sloring

I'm a fairly in shape 30 year old male and on my past three rides I have begun to notice an aching pain that develops in my left knee about 20-30 miles into the ride. It feels like the tendon just to the inside and down of my patella. I haven't changed any of my equipment, but I'm wondering if it could be a pedal/cleat issue. What is the ideal angle/position of your cleat to pedal? I'm currently rocking SPD Ultegras.

clausen

Could be pedal cleat, over strain from low cadence or saddle height. Mine had the same symptoms once after some early season hill repeats. Took it easy for a few weeks and it went away.

jmess

My pain was on the front of my left knee cap, right side and the left foot arch. After couple weeks it dawned on me that winter = lower saddle 3mm and summer = raise saddle 3mm. Dropping my saddle about 3mm fix it for me. I think in the winter due to less riding and colder temps you become less flexible?

lazerzxr

Good knees start with good well supported feet. Knee pain that comes with foot arch pain says a lot IMO

gw280

Get your bike fit checked. For me (I had pain under the kneecap where the patella was tracking on the cartilage) it turned out to be a cleat positioning issue. Specifically, get them to check the lateral movement of your knees during a full pedal stroke.

Carbonfiberboy 

Pain in front of knee, raise saddle, pain behind knee, lower saddle - that's the mantra.

Stretching will probably help as will most any sort of cross training and high kicks. Search "high kicks" on this forum. We just had another one of these knee pain threads. They happen pretty often.

sloring

Well I saw this link: https://www.cptips.com/knee.htm
and my saddle was about 7mm to high and I lowered it. Even though the pain is in the front of my knee.

Will any bike shop do a fitting or will I need to find a specialized one?

max5480

put insoles in your shoes

Miller2

How about pain where the quad meets the knee at the top left?

sloring

No, it's more on the lower inside section of my knee.

jbroadway

Yes, max5480 has it right at least in my experience. Cycling shoes typically have very poor arch support. If you have medium to high arches and little arch support from insoles, your feet will pronate (roll from out to in) excessively. This will strain your knee, especially the in front, slightly below the knee cap. When you add insoles, you'll get rid of most of the motion causing pain.

I bought Giro MTB shoes that came with 3 different arch support inserts. I used the largest in my MTB shoes and stuck the other two together and threw them in my new road shoes when I started developing the same kind of pain.

I guess could also be a cleat placement issue but I would only try to fix one thing first. If the stroke is clean, comfortable and efficient, work with your insoles.

dstrong 

Nice first post, jbroadway. Welcome.