Nospandexpls

I have a group tour coming up in a few weeks I can't miss and I'm still having troubles with my knee and I have to get this figured out ASAP. Please please help.

I used to ride a 1978 Raleigh Supercourse with platform pedals and cages, and I never ever had any trouble with my knees at all.

Then a few months ago I bought a Surly LHT. The LHT came with SPD shoes and pedals. At first I was doing short rides and had no trouble. Then I did a 60 mile ride a couple months back and got terrible pain in both. That problem was cleared up by raising my seat.

Within the last month or so I have been getting pain on the inside/front knee area, but just on my right leg.







The second to last time I rode I was only able to get 20 miles in before it started hurting. I was riding to the LBS to get a fit done. Either the bike shop guy was a moron or I didn't explain things correctly because he never gave me advice for helping my knee out. He just told me to get a shorter stem... As I was riding home from this waste of $40 I finally noticed that my heel was sticking way out on my right leg. I immediatly adjusted my cleat.

I took a 5 day break from the bike to let it heal. Today while riding I started feeling some pressure on the area after just 5 miles! I started watching things very closely and I noticed that when I have my cranks even, instead of my knee bone on my leading leg being straight over the spindle of my pedals my leg was at 90 degrees with the ground and my knee bone was like over my ankle... I moved my seat all the way forward and it seemed to help a little but i'm still not lined up right.

Today's ride was an experiment. I have a set of Shimano SPD/platform pedals so I rode 20 miles in regular shoes and 20 back home in my SPD shoes. Although the pain wasn't really that bad at all today there is still something there and it seemed to flare up more noticably when I put on the SPDs(either that or it was because I already had 20 miles on my knee).

Could the pain be from old damage from riding with the cleat crooked.

Or could it be from not having that knee bone line up with my pedal spindle?

The LBS said that my seat height looked really close but I could possibly go up a bit, so I am thinking it's not a height issue so much but I could be wrong.




Best Regards,
Jack

Tapeworm21

I'd suggest some road pedals first off.

Second, if your LBS is saying "raise the seat" and you're saying it's not a height issue, why bother getting fitted?

Nospandexpls

Sorry, I didn't state that very clearly. The guy that fitted me said that my seat height was practically perfect. He said that I could try raising it but it looked really good.

So you think that road pedals would help with this issue? I don't really know much at all about clipless...

PhatRoadie

It could be a number of things relating to fit. From saddle height, crank arm length, saddle setback or cleat position.

Get a good fitting, that should help.

Nospandexpls

Okay, well i guess i should go to another bike shop then.

You know the main difference I can tell between my old Raleigh and my Surly is the crank length. I asked the guy that fit me about that and he told me that the difference in crank size is so miniscule it doesn't do anything, but I was just reading on Sheldon Brown that longer cranks can cause knee pain!

PhatRoadie

My knee pain cleared up when I got a fitting, aside from changing my saddle position, I went from a 172.5mm crank to a 170mm crank. I also switched to speedplay pedals. YMMV though.

sdean911

I was going to suggest speedplays but you got them so, good move. I had the same problem with spd pedals. When I switched to speedplay I found float and never had a problem since. Great pedals. glad you solved your problem.

Greg

availpunk9

Try adjusting your cleat. I recently had the same issue. My foot stance was too wide. My foot kind of flared out to the outside, away from crank, on the down stroke. Adjusting the cleat, to narrow the stance a bit, resolved the issue. I did this in very small increments ~1-2 mm and assessed the comfort difference over a course of a few rides.

Jakedatc

Btw.. unless your knee somehow bends inwards.. pretty violently. your MCL is just fine. Sounds more like a Medial meniscus or quad attachment issue.. possible hamstring too depending on where the pain actually is

Machka 

An informative article about knee pain: https://www.cptips.com/knee.htm


Also ... did you recently get new cycling shorts or start wearing cycling shorts?

Nospandexpls

Thanks for the article. And no I have not been using cycling shorts, just normal shorts.

thump55

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ee+pain&page=1

Myfirsttrek

I have the same problem on my left knee.. Doc said it was an over training problem.. its been two weeks off the bike and it still hurts... I hate this, tis very frustrating.

ri_us

Please go to a doctor. All the accountants, carpenters, engineers and other non-doctors on here are going to get you hurt worse.

g3ck0

Maybe try adjusting the cleat position?

nasv

I agree, adjust the cleat position... I had a similar problem, and what worked FOR ME, was to turn the clip outward so that my toes would point inward (pigeon toe'd). You should never pedal with force pushing at the edge of the range of float. Adjusting your saddle can also go a long way.

dplatt

Something to add besides the recommendations above is how is your flexibility? From your pictures it looks like you are pointing not at your MCL but at your Vastus Medialis Oblique muscle. Consider doing hamstring, quad, butterfly, calf, and gluteal stretches after you ride. You might want to see about doing deep tissue massage with a foam roller to break up scar tissue (just don't roll joints)... If you were fitted by a competent bike shop go back to them and demand a refitting... most shops offer a warranty of some kind with their fittings.

Nospandexpls

Yeah after looking at more pictures of the MCL I have decided that it probably isn't that. It's kind of closer in towards the joint.

I haven't been doing stretches lately. I wonder if that could be part of it? I'm only 23 so i'm pretty flexible.

Yeah that guy at the bike shop I was fitted at was seriously lacking fitting knowledge so i'd just as soon stay away from them. I have a fitting appoinment scheduled for tomorrow at Greg's Cycles in Seattle. I hear that the fit specialist is pretty good so we'll see.

Hopefully my knee will be strong enough tomorrow to do the fit though...

531Aussie

General reasons for inner knee pain:

Feet pronate too much, which can be fixed with angled cleat shims (Le Wedges) or orthotics, supinating your feet. This isn't uncommon when someone goes from riding in jogging shoes to riding in flat cycling shoes. In my experience, this is most likely; too long cranks and low saddle tend to effect lateral and anterior

Feet too wide.

Seat too low.

Cranks too long. In my opinion, 5mm or more is more than enough to possibly hurt knees -- maybe even 2.5mm

Really bad flexibility

Nospandexpls

Okay I went to a proffesional bike fitter/cyclist trainer yesterday at Gregg's Cycles in Seattle. The fitter(Matt) was great! He was very good at what he does, professional, and seemed like a pretty intelligent guy.

He recognized pretty quickly why I was having problems with my right knee. First off my saddle was too low. He measured the angle of my knee with a fancy instrument and based the height off his measurements. Then he adjusted the positioning of it, moving it forward to line up my knee bone with the pedal spindle.

Also he told me that Surly's are sized very large and although the bike is sold as a 58cm it's closer to a 60cm frame. He told me that it was about a size and a half too large for me, but since my legs are so long it could be altered to fit me.

Because my stem was too long and my lower posterior tight I pulled my hips in towards the right for some reason and thus crowded the stroke for my right leg even further.

My cleats were also not adjusted correctly, which he was able to fix rather quickly... i still don't understand cleat positioning...

All these factors he said were contributing to my knee problem.

I had never noticed it before but when I was pedaling up there on the rack my knee was shooting out to the right side. He told me that it was trying to attain greater leverage and this was causing a sideways pressure on my knee joint.

So hopefully my bike won't hurt me anymore. Now I just have to be completely healed in 7 days and ready to bike over the Cascades hauling all of my personal belongings with me:S