The pain is on the inside of my leg, focused right on the "point" of the kneecap. If you traced the circumference of the right knee cap with a straightened leg, it's the point that sticks out farthest to the left. On the side of the kneecap. The pain starts as a swelling/pressure sensation right under the kneecap at that point, then becomes more focused as sharp sensation right at that point, feeling almost like it's on the outside of the knee. As I recall, at the time of injury two years ago, the sharp pain seems to move progressively more under the kneecap as well, as I tried to ride on it a bit more, but always maintained this pinpoint sharp pain at that spot. I hope that's clear, i'ts a bit hard to put into words.

I guess I should make clear that by "under the kneecap" I mean inside my knee, not lower down on my leg towards the shin.

In answer to some other questions/clarifications...

-Bike fit. I had my bike fitted by a very experienced riding/touring friend of mine. The seat hieght was smack dap on the line where it was supposed to be...like down to the millimeter...

-It was also on this friend's advice that I stopped using clipless pedals and rode with just regular shoes. This had worked for his wife who was suffering from knee problems. I noticed no change.

-Crank length. I have not messed around with crank length. I'll look into it. Honestly, in spite of having done a rather long tour, I'm really not much of a biker, and have no idea about the relative effects of different crank lengths.... but I'll check it out.

- Spinning. I will definitely do my best to learn to love spinning in the future. I tried, almost a year ago, with my bike freshly fitted and my feet unclipped completely, to ride daily for about half an hour at low gears. The pain began to come back as normal after about 7-10 days.

I will check out those other threads when it's not 3 am. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone so far, I appreciate anything more I can get!