation he could.
Dear Jonathan,
Oh man! I had no idea this was going on when we recently met. You have done so much for the PDX bike community in so many different ways. I know for sure you’ll be back on your bike with cameras dangling around your neck documenting the scene and filing stories. Sending healing thoughts your way mate. Talk soon. Geoff
Thanks Geoff! Can’t wait to be back out there. But then I go back under the knife again June 20th… So really I won’t be fully back until early August. I can’t wait!
For all of you wishing JM well for his upcoming procedure I think now is the time to fill in for him on BP with articles about your neighborhoods. He’ll be able to edit and post eventually and I’d be thrilled to hear about your neighborhoods and bike experiences while riding in, and around PDX.
Take lots of pics, write about your regular routes and the ‘hoods you live and the challenges associated with grocery shopping, kids to school, parks and open spaces and some of the exquisite gardens along the way. I’m certain the BP bike community will step up to keep us informed and entertained.
JM has given us this platform, let’s use it to help out. Cheers!
BTW, I’m a former member of the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol with an ACL replacement on R knee and scoped and removed “crunchies” on my left knee. Biking was a big part of my rehab.
Thanks for the boost curly. I always enjoy sharing guest posts, so yes please do feel free to send me over your stories if you’ve got them. I’m transitioning BP from a “news team” model to one where it’s feels more like “just a guy and his blog,” but I want to also add more “a platform for the community” vibes and that’s where guest articles can come in.
I need to develop and share some writing guidelines that will help folks know what I’m looking for.
Best of luck in the second surgery and your rehab, Jonathan. The new hip I got a dozen years ago gave me a new lease on an active life, which is exactly what I hope your new knees will do for you!
Hey Jonathan, by now you’ve probably figured this out on your own, but after my own ortho surgery, I found that alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen blocked pain as well as (better than?) the prescription painkillers. The prescription meds did do more to take my mind off my condition though, haha.
Been through the double total knee replacements scenario, best decision ever made. Done several metrics and plan on three centuries for 2025. Most important advice is to complete all post surgery PT to regain flexibility and start strengthening. And get back on and ride!!!
I hear you. I’ve had both ACLs rebuilt and 4 other small surgeries to remove torn cartilage in my knees. I feel lucky they are still holding up well on the bike, the skateboard or snowboard is a bit harder on them – ONWARD. Keep up on the PT!! See you back our there soon!
In June 1978 I was playing touch football with friends. A few strangers wanted to play, and after a few plays my whole life changed.
One of the strangers decided to clip me and severely damaged my left knee cap and ligaments. After a few years I resumed activities like motorcycle riding, and eventually tried cycling, both on and off road. I made my right leg take on most of the work , and regularly hobbled on the left knee. It took 35 years for my right knee
to be completely damaged from excessive use. I found Dr. Borus in Vancouver that was willing to do a bi- lateral knee replacement. The pain once was better than remembering the pain before another surgery.
I found that to strengthen my knees after surgery I needed to strengthen those small stabilizing muscles that we rarely think about. I found laterally walking off camber and rocky areas working on balance made my legs much stronger. There are things I cannot do like running and kneeling with my body weight, but cycling is better than ever, and both my legs get to share the work now.