I really don't know what caused it but my right knee started hurting on longer rides. It was the type of pain that was very "abnormal" and hurt every pedal stroke-especially when I was pushing pretty hard. The pain was at the "top/front of the knee cap". It was just the right knee and the left knee has been perfect as in "don't mess with anything" there. I've had good luck on fixing knee issues by changing the cleat position but lately no luck doing that this time.

The pain has been worse in the winter and I've always wondered if wearing knee warmers or tights tended to push the knee cap down more and caused irritation.....but why just the right knee?

I know, I know, I should go back and get another fitting but I've always been really good at troubleshooting and fixing things myself so what could my LBS guy do that I couldn't do???

The rule of thumb has been that one of the causes of knee issues in the "front" or patella area were caused by saddle being too low or pushed too forward.

When I was looking at my cleats last night I noticed the right cleat was crumbling and needed replacing anyway. I use the Look Keo cleats. I looked at what I had on hand and normally I use the red cleats which have the most float. However all I had were some of the gray cleats with less float from when I bought the pedals and they were in my bike box. So I put one of those on the right shoe only. I positioned it so it was as far under the arch as possibile (as opposed to going towards the toe). This make the "reach" or length of the right leg a little longer. I also moved the cleat to as far to the instep as I could so it would better align and didn't feel like I was riding "pigeon toed". I suspect if I'd done a fitting they would have just put the rods on the my shoes that would have showed how the shoes were pointing. I also raised the seat post ever so slightly..maybe 3 mm.

That seemed to have worked. I did 100+ miles today with the new setup........it is really risky doing a ride that long with a different setup.....but no knee issues the last half of the ride. It also felt like I was using more of the larger leg muscles when climbing so right now all is good. Only time will tell and I need to get on some longer steeper climbs to know for sure but hopefully things are back in the go zone......

I'm sure if I were to measure each foot and leg I'd find some differences.in fact I know my right foot is shorter so making the change makes sense but I was worried raising the seat would mess up my left leg. I suspect another issue is I bet I'm getting 60% of my power from my right leg and less from my left. That in itself could be contributing to part of the problem. It's just good to feel like I can do some longer rides without nursing the knee pain.