Originally Posted by
stevelewis
Hi Nachoman (mmmm, Nachos!!)
A few questions for you:
I've been considering a bike fit but the guy at my shop has spent about 20 minutes checking saddle height and fore-aft/cleats/stem/knee angle and I'm not sure what a full blown "$150-$300" bike fit would avail me beyond what my bike shop dude did for free. (My bike shop dude is a former Olympian BTW!) Do you recall the sort of things that your pro bike fitter changed or adjusted to aleviate your knee pain?
What about the speed play pedals made a difference? Is it the float? I actually asked about that at my LbS and he said the pedals I'm using (shimano spd mountain bike pedals... Yes, on my road bike) are fine because they have about 4-5 degrees of float and he thinks that's plenty for anyone.
Can you relate your "recovery story"? How long before you could ride again? Did you see a physical therapist? Did you need to address biomechanic/alignment or muscle imbalance issues? How did you approach resuming your training? How slowly did you build back up to your original training volume/intensity?
Thanks, I appreciate it!
My knee pain was bad, but not that bad. Maybe I had a more mild case of chondromalacia than you do. I could essentially avoid debilitating pain by never cycling two days in a row. I tried PT, but it didn't help at all.
Then I bought a new bike and I sprung for new speedplay pedals. I got the X series - which have MUCH more float than your 4-5 degrees. I also sprung for a pro fit. In retrospect, my fit was just a lot of common sense stuff, but it did go well beyond my capabilities, especially regarding the cleat adjustments.
All knee pain subsequently disappeared. I was able to resume normal cycling, running and stair climbing.