I'm a moderate rider. Ive got a little over 2200 miles in this year, so I ride frequently, but I'm no superhero and I'm not fast. Over the course of the first 2k, I found I was getting hot-spots on my feet, so I switched from the Mtnbike SPD type pedals to look keos. I tried to get the pedals locationwise similar to where they were with the SPDs, but I think I failed. My right knee now gets stiff and sore after about 25 miles of riding. This stiffness is along the outside along what feels like the lateral collateral ligaments.


I'm not sure what I should be doing. Nothing else about the bike fit has changed, and the left leg is fine. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I had the same problem riding SPDs. I switched to Speedplay Frogs, staying with the mountain bike pedal since I prefer being able to walk in my shoes. They have a ton of float and I've had nary a knee problem since.

Also, I was told when positioning your cleats, sit on the edge of a table and let you feet dangle. The natural angle that your feet prefer when hanging there is what you should mimic when you set up your cleats.

Between the Frogs and the cleat alignment, I can ride centuries, mash up hills and generally push it as hard as I want without any knee pain.

Also, you could get a motorcycle.

I have one of those, but the intervals just don't seem to give me the same kind of workout. I'm assuming that I can adjust the cleat to resolve my issue with the keos, I'm just not sure which way to start.

The same thing happened to me - but I was switching from an old set of look cleats to a new set. Literally the exact same pain as you're describing.

In my case, I had actually marked cleat position so I knew it couldn't be the position of the cleat. It turns out that the particular brand of look cleats I bought had much different float. By different, I mean that turning the foot while pedaling was very easy - much easier than with my other cleats. It wasn't extremely noticeable, but I realized that the extent of ease of float with these cleats was causing me to rotate my right foot quite a bit while climbing or putting in effort.

I solved it by switching cleats. Same amount of float in degrees, just not as easy to get that float so my feet are more secure. I tried adjusting both my sets of Look pedals but what ended up solving the problem was a different brand cleats. I also now have the ones that are "bi-material" or something like that - they don't need to be lubed and no more squeaking.

It may not work the same for you. I have also heard that lateral knee pain can be caused by toeing-in...

Switching from 0-float to the red 9-degree float (I think...) cleats or vice-versa may also do it for you.

One more thought: are you sure that your saddle height relative to the pedals is still the same? I guess pedals could conceivably change that enough to have an effect.

These are all good points. I'm going to check toe-in and saddle height first. If that doesn't do it, I'll check float. I know the SPDs had a lot of float and the looks don't, so that may be my solution if I can't fix it with the first two. Thanks.