Are knee braces the new cool kid on the block gotta have thing now?
Unless you're a racer (Joe) or have previous knee injuries or just crappy knees (Ken) why would you wear braces?
How many of us have ridden for decades without such accoutrements and survived?
I was reading a thread about a guy who paid $500 for braces and they won't fit cuz he has cheap ass boots. Now he's told he needs $500 boots
How about learn to ride and stay within your limits?
I wish I would have had a set on last year when my 5hunny fell on my left knee in a rock garden. I mean it was the perfect storm, but still it would have help I bet. But I didn't go buy any though. I wear pads but they don't do much for lateral stress.
My opinion on them is if you're offroad you should have braces.
One of my buddies was out with us at taskers and came to a stop and missed his footing, falling over and wrecked his knee. A couple hundred bucks for braces could have saved him years of pain (he didn't do the proper physical therapy after and wrecked his hip as a result, just had it replaced last year).
Now the neck brace I wear I could probably live without, seems to be mixed stories on them helping or hurting in a crash.
I was under the impression, get a brace for an injured knee or loose one. There are custom braces and OTC "over the counter." Everyone's knees are different like feet, fingerprints, head shape etc... The brace needs to fit really good/snug to work properly. I doubt I would ever find an OTC to fit me.
Lots of good info from Dr Mark On TT. https://thumpertalk.com/search/?q=knee% ... c&nodes=32
I never hurt my head (badly) as a kid w/o a helmet. Why wear one now? (on the other hand, my good friend and college roommate literally left some of his brain in a parking lot when he wrecked w/o one.)
I snapped a toe half off riding downhill mtb w/o proper shoes ~2yrs ago. Guess who owns $150 five-ten downhill shoes now?
I used to race cars and basically watched a guy die sending his Factory 5 through a tree. He was a goner. Turns out he was wearing a HANS before they were popular and he was walking around in the pits an hour later. I bought one before the next event. They weren't mandated until a couple years later.
I've seen recovery from a torn miniscus & ACL in the wife. A year+ recovery and it's never the same. F-that! Knee braces are cheap insurance. Better ones (like the POD K4 V2) are covered by your medical. My employer contributes to my HSA every year so while they are ~$500 it didn't cost me anything diectly. Good ones are fully customizable fot fit and invisible to wear once on.
And since you brought up boots... When I got into this sport not too long ago, a good friend said "buy the knarliest most armored boots you can afford". I heeded his advice and they have protected me well and probably stopped me from breaking my ankle in a wreck last year.
Riding 'within you limits' has little to do with it. Tons of people blow out knees and break ankles just stepping off the bike in the wrong spot. Accidents happen. My wife blew her ACL doing the limbo before a Buffet concert and not while she was playing soccer.
I'm getting older. Even childhood injuries are coming back to haunt me. I will armor up as much as practical. A blown knee will cost me thousands of dollars but the true cost is the pain for the rest of my life. Knee braces are priceless in comparison. If that's part of a new fad then, well, it just means we are getting smarter.
Laoch wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:34 am
What's next? Exo-skeleton?
Do more squats
We're almost there with air bag suits and D3O armor throughout.
I went through a season of busting some ribs in a couple of different incidents. One didn't heal just right and for the last few years it's felt like someone is constantly poking me in my back. The last time I got a chest x-ray they asked me if all that happened in the same accident...
I'm pretty much an ATGATT kind of guy myself but it's a decision for everyone to make for themselves.
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why. - Mark Twain
and other irrelevant chit-chat 
