EMT

I have no idea if this is the right place to post this or not. Hope so.

I just bought a Sunn Cycloss cross bike. Before I was riding a borrowed singlespeed (Schwinn Madison) that was way too small. The new bike feels pretty nice, though sluggish maybe.

The new bike seems to be causing me some pain in my left knee. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. Note: I have a prior knee injury---cartilage tear---had arthoscopic surgery on it 7 or 8 years ago now.

So what is the source of this new knee pain? Could it be due to the seat adjustment? I feel I sat further forward on the little bike (b/c I had to lean more on the bars); maybe sitting farther back, with a longer seatpost, contributes to some bad bending on the knee.

Another possiblity is that it's the gearing---since I'm not used to it I have the feeling that I might be riding in too high a gear and pushing too much. Any opinions or similar problems?

serpico7

You're not giving us much to go on. Start here: CP Tips

bfloyd

A proper bike fit sounds to be in need. A local bike shop can fit you properly. Both too far forward and too far back can cause knee pain.

Another could be that pushing too big of a gear will stress the knee as well. I prefer to spin a higher cadence than mash a bigger gear. You can achive the same speed. I used to only think that I had to turn a bigger gear to go faster. I found the hard way that I was wrong (knee pain) and that a smaller gear with higher rpm is more efficient. I would think that the prior surgery is an open door for knee pain with incorrect fit and improper technique.

EMT

This link is very helpful. Thank you. The pain does seem to be anterior (if I am understanding this right) which suggests that it might be linked to a too-low saddle ... maybe the first thing to try is increasing cadence. I think this is probably much of the problem as I am readjusting to having gears ...