For people with knee arthritis, consistent cycling can help as long as your bike fits your current range of motion.
If every step reminds you that your knee hurts, you’re not alone. Arthritis, past injuries, or joint surgery can make even gentle activity feel risky. Yet movement is medicine — it feeds cartilage, builds muscle, and reduces stiffness.
The key is how you move. Cycling is generally one of the safest, most effective ways to keep joints healthy — when the bike fits your current range of motion. That’s where most people struggle, and where the OrthoBike Hero™ makes all the difference.
Osteoarthritis slowly wears away joint cartilage, while rheumatoid arthritis causes inflammation that limits bending and extension. Both conditions lead to stiffness and pain that worsen when the joint is idle.
Research consistently shows that cycling as a low-impact therapy improves joint nutrition, muscle strength, and functional mobility in people with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Gentle, consistent motion restores lubrication through synovial fluid, improves circulation, and helps reduce swelling. The goal is steady low impact exercise within the joint’s pain-free range of motion.
A conventional recumbent stationary bike demands a minimum of about 100-105 degrees of knee flexion for a full pedal rotation without much pain. Many people with arthritis can’t bend that far and have learned it hurts to pedal their bike.
The result: they stop moving — and nothing gets better. A truly arthritis-friendly bike must let users pedal in their pain-free range of motion and then progress as they are capable, over time.
Conventional exercise bikes labeled “low-impact” can meet only the last three points and may not do so well on the last one. The OrthoBike Hero™ adds the missing dimension — combined variable crank length and seat position — so you can begin cycling comfortably whatever your knee flexion is, even below 60°, and treat your joints to many revolutions of consistent motion over time.
If greater knee bend is one of your goals, you can incrementally advance your flexion in 3- to 5-degree steps. Check out our post OrthoBike vs. Fitness Bikes: A Better Way to Rehab After Knee Replacement to see how Orthobike can progress your knee range of motion without pain.
The OrthoBike Hero™ is the only low-impact bike that adapts to your range of motion, not the other way around — helping you rebuild strength, confidence, and mobility safely at home.
OrthoBike Hero™ gives you an alternative so you can get consistent beneficial exercise regardless of your range of motion, without pain.
Learn more about OrthoBike HERO and how it can speed your recovery →