recently tore my acl and am looking for some incite regarding a knee brace for roadracing. fitment under leathers, mobility, durability, cost, etc...thanks!
Tore bad enough to have surgery or are you trying to get by without surgery?
torn completely from femur. 1st doc wanted to schedule surgery, second said i could get by without it. i am opting for second doc's opinion. i dont play sports (read chasing a ball around) , so i will just have to be more careful in my day to day activities. knee is very stable, some popping and bones are still a bit bruised, but i think i might live.
I have an unrepaired right ACL. I wear asterisk knee braces for motocross, but there's no way they would fit without modifying your leathers. Also, they're very restrictive. Fine for moto since you're usually standing but I'd think the lack of mobility would be a huge distraction on my race bike.
I've managed to live with mine the way it is, and roadracing doesn't bother it at all. Stability is the biggest issue (as you're finding out) but racing shouldn't put any stress on it. I can't play hoops or football like I used to, but I completed a half-ironman triathlon last summer and I honestly only noticed it during the swim.
I guess what I'm saying is that you should get on the bike and see how it feels.
I tore an ACL and the Dr. wanted me to wait to reconstruct. I decided to reconstruct b/c I enjoy downhill skiing and wanted to keep doing that w/out a brace.
I race a season w/out an ACL with no problems. My knee would sometimes get a bit sore after a 4 race day, but not enough to keep me from racing the next day. Frankly, loading the bikes in the trailer required more care than racing.
Now I've had the reconstruction (lots of pain on the PT, but I was skiing 90 days after surgery) and for road racing, its really no different.
Bottom line, get back in shape and you won't notice a significant difference road racing (MX is a different story).
check out the medical thread on thumper talk. Tons of ACL information there.
Dr. Mark Sanders in Houston is the guy that did my knee.
Get it fixed! I had torn the left ACL and miniscus in martial arts. It never bothered me racing, but like stated before the stability was not there for other tasks. If you don't have the stability then the bones move around and will tear the miniscus. Get it fixed it's not that bad of a surgery.