Seat Post Clamp Wrecking my knee!

disturbed.uk

I'm new to this, and got myself a nice shiny bike, but i've found that my left lower leg is the same length as the distance from the pedal when horizontal and back, and the seat clamp.

I found this at the end of a long downhill, while wearing shorts, which finished with "where has all that blood come from?"

Turns out the seat clamp qr bashes the inside of my left knee when downhilling.

Has anyone else had this problem, will it go away as I get more proficient, or shall make myself some kind of protection to go over the clamp?

delcol

try wearing knee pads. like 661 kyle st

depending how steep the down hill is you should have most of your weight over the back wheel off the back of the saddle,.

i can honestly say i never hit my knee on my qr on my seatpost...

did you drop your saddle for the downhill?
is the bike the right size for you.

do you ride with your crank horizontal for downhill. try having it vertical, with your prefared foot forward,.

disturbed.uk

The hill was a long shallow downhill, not technical at all - dropped 600 ft in 2.5 miles.

I dropped my saddle anyway, and stood with horizontal cranks, right foot forward.

Is it the right size? I'm 6'4" with long legs! I tried the 21 and 19" frames and the 19 was more comfortable. But i did buy a long seat stem.

nicklouse

sounds like something is not fitted correctly.

Pics of the clamp on your bike?

delcol

is the qr clamp when shut flush with the frame,, ie it's not over tightened and not closed propperly so is sticking out...

disturbed.uk

Here are some pics. The injuries don't look much, but I'd rather not get them everytime I ride!

disturbed.uk

I suppose one answer is to turn it round like this, but now it sticks out a lot on the other side, and it also exposes the thread and lever to all the crud.

http://picasaweb.google.com/disturbed.uk/Bike#5373208386361055394

Basically it is an ugly piece of kit, but all the other QRs I've looked at are pretty lumpy to

I'll give this a go, but I'm tempted to get a piece of Karrimat and some velcro ......

delcol

qr seem to be plush,

may be try knee pads,

Skippy2309

looks like the clamps on the wrong way round....

delcol

it's not it's a forward facing clamp thats all.

xtreem

[b]Skippy2309[/b] wrote:

looks like the clamps on the wrong way round....

+1

[b]delcol[/b] wrote:

it's not it's a forward facing clamp thats all.

Just because the seat tube is cut foward does that means that you have to put the clamp in that direction too?

Look how it's put on my bike, turn yours 180deg(from the first picture) an that's it,
you won't be smacking your knee on the clamp any more. And why do you care
if it's exposed to the mud at the back, I doubt that that will do any serious damage to it.

disturbed.uk

I thought of that, but there is still an ugly lump on the other end to remove bits of knee skin!!

Knee pads look like a good idea, but cost £40, karrimat & velcro will cost me nowt!!!

v23

disturbed.uk wrote:

I thought of that, but there is still an ugly lump on the other end to remove bits of knee skin!!

Knee pads look like a good idea, but cost £40, karrimat & velcro will cost me nowt!!!

Kneepads made out of karrimat & velcro? Brilliant, might try that myself.

naefearjustbeer

I have never managed to catch my knee on my QR but it did catch my shorts on it once and that opened it causing my seat to drop and as I was pedalling up hill at the time I had a comedy almost falling over moment..

CraigXXL

Try using a non-quick realease seat clamp like this http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/mountain- ... ollar.html

paul.skibum

Do you have knock knees at all? As in do they tend to come together - I can honestly say I have never experienced that problem and have a very similar seat collar on both my HT and FS. I clip my rear heel against the seat stays sometimes but that's about it.

I'd go for a bit of padding if you have to but its going to protrude even more and irritate the hell out of you rubbing on your knee. Might also find it buggers up your pedalling and makes you knees hurt more!

ratty2k

Looks like a bulky seatpost clamp more than anything- there are slimmer ones available for not too much money- A Hope one for around £20 mark, Salsa do some good one, and On-One make a Salsa copy thats prob a little cheaper.

0600661160

maybe you should change your seat post clamp to another type. Buy a new one with non lever..

disturbed.uk

i now know it isn't the seat post clamp doing the damage.

I made a very neat pad for it with some velcro and a piece of karrimat though!

it is actually the plastic clip that holds the hydraulic brake line to the cross bar. more padding in the offing.

BTW - I'm not knock kneed! quite the opposite, I coudln't stop a pig in an entry!

KonaKurt

Is it possible that the bike itself is a bad fit, in terms of frame geometry?

I am tall with quite long legs, but my knees come nowhere near the base of my seatpost, even when downhilling.

To an extent, the perfect frame is one that is 100% workable around your body, as well as a general good fit.

KK.

v23

disturbed.uk wrote:

i now know it isn't the seat post clamp doing the damage.

I made a very neat pad for it with some velcro and a piece of karrimat though!

it is actually the plastic clip that holds the hydraulic brake line to the cross bar. more padding in the offing.

BTW - I'm not knock kneed! quite the opposite, I coudln't stop a pig in an entry!

I don't think we've had cross bars on bikes since the 1970s. You'd remember that well though.

Daz555

Ahh, "crossbar". Proper name for it. 8)

ride_whenever

howabout just fitting a bolted one?

Anonymous

Something's wrong with your riding style. Your knees shouldn't be hitting the top tube, or the seatpost.

You're be in real trouble if your bike had a linkage system on the rear end.