bismillah

Im about 5'10" and I'm consistently getting pain behind my left knee and in my left calf.

I'm beginning to think that it is due to my frame being too large (56cm).

Anyone know of any easy things I can do to make it feel like a smaller bike in the mean time?

Its a Cannondale CAAD9

Already moved the seat forward and pushed the cleats all the way back.

nahh

shorter stem and lower your saddle...past that, you need a smaller bike (probably)

BarryJo

Take the bike back to the shop that fitted you and have a.) another fitting, b.) smaller frame.

Rosso Corsa

Seat too high will generally lead to pain behind the knee. Your legs could be a differing length, which is an issue a good fitter will recognize and fix using cleat risers/shoe insoles or something.
Did you try a faster cadence?
I would move the seat to where it should be in terms of bike balance and muscle usage, leave the cleats where they are as long as they aren't in the middle of the foot (although some articles advocate this), and lower the seat a half cm at a time until the legs are not fully extended at the bottom of each pedal stroke. It will feel strange for the first bit because your muscles are so used to the old way.

BTW when you moved your cleat back you effectively raised your seat by making your leg extend farther in the pedal stroke.

You could post a video and it would help. It is all a stab in the dark at this point, as there are many contributing factors to knee pain.
The best thing would be to go see a real fitter or someone knowledgeable in your club.

Flatballer

general answer: back of knee pain, saddle too high.

5'10" should be able to fit a 56 cm bike without a problem, unless you have ridiculously short legs.

BarryJo

I'm 5'10" with 30" inseam. I had a difficult time getting fitted on my 54 Caad9. A 56 would be inpossible.
But like you said, my inseam and arms are pretty short.

bismillah

You think they would do it? It's been 2.5 months since I bought it.

JoelS

Seat too far back will cause knee pain as well. Moving it forward will in effect lower it as well (distance to the pedals is reduced).

IMO, your saddle is in the wrong place. Get a good fit. Bike too big will not cause knee pain. Bike too big leaves you feeling stretched out when on the hoods.

khatfull

It wouldn't happen to be a white 2009 56cm would it? Hmmm...

tagaproject6

Depends on your bike shop...but I have not seen a bike that took a bike back because of poor fitting. Even if it is their fault (to which they will never admit). Good luck on that.

longbeachgary

^^^^^
That's it.

nitropowered

How long have you been riding? If this is your first bike, then it could just be the pains of getting into the repetitive circular motion.

But like everyone else have said, a bike too big should not make your legs hurt. Its improper saddle position and or cleat position. How does your reach feel?

DaveSSS 

Your first mistake was pushing the saddle forward, I assume as an effort to reduce the reach to the handlebars. The saddle fore/aft position should NOT be used to change the reach to the bars - that's the job of the stem length and handlebar reach.

A 56cm CAAD 9 can be made to fit the same as a 54cm simply by reducing the stem length by 15mm. There is a limit to how low you can get the bars, but I doubt you're close to that limit.

It would help if you posted your actual saddle height. From that's it's easy to tell if the bike is vertically too small or too large and whether your legs are on the short or long side. If the saddle height is 73cm or less, you've got short legs and the bike is vertically too large. A 54cm would be a better fit.

When you move the saddle forward, you place more weight on your hands and shift the muscle useage almost entirely onto your quads. I would try the most common method of setting the knee over the pedal and go from there. If that requires moving the saddle back 10-20mm do it and reduce the stem length by an equal amount.

If you have a short torso and long legs like I do, changing to short reach (70-75mm) bars will take the place of a 10mm shorter stem.

https://www.cyclefitcentre.com/pdf%20...u_aug_2004.pdf
https://www.cyclefitcentre.com/pdf%20...TION_final.pdf
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/kops.html

cooker

Moving your seat too far forward causes other problems. It tilts your body forward so you lean too hard on your hands. When you say you moved the cleats "back", that sounds like the wrong way. Surely moving them forward (towards the toes) would help solve the problem.

Velo Dog

This is my opinion, too. Hard for me to judge because I'm quite a bit taller, but 56 doesn't seem out of line for a 5'10" rider. I'd look at other possible causes before I did anything dramatic.
As other posts have suggested, move the saddle so your kneecaps are over the pedal spindle (it's ok to vary from that, but it's a good starting point), then change the stem if necessary to get your reach right.

CrimsonKarter21

The only thing that will really work for you is to remover the seat from the seatpost, remove the seatpost all together, and duct tape the saddle onto the top tube.
The most comfy place for the seat to be is about 30cm behind the center fo the headtube.

Drilling new cleat holes into your shoes is another option, albeit a little trickier to do properly. I've found that the arch of the sole is a good place to put the cleats. I've heard of riders installing their pedals backwards onto their cranks, but it requires new threading on the cranks. If you know someonw with a tap, this is a good option.

Beyond that, you can turn your stem around towards you. The bars will be about 100mm closer to you, making the ride much more comfy.


Good luck and happy riding!

Homebrew01

I'm 5' 10", w/ 32 inseam and 56 Cannondale has been my size for many years. Ditto to all the replies about fit problems (saddle height, stem length, cleat position), not frame size. A 54 might be better for you, but that's not the problem.