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Well, the first thing about not stressing the knees in cycling is to use a low enough gear. Novice cyclists have a real bad tendency to inch along in the highest gear heaving and straining at the pedals, which is exactly what you do NOT want to do.
Even if you are fit and strong in the legs and riding flat terrain, I would make sure you have a couple of gears lower than 50", and use them religiously. You should be targeting a pedaling cadence of 60-90 rpm.
Once you get used to spinning low gears rather than pushing high gears, even low gear cycling will place stress on your knees till you build up all the cycling-specific muscles around the knees to stabilize and support the joints - so more frequent, shorter rides is the ticket. You are trying to build up muscles without straining the joints.
If you can afford it find a physical therapist that understands cycling. To answer your question, it depends. Can you do shorter trips without pain? Does the knee bother you while riding? How many miles can you go before the knee becomes aggravated? How long of a rest interval do you need between sessions? Only you can answer these questions. Maybe keep a log.
Sometimes my right knee bothers me. When it does I find myself pushing hard with the left leg on the downstroke, taking it easy on the right. Usually a few days off, then starting out easy especially with the right knee works. But not always.
The trick is learning to push hard enough without pushing too hard. I still haven't learned how to do that. Good luck.
I start out fairly slow and focus on spinning low gears. While riding, I have little pain. The next day, however, my pain is sometimes fairly severe when walking, however, other times, the day after, I have little pain. It is hit and miss. I do not ride again for about 6 days before again riding. The pain pattern seems to persist.
I held a racing license for years. During that time I injured, actually snapped, my ACL and tore some meniscus. The accidental injury was totally unrelated to my biking.
I saw a sport/med ortho doctor, he recommended ACL replacement and while he was in there he would repair, as necessary, the meniscus.
He was going to send me to PT, but once he realized how much I biked previous to the accident, he suggested I use the bike as my PT. He also suggested the meniscus was a harder rehab than the ACL. A week after the operation he started me on the trainer just rocking back and forth on the lower half of the pedal cycle until I could eventually proceed over the top of the arc. (about 2 or 3 days to finally make a full rotation). About 20 days after surgery I escaped the trainer and I was riding the bike slowly outdoors. Doc said to keep it simple, slow, short, and no sweating. Two weeks of easy neighborhood rides and he told me to try increasing the rides to 1- 1 1/2 hours at about 1/2 of my normal riding heart rate after warming up. No sprints, as few hills as possible, but use lowest possible gears and spin everywhere, especially on short hills. (to explain 1/2 heartrate, if i normally had a 60 resting and trained in the 150 to 180 range, he suggested I use about 1/2 the distance between the 60 and 170 rate, or 120-ish)
After 2 months of this type riding, I was riding to build my strength back and not worrying about heart rate or fatigue.
He also told me pain should be my guide after the 2nd month. Try not to take any pain meds before the rides as they would mask the bodies ability to slow me down. Take them later as needed.
Great summary of how to rehab a knee. Thank you for that. I have had 7-8 meniscus tears. Five in the right knee, which have all healed, or, at least, the pain is gone. My left knee, I believe, is healing, but it has been very slow. No surgery so far on either knee. My knee seems to have taken a dramatic turn for the better over the past 3 to 4 weeks. I have been biking a couple of times a week with little to no pain. I was taking fish and krill oil for about 6 to 8 weeks and maybe that is helping as my knee pain has dropped off significantly.
I had an MRI last year and it noted 2 tears and a loose piece in the left knee. There was possibly a "flap" as well. It is now about 14 months later and the knee is doing remarkably well. I did switch to shorter rides and high cadence pedaling. Great advice. I will keep the fish and krill oil going for now.
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