Setup/fit

Do you stretch before riding?

Is your left leg longer than the right? (mine is)

Is the seat a little low or a bit far back?

Also add your location to your details, in the User CP. 🙂

Continue going back to the bike shop and explaining exactly where your knee hurts. It may mean you need a shim under one of your cleats. I also suggest that you might benefit from NSAIDS (example is ibuprophen). I take ibuprophen due to an inflammation problem I have and it helps tremendously. As the other poster mentioned, stretching is also very good to relieve and prevent pain in one particular area why cyclling. We generally are not as symetrical as one would think. You might need to be aware of your leg length difference and develop a pedaling technique that takes care of your bad knee. Good luck. I don't think you can get adequate advice online for it takes someone looking at your spinning to get an idea what your particular issue is.

Did they do a cleet fit? I struggled for months trying to get my cleets right! My right leg is externally rotated and my left internally rotated so I have a hard time getting them right. Head back to the shop and they'll get it right for you.

I have not stretched all that consistantly pre-ride, I usually stop about 3 miles into the ride then stretch.
My knee seems to hurt the most when I sit and pedal forcefully to gain speed or play " catch-up" with everyone else.
I will look at my seat and my cleats!
Thanks much for the information
Tom

gclark8 said:

Do you stretch before riding?

Is your left leg longer than the right? (mine is)

Is the seat a little low or a bit far back?

Also add your location to your details, in the User CP. 🙂

Thanks for the prompt reply!
I will check my seat adjustments and give that a spin, and then my cleats again.
Thanks again
Tom

Insight Driver said:

Continue going back to the bike shop and explaining exactly where your knee hurts. It may mean you need a shim under one of your cleats. I also suggest that you might benefit from NSAIDS (example is ibuprophen). I take ibuprophen due to an inflammation problem I have and it helps tremendously. As the other poster mentioned, stretching is also very good to relieve and prevent pain in one particular area why cyclling. We generally are not as symetrical as one would think. You might need to be aware of your leg length difference and develop a pedaling technique that takes care of your bad knee. Good luck. I don't think you can get adequate advice online for it takes someone looking at your spinning to get an idea what your particular issue is.

They did not do a cleat fit, however they did manipulate the left just a little when I was in last and that seemed to help some (my knee didn't hurt AS BAD)
So I think it has something to do with the foot/cleat position but again I am new to this.
I will double check my seat position and then focus on my cleats
Thanks again
Tom

azdroptop said:

Did they do a cleet fit? I struggled for months trying to get my cleets right! My right leg is externally rotated and my left internally rotated so I have a hard time getting them right. Head back to the shop and they'll get it right for you.

tommyboyrn said:

They did not do a cleat fit, however they did manipulate the left just a little when I was in last and that seemed to help some (my knee didn't hurt AS BAD)
So I think it has something to do with the foot/cleat position but again I am new to this.
I will double check my seat position and then focus on my cleats
Thanks again
Tom

What type of pedals do you have? If look are you using the red cleats? What part of your knee hurts? Lateral? Under the knee cap?

I am using the shimano SPD pedals. It seems to be hurting underneath my kneecap or just below my kneecap in that soft space before the bone of the lower leg is felt.

azdroptop said:

What type of pedals do you have? If look are you using the red cleats? What part of your knee hurts? Lateral? Under the knee cap?

I rode a mountain bike before that did not have clip pedals, just standard open pedals and they did not hurt until I began using clip pedals......

tommyboyrn said:

I am using the shimano SPD pedals. It seems to be hurting underneath my kneecap or just below my kneecap in that soft space before the bone of the lower leg is felt.

tommyboyrn said:

I have not stretched all that consistantly pre-ride, I usually stop about 3 miles into the ride then stretch.
My knee seems to hurt the most when I sit and pedal forcefully to gain speed or play " catch-up" with everyone else.
I will look at my seat and my cleats!
Thanks much for the information
Tom

There's not much benefit to stretching before or during a ride. Only after. At the begining of the ride make sure you're warming up properly.(Emphasis on warm. I don't know about Arkansas, but up here it's still tights weather.) Take it easy for the first 20-30 minutes and slowly build up speed. Go back to the shop and let them know how you're doing. Cleat positioning is very sensitive, and it's reasonable to expect several small adjustments to zero in on the right spot.

tommyboyrn said:

I am using the shimano SPD pedals. It seems to be hurting underneath my kneecap or just below my kneecap in that soft space before the bone of the lower leg is felt.

