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Sore knees....

m1tch666m1tch666 Posts: 148
edited October 2013 in Health, fitness & training
Ok, finally got my wife into joining me out on the bike, she's very fit, trains 3-4 times a weeks corss training (kettle bells, running etc) but she gets sore knees after being out on the bike for anything over an hour?

She's not clipped in so we're trying to figure out what is causing it? seat too high/low? Knees subject to cold, would leg warmers help??

Any suggestions welcome....

C.
Dartmoor Primal 26" 1 x 10, 40 expander
Banshee Spitfire 650b 1 x 10, 42 expander

Posts

  • antikytheraantikythera Posts: 326
    As a general rule of thumb....

    If your position is too low, you'll get discomfort/pain in the front of the knees.

    If your position is too high, then there will be pain/discomfort at the back of the knees.

    This is based on personal experience and I'm not experienced at bike fitting. Of course the Interweb is the worst place to look for advice normally administers by professionals :)
  • slickmouseslickmouse Posts: 155
    antikythera wrote:
    As a general rule of thumb....

    If your position is too low, you'll get discomfort/pain in the front of the knees.

    If your position is too high, then there will be pain/discomfort at the back of the knees.

    This is based on personal experience and I'm not experienced at bike fitting. Of course the Interweb is the worst place to look for advice normally administers by professionals :)

    mine get sore in the middle, should i go up or down, do you think ?
  • _HENDO__HENDO_ Posts: 93
    Need a bit more info from original poster before I could give you some things to try.
    Which part of the knee is pain from?

    Pain in front of the knee could be that your saddle needs to be moved rear wards or raise your saddle height as when you pedal your force is not centred through middle of the knee.

    If that doesn't work let me know as it could be something more!
    For professional MTB & BMX coaching, training & guiding!
    www.pedaltoprogression.com
  • kajjalkajjal Posts: 3,380
    The post above is right. Sore knees unless you have some sort of previous injury come from incorrect saddle height or not having the saddle forward / back enough on its rails.

    My wife used to have her saddle too low on her old bike due to there being a lack of stand over height. On her new bike it is now spot on. As a very rough guide the saddle should be high enough so when your leg is fully extended on the pedal it is slightly bent. Better to be slightly too low than too high. To set the saddle foward or back enough another very rough guide is when the pedals are at three and nine o'clock the axel of the pedal should be just very slightly behind the front of the knee.

    Again this is a rough guide which gives a useful starting point which is more important on road bikes than mountain bikes but does help ;)
  • Mikey23Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    Couldn't it also be due to the fact that she has just started cycling intensively and her muscles and joints are protesting? This happened to me when I went from cycling to running but went away in a few weeks. Might also be due to the fact that she is trying to push too low a gear? Could be bike fit issues of course but I would rule out other possibilities too...
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