@Jaygam I recommend that you try a variety of methods and treatments until you find a combination that works for you. You appear to have started at my end point, ie buying an emtb, but there are physical and medical things you can do. I would go see a physio if I were you. There are muscle strengthening exercise you can be shown that will assist with any imbalance in strength of the muscles surrounding the knee joints. The physio can also show you what pattern of KT tape to apply .
I have osteo-arthritis in my knees. Walking is fine, but riding was not. Gentle riding was fine, but who wants to do that! It was uphill that was the problem, or climbing out of a hole - anything that required high pedal pressure in fact! It felt like aliens were trying to burst from my knee caps! I got fed up of being the one everyone was waiting for at the top of the hill so I stopped riding with mates anywhere steep. My distances declined until I was down to 10 miles per trip. I was not a happy chappy.
I tried everything, pain killers, pain killing gels, both together, KT tape, all three! Of course the physio was consulted, as I was already seeing her for shoulder problems (impact, not old age). But in the end I went to see the GP. He told me that it was not Rheumatoid Arthritis as I feared but plain and simple Osteo-Arthritis. I was already taking Glucosamine tablets, but started to take cod liver oil capsules, and then Turmeric tablets (recommended by the way). Along the way, I changed the gearing on the bike so that eventually I had a 30T front ring and a 50T dinner plate on the back. A few years ago I would have been able to climb a wall with that set up!
It was when I was down to 10 miles per trip with
at least two days between rides that I decided that enough was enough and decided to buy an emtb! After many demos and lots of reading, I bought one!
I've had the bike about four months and today I did 20 miles of off-piste in my local forest and I believe that I could do that again tomorrow! Yee ha!!!
