Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - my knees hurt!

So I really have a couple problems... the first one is the knees, there starting to hurt after my ride and pretty much the rest of the night, second is I bounce up and down when im riding I go on average about 200-250 miles over the course of a week with my speed usually 19-25 mph. Anyone got some advice on what to do with my seat, as well as my knees? Thanks

It sounds to me that your seat post maybe too low.

Two reasons why i switched to ss. 1, knee pain. 2, I can go freaking fast and stop on the dime.

Bounce up and down......... Suspension, Sprung saddle, under inflated tires, eggcentric chainrings?

Knees hurt........... Saddle to low, clips or cleats out of alignment, or just getting old like me?

Knee pain more in the front - raise your saddle. You will know when it is too hight - until you know keep raising it.

Knee pain in the back (rare) - lower the saddle.

hope this helps.

don't stop pedaling? you can use that formula, something like .885 x inseam to get close to a decent saddle height (measured from bottom bracket center to top of saddle).

Thanks, Ill move things around and see what happends

Knee pain more in the front - raise your saddle. You will know when it is too hight - until you know keep raising it.

Knee pain in the back (rare) - lower the saddle.

hope this helps.

I agree and many, surprisingly, don't know this. Especially the bit about saddle being too high is rare.

I'm hearing saddle too high. Are you bouncing up and down or rocking back and forth. Too low and too high can both cause pain, but generally I don't think too low causes bouncing while rocking can be confused with bouncing.

You know... Or something.

Seat position is the "fit" of the bicycle. Try positioning your seat in the middle of it's rails and then get a basic starting position. The end of your front crank should be right under your knee when you are looking down at it and it is at parallel at 3 oclock, or 6, whichever it is.

If you dropped a line from your knee it would go straight down to the end of your crank, not the pedal.

Then move your seat as high as you can without making your hips rock when you ride. Then lower the seat a bit at a time until they dont rock. Then finess the fore/aft and height as well as your stem position until it feels right and ur knee doesnt hurt.

Keep tweaking and listening to your body and it will help a lot. It's ergonomics, bad knee position repeated over and over as u pedal causes pain. Or makes bad knees hurt worse.


I'm sure i messed that up but you can do searches for bike fit or check out a book at the library.

Try steching your hamstrings every night. Lay on your back and put your leg straight up one at a time, hold for 45 sec and repeat. Help the strech by pulling it towards you with your hands under your hammies. works great for pain under your kneecap.

Maybe you're riding a fixed gear bike.

hehe, true enough. It's a price you must pay for zen.