Thanks for the link.
When I first started traveling by bike, I just rode in swim shorts--cool and easy to wash. But as time went on, I broke with my low-tech aesthetic, and eventually geared up all around, starting with a proper Marin mountain bike I bought in Capetown, to handle African conditions. For shorts, I ended up with typical bike shorts with a chamois, and a hard saddle--much better than the gel saddle that came with the Marin over longer distances. Of course shorts and saddle are very personal, what works for one person may not work for another. I would usually put regular shorts or long pants over the cycling shorts when I went through towns and villages, especially in Muslim areas or anywhere where people dress conservatively.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought some Pearl Izumi Quest shorts (
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KT3XQM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00) but I didn't realize the chamois was synthetic and the padding around the privates seems a little excessive. So I'm going to try an upgrade to Sugoi RS Pro shorts, on closeout at REI. (Oh crap, now I see they're even cheaper on Amazon.) I usually put gym shorts over the bike shorts so that I have pockets and don't flaunt my beautiful middle-aged ass for free. I thought about getting the shorts that look like regular shorts but with chamois stitched in, but I figure my system works better because if the outer fabric wears out, you just need to go to Target or someplace and pick up another pair of cheap gym shorts.
So you're saying in CO nobody wears the tight cycling shorts?
I also got a handlebar mirror two days ago and that's been working out well. The turn signals I'm not sure about. It'll take a little Gerryrigging to make them work with my set-up. They're supposed to fit under the saddle, but the legs bump into it there, so it has to go on my rack somehow.
The reason I'm worried about the deads is because that "avoid everything" guy, RFL or RDF Fitness, reasoned that deads put a lot of sheering force on the knees during the initial leg drive. The second ortho seconded this idea, but it's hard to tell how much he was paying attention to what I was saying. Maybe he was just being agreeable and thankful that he had a patient that wasn't going to insist on doing everything he did before. He certainly endorsed the idea of giving up running. But he was also the most eager to perform surgery, so he may have lined up towards the more cautious/interventionist pole of the meniscus continuum. On the other end you have people like Dutchie and many others who keep on running and doing everything they did before, but with careful management.
I guess with the degenerative meniscus, you have to go with practice more than theory, find out what works, what's manageable, because the knees are never going to be 100% again but you can't simple do nothing. I'm giving up running because that's when the issue flared up the most. I have no proof that deadlifts aggravate my menisci, it was just from theory, so probably worth experimenting with.
With the SLDLs, I don't know if they are in fact any better for my knees than conventional DLs, but I do know they are killing me, in a good way. Really a great lift, but I kind of miss having a load goal for the Deadlift. I still would like to do a 400-pound single someday, and SLDLs aren't really conducive to singles. Just too much strain on the hammies and lower back. So the idea might be to keep in practice with 3 x 5 conventional deadlifts once a week, and then once in a great while test the singles. Once my left thumb heals up, I'll probably want to test singles on the presses once in a while too, maybe once a cycle.
Thanks for the waterproof shoe covers idea. Any brand recommendations?