Big feet, no adjustability causing knee pain
03-03-20, 01:30 PM
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Big feet, no adjustability causing knee pain
I am riding a Felt B2 Tt bike and it has an Ultegra 11spd crank set. I currently get some inner knee pain after riding 10 or so miles and should adjust my foot position to be more narrow. My issue is that I wear a US14.5 and already have rubbing issues at max width settings on my shoe and have a 2mm spacer required in my pedals to not rub.
Can I do anything about it or am I screwed?
Can I do anything about it or am I screwed?
03-03-20, 02:21 PM
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I usually put knee pain down to using too much muscle while riding. I know there can be other reasons, but that's the first one I look at for myself. Trying to accelerate rapidly with low cadence when there is an available lower gear available might be something to consider. Same for hard climbs.
I did ride with a crank that was only 5 mm longer than what I rode for over 45 years and got a pain that felt like it was behind my knee. Never really a pain, just an annoyance, but it was there on and off the bike. Rode it for 1000 or so miles then went back to a 165 mm crank and never experienced it again. However I admit that might be all anecdotal and circumstantial.
Not having experienced any of the stuff you are describing like spacers and wanting to be more narrow, someone else will have to address that.
By narrow..... are you talking about how far apart your feet are? Q?
I did ride with a crank that was only 5 mm longer than what I rode for over 45 years and got a pain that felt like it was behind my knee. Never really a pain, just an annoyance, but it was there on and off the bike. Rode it for 1000 or so miles then went back to a 165 mm crank and never experienced it again. However I admit that might be all anecdotal and circumstantial.
Not having experienced any of the stuff you are describing like spacers and wanting to be more narrow, someone else will have to address that.
By narrow..... are you talking about how far apart your feet are? Q?
03-03-20, 05:46 PM
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I also have a troublesome knee. Most of the time it is fine but acts up now and then. I don't know what the underlying problem is but when discomfort strikes, I step up my knee exercises. I use heavier resistance than he resistance shown in the linked video. I use 10 pounds worth of leg weights but the exercises are similar. https://www.google.com/search?client...aVgQb3koroDA24
03-03-20, 10:52 PM
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I usually put knee pain down to using too much muscle while riding. I know there can be other reasons, but that's the first one I look at for myself. Trying to accelerate rapidly with low cadence when there is an available lower gear available might be something to consider. Same for hard climbs.
I did ride with a crank that was only 5 mm longer than what I rode for over 45 years and got a pain that felt like it was behind my knee. Never really a pain, just an annoyance, but it was there on and off the bike. Rode it for 1000 or so miles then went back to a 165 mm crank and never experienced it again. However I admit that might be all anecdotal and circumstantial.
Not having experienced any of the stuff you are describing like spacers and wanting to be more narrow, someone else will have to address that.
By narrow..... are you talking about how far apart your feet are? Q?
I did ride with a crank that was only 5 mm longer than what I rode for over 45 years and got a pain that felt like it was behind my knee. Never really a pain, just an annoyance, but it was there on and off the bike. Rode it for 1000 or so miles then went back to a 165 mm crank and never experienced it again. However I admit that might be all anecdotal and circumstantial.
Not having experienced any of the stuff you are describing like spacers and wanting to be more narrow, someone else will have to address that.
By narrow..... are you talking about how far apart your feet are? Q?
I am indeed talking about the width between my feet being closer together. But i think that you may be on to something.
03-04-20, 12:25 PM
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IMO Q factor isn't a knee issue. Maybe a hip issue, but that's very rare. IME crank length also has nothing to do with it. First thing to do is put a mirror in front of you as you ride a trainer. Are you riding knock-kneed? Proper weight training and stretching can solve that, see a PT. Another possibility is that your VMO is stronger that your other quad muscles and that's pulling your kneecap to the inside. Same advice.
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03-04-20, 04:36 PM
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IMHO this is not related to Q factor, at least I've never experienced a knee pain related to it - and some bikes, or even more so, exercise bikes in gyms, have really big Q factor. However, what affect my knees immediately is wrong seat height (too high) and cleat position on the shoes, in particular, the angle of the cleats. I had an issue with the heels hitting chainstays and got an advice to position cleats at a slight inward angle - this converted a bike in a torture machine for me.
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