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Crunchy noise from knee

dieselenginedieselengine Posts: 72
edited May 2019 in Training, fitness and health
Been a club rider for 25 years. Now 43 yrs of age, with sedentary office job. A few rides over the past winter, but not consistent rides. Bike fit by Adrian Timmis last June (can't praise this highly enough). Doing regular, easy base training rides, currently upto a couple of hours.

Have noticed a crunching noise (suppose some may call it grinding), from dominant right knee, when out riding. Sounds to be coming from patella area. No pain/swelling from it during or after riding. Is only audible when pushing down from the top of the downstroke. Can also provoke the sound if get up from a crouching position.

Not done anything exceptional in recent times to injure the knee, (unless you count ripping out bathroom, and the subsequent plastering, tiling etc).

Not causing any problem, but I have had no probs before, and I am wondering if this is something I need to get checked, as it may be early signs of something sinister.

Any ideas? Many thanks

Posts

  • BillyMansellBillyMansell Posts: 817
    Best thing to do would be get it checked out with your GP.

    My knees, especially the left, make terrible grinding noises when standing up or climbing stairs but I had them checked by my GP and there's nothing untoward going on other than general wear-and-tear for my age.

    I can avoid most issues with my knees if I avoid high impact exercises which can cause patello-femural injuries (I jogged just a few hundred yards last November and injured my left knee which affected my riding and took three months to clear), so I avoid exercise that can cause me injury whilst, thankfully, continuing cycling which strengthens the supportive tissue to the joints.
  • kettrinboykettrinboy Posts: 613
    im 48 and have exactly the same crunching noise from my left knee and a bit from my right knee when getting up from a crouching position, ive had it for at least 10 years and over 23,000 miles of cycling in the last 5 years, it hasnt made it any worse, and it doesnt cause me any pain at all, so i figure it cant be anything too serious, if it was i would be feeling pain, if it does start to hurt i,ll see the doc about it.
  • waterford123waterford123 Posts: 172
    Welcome to your forties. Mine grate, grind, click and clatter like Giant Haystacks sitting on a bag of coffee beans.
  • alistairdalistaird Posts: 290
    waterford123 wrote:
    Welcome to your forties. Mine grate, grind, click and clatter like Giant Haystacks sitting on a bag of coffee beans.

    +1 :cry:
    Alistair


    Best Weather Bike - Time ZXRS
    Summer Road Bike - Pinarello FPX Dogma
    Winter Road Bike- Colnago E1
    Being Dismantled - Sintesi Blade
    Mountain Bike - Sold them all....
  • peterw47peterw47 Posts: 24
    Oh dear, I'm 23 and have a bit of crunchy noise when getting up from crouch... I don't stand much chance when I'm in my 50's really :-(

    I have got an appointment with an orthopaedic specialist tomorrow though about some other pain in my knee so I'll be mentioning that!
  • lloyd_bowerlloyd_bower Posts: 664
    As a contra to the positive news, I've had the regular crunching noise in my left knee for over 18mths now (also 43). In that time I haven't done a serious long ride and get pain simply walking.

    It's really ruined my cycling, was regularly doing 100k plus rides before and was as fit as ever. Since the pain started I've eased off totally, then periods of just commuting, but it's never improved. 6 months ago also started getting the pain in the right knee, though no clikcing noises.

    I've seen two physios, and a knee specialists who was no use, said there was nothing wrong on mri scan and xray. Followed stack loads of info re: exercises on the web, patella femoral sysndrome, seems to cover my symptoms but no joy. Have now stopped cycling again totally, though it feels worse than ever. I see a Sports Doctor next week so at least may find out more.

    If I hadn't taken up sea kayaking I would have gone stir crazy by now, amazing how much you miss cycling.

    Definitely get it checked out, just to be sure.
  • manxshredmanxshred Posts: 295
    My wife snapped her ACL tendon in her knee and has ended up with a lot of grinding in the knee. From what we were told by the Ortho is X-Ray is next to useless and even an MRI does not usually show enough for knee problems.

    The grinding was usually caused by the meniscus (pad of cartilage between the knee joint) which starts to wear and causes fuzz on the surface. They have cleaned this up in my wifes knee twice now.
  • NeilMickNeilMick Posts: 98
    Mine was grinding and I'm only 26, I had a tight ITB which was causing the knee alignment problems, my knee was tight and the noise was the fatty sacks of my knee being compressed when they shouldnt have been. I thought it was my cartlidge but the very experienced physio told me otherwise, a month of ITB stretches an it grinds no more!
  • mz__jomz__jo Posts: 398
    My knee clicks and grinds all the time but then I don't have any meniscus left on the inside side of the knee joint and it runs bone on bone. MRI diagnosis was completely up the spout but a proper x-ray examination confirmed the problem and the cause.
    My wife has had the calcium deposits cleaned out of her knee joint. The benefit lasted about a month before it began to deteriorate again.
    Its called getting old!
    http://rctl.ffct.org/
  • bontiebontie Posts: 177
    I am 32 and have had "grinding" knees since my early teens.

    At one stage there was a GP that thought I should go for an op to "smooth the patella". Never went and never had pain... My favourite GP said : " If there's no pain, don't worry about it" So now I don't worry about it :wink:
  • ThelittlesthoboThelittlesthobo Posts: 184
    Welcome to my world. Problem knees, i have two and i would trade both of them with a heavily used 90yr olds :-(

    I have tendonitus in both patella tendons and managed to snap my right one in January. Was in physio from April to June and developed an almighty creak in my knee. Pretty much as the others have described but mine sounded like an old teak chest being opened. You could hear me getting out of my chair from the other end of the room.

    I pointed this out whilst doing squats in one of my physio classes and the lady held my knee whilst i demonstrated. She cringed and commented 'i hate it when they are like that'. Then she shrugged and said its nothing and to carry on.

    I dont think there is much they can do with it tbh.
  • Sparks1664Sparks1664 Posts: 1
    I know this is an ancient thread but still holds some value, I have developed the same clicking from the top of the pedel stroke on my right knee, took a month off the bike and just seen the physio who has started me on some glutes/hamstring exercises and suggested if it doesn't hurt keep cycling, really want to get back in the bike but a bit concerned about causing any damage to the knee, keen to hear if anyone has managed to stop the clicking or accept it and just cracked on without any issues
  • surfercyclistsurfercyclist Posts: 894
    FFS, asking about medical issues on an internet forum. If in pain take a pill or if bad enough go see doctor.


    I guess pre-internet everyone must have just suffered in silence, you know rather than work it out for themselves what to do.
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