Under the knee then. Do you do any weight lifting? It could be CHONDROMALACIA which is a fancy name for pain under the kneecap. LOL. Basically it gets inflamed from overuse or possibly a tracking problem, but with your limited riding so far I doubt this is the problem unless you weight lift or do other repetitive activities. It may just be your cleat position causing a tracking problem? I know when I get tight from not stretching enough I get lateral knee pain, but not under the kneecap.

I was wondering about the pedals because some give more 'float' than others. I've never used SPD's so I'm not sure if they are rigid or if you get a bit of movement side to side like a look pedal.

Thanks
I adjusted my cleats to allow for more float and I rode today about 15-16 miles before a t-storm came up and no pain!
I hope that this was the problem. I usually would go out and "hit it" I will try to ease into it and gradually build up speed next time.
Thanks for the advice!
Tom

artmichalek said:

There's not much benefit to stretching before or during a ride. Only after. At the begining of the ride make sure you're warming up properly.(Emphasis on warm. I don't know about Arkansas, but up here it's still tights weather.) Take it easy for the first 20-30 minutes and slowly build up speed. Go back to the shop and let them know how you're doing. Cleat positioning is very sensitive, and it's reasonable to expect several small adjustments to zero in on the right spot.

I dont do any weightlifting, but thanks for the advice. I adjusted my cleat which alleiviated my pain on this last ride today so I hope that took care of it. I have heard of the look pedals but dont want to go buy new pedals right yet......but I probably will in the future
again, Thanks for all the advice!
Tom

azdroptop said:

Under the knee then. Do you do any weight lifting? It could be CHONDROMALACIA which is a fancy name for pain under the kneecap. LOL. Basically it gets inflamed from overuse or possibly a tracking problem, but with your limited riding so far I doubt this is the problem unless you weight lift or do other repetitive activities. It may just be your cleat position causing a tracking problem? I know when I get tight from not stretching enough I get lateral knee pain, but not under the kneecap.

I was wondering about the pedals because some give more 'float' than others. I've never used SPD's so I'm not sure if they are rigid or if you get a bit of movement side to side like a look pedal.

Hi,
A couple of things:
SPD pedals: I use 'em purely because the first set of clipless pedals I had were on a mountain bike so I carried the system over when I got back into road bikes (started life way before clipless were invented!). Now I wouldn't change anyway. SPDs have plenty of float in them (although sometimes it can take a while to wear new pedals in - they can be tight at first), and if you're looking at saving weight, you can get a fairly cheap pair of SPDs which weigh less than some of the fancier systems, for half the price.
Second: you might not do any weightlifting, but do you pedal a high gear/low cadence? That's a classic way to knacker your knees (just ask Jan Ulrich!) especially if you don't warm up properly first. There's more nagging injury caused by lack of warming up than anything else - like your car engine, it's the cold starts that cause all the wear.

I do occasionally use a high gear low cadence and that does seem to be when my knee hurts the most. I have loosened my pedals a bit and that too also seemed to give more float. Thanks for the advice!

Eastway82 said:

Hi,
A couple of things:
SPD pedals: I use 'em purely because the first set of clipless pedals I had were on a mountain bike so I carried the system over when I got back into road bikes (started life way before clipless were invented!). Now I wouldn't change anyway. SPDs have plenty of float in them (although sometimes it can take a while to wear new pedals in - they can be tight at first), and if you're looking at saving weight, you can get a fairly cheap pair of SPDs which weigh less than some of the fancier systems, for half the price.
Second: you might not do any weightlifting, but do you pedal a high gear/low cadence? That's a classic way to knacker your knees (just ask Jan Ulrich!) especially if you don't warm up properly first. There's more nagging injury caused by lack of warming up than anything else - like your car engine, it's the cold starts that cause all the wear.