Touring - Right knee issue on LHT

Just wondering if anyone has similar experience or might know why this would be: Riding my Long Haul Trucker (standard build), I'm starting to get right knee pain. I don't get that on my road bike. But on the LHT, I just have platform pedals - no clipless. You'd think I'd get knee issues on the road bike, not the LHT!

Does anyone know if the LHT has the right pedal farther out than the left or anything weird like that?

Compare measurements on saddle height.

Check crank length too. It can be expensive to change, but if that is the problem it's worth it.

Make sure you are still moving a light gear, and not riding slow and heavy. Keep the cadence up. Also, when you stop hook your right heel under something like a guardrail or picnic table seat, and activate the hamstrings, helps to keep the knee tracking. Check also your saddle set-back relative to your norm. Height as mentioned is important, but it needs to have your preferred set-back. Touring bikes may have slacker seat tube angles than you are used to relative to road, or even more upright than on an MTB, so compare by dropping a plumb bob and measuring to the BB

Is knee pain in front or back of knee? If so then change saddle height. If in front, raise saddle and if in back, lower saddle.

If pain is on the side of the knee, try different shoes just in case the shoe puts more weight inside or outside of the middle of the pedal. This is unlikely to be the solution but it is worth a try as it can fix teh problem for some people.

Saddle position fore and aft may also be an issue, but in most people that would more likely cause back pain instead of knee pain. But you should compare your saddle position on both bikes to see if it is significantly different on each bike.

I am changing my saddle position and handlebar position every few months, but only a few mm at a time. The point being that you should not be afraid of making minor adjustments as time goes on.

Just wondering if anyone has similar experience or might know why this would be: Riding my Long Haul Trucker (standard build), I'm starting to get right knee pain. I don't get that on my road bike. But on the LHT, I just have platform pedals - no clipless. You'd think I'd get knee issues on the road bike, not the LHT!

Does anyone know if the LHT has the right pedal farther out than the left or anything weird like that?

Have you had your legs measured by an orthopedic doctor? It's not rare to have the 2 legs be slightly different lengths or have some other issue that a doctor can easily address with a shoe insert. You definitely don't want to develop a chronic problem.

Have you had your legs measured by an orthopedic doctor? It's not rare to have the 2 legs be slightly different lengths or have some other issue that a doctor can easily address with a shoe insert. You definitely don't want to develop a chronic problem.


+1 on this suggestion. Some physical therapists specialize in bike fitting and really know how to dial in bike fit. My wife has no ACL in one knee and the leg is shorter. Her physical therapist shimmed her shoe and has her set up so her knee has very little lateral movement while pedalling. He also said that once the bike is set up correctly having a pedal with a lot of float is not necessarily a good thing. It allows the foot to move and forces the knee out of the optimal position, increasing lateral movement. It might be possible that the platform pedals are allowing too much "slop" in the system.

PS. When I built my LHT I was measuring the chainline during crank installation. While I was messing around doing this, I measured the distance from the center of the seat tube to the center of the crank arm ( near the pedal). I found that they were not symmetrical. I think the non-drive side as a couple of mm farther away from centerline. I was wondering if this was normal, and mesured a couple of our other bikes and found that there were small variance in all of them. The point being the LHT was not significantly different than my other touring bike, a Bianchi Volpe.

put the same pedals on your LHT and see what happens

put the same pedals on your LHT and see what happens
Oh sure, be logical about the problem. You're ruining everything.:)

I had right knee pain on my first with the LHT. SPD pedals. I just pointed my saddle 2 degrees to the right and it cleared right up. On a longer tour the pain returned. I noticed that with how my foot liked to fit on the pedal, the spd cleat was twisted in the pedal. I adjusted the cleat and the pain went away! Perhaps your knee is used to being held in place by a clipless pedal and now, since you're on platform pedals, it is pained from the different motion.