KNEE PAIN

asmort

I am currenlty struggling with my bike fit. I have a 22" hybrid bike. i'm 6ft 2, slim and have size 13 feet I have recently bought shimano clipless peadless and shoes. when I cycle i get a pain behind my knee cap, sometimes my right, sometimes my left never both at the same time!!

I've tried to set up the bike as many websites suggest with the cleats at the ball of the foot. The knee slightly flexed at 6 o'clock. I have also made sure my knee cap is in line with the axis of the pedal when it is at 3 o'clock (well it's a tad in front 10mm but only because altering the saddle position seems to position it too far back on the rails and then it is a stretch for the handlebars and my back aches.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips or suggestions for long legged, short bodied and large footed man?

or is my knee goosed already.

prawny

I get this when my seat is a smidge too high with associated popping from the back of the knee with every stroke, I dropped my saddle down 1mm at a time until it stopped, now I'm comfy although probably too low, but meh

BeaufortB

Get knee pain if the saddle is too low. Like prawny couple of mm is all it takes to make all the difference.

biondino

A lot of knee pain is caused by bad cleat position. The cleats should not be perpendicular to the front-to-back axis of the foot, unless that's your foot's natural alignment.

Sit on a table, so your feet dangle. Whatever angle your feet are at in this position is the angle they should be on the pedals - the toes will probably point more or less outwards.

By and large, if you have a pain on the inside of the knee, you need to point your toes further out, and vice versa.

horder2344

I have had a couple of operations on my right knee - torn cartilage. I ride into London daily and it never gave me any problems though - that is until I bought a Giant FCR hybrid back in June.

I got aches in the knee and tried everything - seat up, down,back and forward , Cleat position etc but to no avail. Turned out that the problem was to do with something called the Q-Factor. Basically it's the width between the pedals. I always rode Mountain bike style hybrids (Scott Sportster and Bad boys etc) and the pedals are a lot wider apart. The FCR is basically a road bike with a flat bar and the pedals are roughy 3/4 of an inch closer. Consequently the lower leg is coming down to the pedal at a different angle and that was causing the knee to ache.

I took a break to give it a chance to settle down and then bought some knee saver spacers which go between the pedal and crank arm. This createds more width and it is fine now. Not sure if that is what is causing your problem but I would definatley measure the pedal to pedal width and see if the Cleat is holding your foot at a narrower angle