Hey everyone.

Recently my left knee has been starting to hurt, and yesterday, it was pretty bad, and is still a bit sore today.


Its only my left knee, and If I had to guess, its because of hard mashing to get moving from a stop ( left foot down, push with my right to get moving then use my left to power though? ) My right knee is fine, never had any issues with it.

I don't skid that often, mostly just hop skid to when moving slow, otherwise i just use the brake.


TBH, the frame I've been riding a lot is a little small, but riding bullhorns instead of drops helps tons.


I'm trying to figure out what is causing my soreness, and what I can do to help prevent it.
First thought is to use more brake, less resistance, drop my rear cog 1 tooth, see about adding a rear brake, and bumping my seat up a tad.


Any other suggestions or ideas?

I'd really hate to ease up on my mileage, ( the last month or so i've been averaging about 80-90 miles a week ) but I know I can't ride like this forever, and am a little worried since I have an 80 mile charity ride this weekend.

how long have you been riding?

do you ever take easy/rest weeks?

has your saddle height been adjusted by a professional before?

where does your knee hurt? (front or back)

Just about a year, though I'd say I first started noticing this about a month or so ago. ( pretty much when I started riding FG more often than my freewheel bikes )

An easy week for me is one where I only rides 40-50 miles. I'm trying to hit a mile goal for the year, and its requiring me to keep a pretty high weekly average. Recently my rides have been less frequent, but longer distances. ( probably averaging around 30 miles or so a ride ) Outside of me being sick or poor weather, I really don't break often. ( my usual schedule is about 20 miles on a tuesday with my social group, and another 30-50 on the weekend )

Its not a strength/fitness thing, I have the legs for those rides np. A long ride for me I'd consider to be 60+ miles, and I only do that distance maybe once a month. ( usually for events of some sort )

I've never had a professional fit of any sort outside of my interpretation of how a proper fit should be according to internet articles.

its a dull soreness, kinda all over, but if i had to pick a point i'd say the front towards the bottom of my knee. ( I'm also guessing my previous life of kicking footballs every day for 3-5 hours a day has something to do with it. Entire body weight slamming down on my left knee over and over again )

Do you run cleats? It'd be a good idea to revise your cleat position if you do.

Strengthen your hips by doing one legged squats and foam roll your IT band

I use eggbeaters, any idea on how I should adjust the cleat position?

If you loosen the two bolts that are used to fasten the cleat to the sole of the shoe you can then move them back and forth/side to side to adjust them. There are plenty of videos around online for adjusting your cleats to the correct position, have a little search and you should find something. If you're still getting problems after that then it'd be worth taking a look at your saddle height/general position also.

saddle height and cleat alignment are the two most common causes. try to adjust your cleats so that your foot is neutral, this may not be the same on both sides. do the eggbeaters have float? you might benefit from this feature in different style cleats.

watch any number of videos on youtube for saddle height adjustment, but the general rule of thumb for me is that top of knee pain is saddle too low, below knee pain is too high or not setback correctly. play with it a little.

also, rest! seriously, take a day or three just off the bike. you cannot heal while you continue to strain. and continue to use your brakes instead of resisting with your legs as much as possible, as this will lessen the strain on your connective tissues. good luck!

Sounds like a cleat issue on the left shoe.

possibly, eggbeaters have two cleat positions for float, so i'll flip them around and give it the side with the most float, as well as look at some videos about cleate placement.

My ride this weekend i'm doing single speed, so i'm not too worried about that.

OP - In your first post you mentioned decreasing your rear cog by one tooth. FYI, if you want to lower your gearing you need to increase the number of teeth on your rear cog, not decrease it.

whoops, yeah, thats what I meant, currently running 48/17, if the cleat adjustment doesn't help I have a 18 and 19t rear I could swap to, but the 19 is a bit too spinny. I have 48/19 on my SS, and it climbs like a mountain goat, but on flats I spin out quite often.

It depends on your riding conditions. If you're riding in town with a lot of starting and stopping, then you want lower gearing. If you're riding long distance in the country with infrequent stops or starts, then higher gearing works fine. Also, on a fixed gear you can maintain a higher cadence, so you really don't spin out at normal riding speeds.

If you have been riding like this for a year, had no problem for 11 months and it started a month ago, you need to look at what changed. You mentioned adding mileage recently. Did the problem start at that time? Did you change your seat position or change your cleats?

Do a little thinking before you change anything mentioned above. Try to narrow things down, or you will be chasing your tail....

One thing, your cleats don't have to adjusted the same on both feet. I was getting similar aches and pains in one knee because I had the cleats the same on both shoes. I now have one cleat set further back on the shoe than the other and both my knees are much happier.

I would suggest only doing one thing at a time, or you will never figure out what it is that fixed it. Try the cleats first, ride, then re-evaluate.

I have a similar problem with my right knee. My pain is caused by pulling up on the pedal to start or slow down. Turns out this slightly hyperextends my knee.
Using the brakes instead of backpedaling and going to a smaller gear helped lots.
Hope this helps.
Paul

A different set of questions. This started a month ago. Did you take a break or lose conditioning over the winter then start back up again riding as you left off? Do you stretch your hamstrings? (In other words, can you touch your toes?) Have you been riding with less than warm knees?

Taking a break, losing conditioning, then getting back on the bike and riding hard or in big gears, especially with tight hamstrings and cold knees is a sure way to trigger chrondomalcia patellae (SP) if you are prone to it. (48-17 is a mid-late season gear. It's mid-May now.)

All the other factors the other posters talked about above can also trigger CP but you can still do it with all that dialed in and perfect if you just do as I asked above. And if it is CP, take it seriously. You only have one set of knees. I broke the "rules" re: conditioning, hamstrings and cold on bikes that fit 40 years ago. Been paying ever since.

Ben

Any previous injuries from the past you may be overlooking? I was hit by a car and my right knee took a beating- every spring when I start putting in higher mileage I get some aches in the beginning.

Stretching is simple enough, but how does one "Warm up" their knees?

nah, i live in texas, where our off season is the summer, because riding in 110 degree weather sucks.

You can't "warm up" your knees, but you can keep them warm.

With clothing. My knees are best if I keep them near body temperature; ie well in to the 90s. I had made a pair of knee warmers that look more like the basketball knee pads of years ago. 2 layers of 300 eight wind-block fleece with two light elastic straps (light and not very tight to not constrain those hamstrings) and a "garter strap" of velcro up to "D" rings I sew into all my shorts and briefs. These get worn anytime it is mid-eighties or lower. Below high 70s I wear standard knee warmers over. Any tights or legwarmers go over all of this.

Those goofy knee warmers mean I don't have to overdress my legs to keep my knees warm, something I did for 20 years.

Ben

I think the cleat was the problem.I put new cleats on them and paid attention to how my foot was positioned, and my toes were pointing in quite a bit, I altered it for my toes to point a little bit outwards and I felt quite the difference.

May want to set up a camera on self timer and take a few pictures of yourself with the drive side pedal at the 3 o clock position. Your knee should roughly fall over the pedal spindle...to far in front/back can cause issues. Lots of fit books will talk about this being a leading cause of knee pain down the road.

i had this issue not too long ago (exact pain exact leg from exacly the same techniques), i resolved this by getting a larger tooth sprocket. Unaware you might be pushing harder in training and really grinding that knee. Have a few days of rest and go up by 2 teeth on the sprocket and see how that feels