Knee brace vs no brace

It's personal preference when talking to guys, I've gone through the whole ACL deal just like alot of others on here I'm sure, but I know I won't ride without them. I wear a custom brace on my worked knee and Asterisk on my still healthy knee. Talk to your doctor when your ready to get back on the bike, they can prescribe you a brace for your worked knee and spend the money for the good one. Just my 2-cents.

One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the point with knee braces, but if there's still doubt there's actually a study made to prove the point even further. Or one could ignore that and go for gut feelings of course.

Search google or look in the neck brace thread from last week...

I started riding when I was 8 and never wore knee braces until I was 15. When I was 16 I landed wrong and slammed my foot into the ground. The end of the bars on the knee brace snapped my tib/fib.

I guess I'd rather break my leg than blow out my knee.

Depending on what doctor you get an opinion from they're about 30% more effective than no protection, and there's still a risk of tearing or hurting your ACL with the braces on (I've done it). Obviously they transfer the load they do take off your knee somewhere else and contribute to broken femurs. But if you're in that situation something is going to give, it comes down to personal preference which you'd rather deal with. A broken femur they'll put a rod through or a torn ACL that will have to be fixed. Either sucks, my advice is don't crash.

Personally I hated the damn things. After 25 years of regular knee pads the braces felt SO bulky. I had to learn how to ride bow-legged and they tore my clothes/shrouds up quick. After rehabbing my knee fully I finally just went back to regular pads.

Much like the Leatt people will say some protection is better than none. But it really comes down to what you can put up with. You'll be smoother and have less chance of crashing when you're comfortable. For me strapping shit to my body definitely detracted from my comfort level.

I used braces for a while but I still have a rod in my left femur and it was clear to me that the knee braces could exert a lot of pressure on that rod in a big wreck. I decided I'd rather tear up my knee than bend the rod so I stopped using them.

If I'd had my knee reconstructed but my femurs were good, I might go the other way.

This is the exact same situation I am in, afraid of bending/breaking my rod.

There is no guarantee that they will prevent injury. I started riding before knee braces were made popular but once I wore a pair I never went back. I would say 60% of the reason I wear them now is for gripping the bike better and they save the inside of my knees. I've broken/shattered plenty of asterisks but the way I look at is...they broke so my leg didn't.

same here (but with a rod in my tibia) - im very paranoid about it! hoping to get it removed over the winter period ready for next season!

My knee was destroyed, so I wear a knee brace, no way without it! OK now no problems I can ride and do what I want, just cant run full speed.