Thats why I have the off the shelf brace, bought direct out of pocket BEFORE new injury. If your an ACL or other knee injury patient then its usually no problem getting a custom CTi covered as part of treatment under a decent insurance plan.

Agreed, my asterisks were a preemptive strike-and well worth it, much cheaper than even missing a week of work. I figure with a couple of the get off's that i've done they have paid for themselves several times over.

Thanks everyone. I'll start looking at the Evs, Pod, CTi, and the Asterisk braces.

After further research, it came down to either the CTi ots or the Pod. I met a CTi rep and tried on the CTi ots brace. The fit was way off because I have bowed legs! He told me he could heat and bend the Ossur Flex brace but couldn't garauntee the fit.
So it looks like I will need the CTi Custom. I wonder if in the meantime I would benefit from a soft material brace? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Btw, I read Dr. Mark Sander's conclusion, and in a nut shell, a good brace does indeed prevent many knee injuries.

Got a link to that article??? Quick search I couldn't find it. Previously Dr. Mark was not really a knee brace advocate so this is interesting.


FWIW I read of a pretty unhappy guy with a POD brace. I guess he needed a few replacement pieces and the only way to get them was to buy the full blown rebuild kit for like $150. Might want to think about that or check into it before getting POD braces.

Sanders did a poll with an open mind about the use of a brace. His issue was if a potential broken femur due to a brace of questionable effectiveness was worth wearing it, as fixing a knee is easier and less risky than fixing a femur. I think this applies to very high energy crashes though, like in MX/SX. You see more femur breaks from big air gone bad than in the woods.

When looking at knee braces, be sure to look at the knee cap coverage while the knee is bent.
Most knee brace have a big opening that a branch will pass right through.
I looked at the POD braces, they seemed very light weight and did not offer much protection.

I have the Asterisks and the new four lace up system is a pain in the butt. The two lace system was much easier to attach to your legs.

Yes, I can vouch for that. In my case, the stick hit the knee cup, deflected sideways, and was caught by the frame, guiding it through my leg like a drill guide. It was jammed in so tight between the cup and frame the ER doc had a job pulling the brace off the stick. I would not let them cut it off!

A smoother frontal area would have allowed it to just slide off. I

Skidad, first of all GMP is right about the severe crashes/broken femur's. I don't race and mostly trail ride. I would assume I found Dr. Sander's conclusions on TT, but could have found them on knee brace advertisements referring to his conclusions or all the different web sites I visited, including two or three different online mags. U will find them if U keep looking.
I agree with gasgasman about the pod. U can't just buy the hinge part that wears out. U have to buy the whole kit. I decided on the CTi after reading that. The only downside to the CTi imo is the gap at the knee cup. U might be able to sew a thin plastic plate to the knee area inside your pants. Or file down the raised ridges on the CTi cup?

I think the easiest thing to do would be to attach a larger cup from a knee pad over the top of the CTi patella cup, one that covers the gaps. I know I have some old Moose guards with very large knee cups. Some good velcro would probably be adequate.