Not sure what’s causing it, but my right leg is uncomfortable right at the vastus medialis muscle (the tear drop shaped muscle above the knee toward the inside).

My saddle height is very good right now I think, I just raised it a few mm, but I feel like I gained a ton of power by doing that, so I hope that’s not causing the discomfort because I would lose a lot of power by lowering my seat.

My cleats are far back on my shoe, but I feel like that gives me more power and I don’t think that’s causing the discomfort.

The other change I made recently was a moving my seat forward a little, now I have about 70-80mm of seat setback (can’t get measurement any more accurae). Do you think moving my saddle back a centimeter or two will reduce my discomfort? It doesn’t hurt while biking but I feel discomfort off the bike.

The only other thing it might be is my mountain bike’s fit, which only has about 40mm of setback because of the seat tube angle.

Any ideas on how to help?

Any help is greatly appreciated,

John

When you say it gives you more power, do you mean you are mashing harder on the pedals? If you are putting out more power as in torque, then that is likely going to make your quads and knees hurt if you are overdoing it.

You can shift to a lower gear, spin a little faster and go just as fast or climb just well putting out less torque. Your muscles won't ache then.

But I don't know that this is your issue. There can be other reasons that might show up after more get involved in the discussion.

Uhhh... I thought they were referred to as GUADS here on BF? Part of the "local" dialect.

The VMO is stressed more by toe-out. By "uncomfortable" do you mean it hurts? Hurts more than your other leg muscles? Is the only muscle that hurts? Only the muscle hurts, not the connective tissue? Or doesn't hurt, just feels weird? One of my mottos is if a ride didn't hurt, I wouldn't be doing it. So often, hurting muscles is a good thing. OTOH, maybe it's not the VMO that hurting, but the inside of your kneecap. That's a whole 'nouther matter. That shouldn't hurt.

I don't think moving the saddle back and forth changes knee action. Up and down, yes. So when you go to change setback, measure saddle height first and reset that height afterwards.