knee pain from saddle position

maxo said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause such
a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

yes. it's only that finicky with high-mileage climbing, tho (i'm in idaho).
for me, that tends to be seat down a bit lower than usual. but it's the
achilles as well as the knees that get affected.
--
david reuteler
[email hidden]

maxo said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause such
a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

Yep, though in the other direction- moving the seat back led to almost
immediate knee pain, and moving it back forward got rid of it. Go
figure...

maxo said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever experienced
this:

I was doing some serious hillclimbing the other day here in middle
Tennessee on my old road bike which is set up the same way I've been
doing since the eighties: legs straight when heels touch pedals,
plumb line from bottom of patella goes through pedal axel. At any
rate, I got tired on the umpteenth hill of the day and slid forward
on my Brooks and found that I could spin just brilliantly in that
position. When I got home I adjusted my saddle perhaps an inch
forward and raised it a smidge to compensate. The next ride, on
fairly level ground, my right inside knee just crapped out with
severe horrible pain--I limped home the last couple miles on pretty
much lefty leg power. So I took a couple days off, and thought I
might have to give up riding, or see a specialist--which I can't
afford at the moment. Of course the riding bug got hold of me, and I
returned the seat back to it's usual position and did a fierce 40
miler today with absolutely no pain. 😄

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause
such a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

IMO, an inch is /not/ "such a small" adjustment. It is, in fact, quite
radical.

Bill "mm increments" S.

Quoted message said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause such
a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

I remain, after all these years, skeptical of the idea that there's this
perfect position that your knee has to be in when you're on a bike. Rather,
I think the human engine is an amazingly-adaptable piece of engineering that
can get used to just about anything. But... over time, what we can adapt to
becomes narrower and narrower as we train our muscles & tendons & ligaments
in a certain way.

If my idea is correct, it implies that you can, at a younger time in life,
vary your position on a bike from time to time and never suffer from issues
associated with relatively minor changes in seat height or setback. But as
you get comfortable with being in a specific place, it becomes increasingly
difficult to move from that position without suffering painful consequences.

For what it's worth, I'm trying to become less hyper-sensitive to minor
changes in seat height. Mostly an experiment for no good reason, just
trying to prove to myself that it's absurd that I should be so sensitive to
changes of less than 1/16 of an inch. I'm making some headway; I can
tolerate a range of about 1/4" or so without pain now. Still, there's a
very narrow sweet-spot where I feel most comfortable.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"maxo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever experienced

this:

Quoted message said:

I was doing some serious hillclimbing the other day here in middle
Tennessee on my old road bike which is set up the same way I've been doing
since the eighties: legs straight when heels touch pedals, plumb line from
bottom of patella goes through pedal axel. At any rate, I got tired on the
umpteenth hill of the day and slid forward on my Brooks and found that I
could spin just brilliantly in that position. When I got home I adjusted
my saddle perhaps an inch forward and raised it a smidge to compensate.
The next ride, on fairly level ground, my right inside knee just crapped
out with severe horrible pain--I limped home the last couple miles on
pretty much lefty leg power. So I took a couple days off, and thought I
might have to give up riding, or see a specialist--which I can't afford at
the moment. Of course the riding bug got hold of me, and I returned the
seat back to it's usual position and did a fierce 40 miler today with
absolutely no pain. 😄

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause such
a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

maxo said:

When I got home I adjusted my saddle perhaps an inch
forward and raised it a smidge to compensate.

As Others have said, moving your saddle an inch forward is rather a radical
change. Since you then only raised your saddle a "smidge" you were probably
sitting lower than you were used to.
Last summer I lowered my saddle a little bit ( 5mm ) just so I could spin
really fast easier. No problems until I did a really hilly trip. One knee
started hurting on the last 70 km of the first day. In the evening I raised
my seat 3mm and the next day I had no problems whatsoever on an even hillier
climb.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever experienced this:

I was doing some serious hillclimbing the other day here in middle
Tennessee on my old road bike which is set up the same way I've been doing
since the eighties: legs straight when heels touch pedals, plumb line from
bottom of patella goes through pedal axel. At any rate, I got tired on the
umpteenth hill of the day and slid forward on my Brooks and found that I
could spin just brilliantly in that position. When I got home I adjusted
my saddle perhaps an inch forward and raised it a smidge to compensate.
The next ride, on fairly level ground, my right inside knee just crapped
out with severe horrible pain--I limped home the last couple miles on
pretty much lefty leg power. So I took a couple days off, and thought I
might have to give up riding, or see a specialist--which I can't afford at
the moment. Of course the riding bug got hold of me, and I returned the
seat back to it's usual position and did a fierce 40 miler today with
absolutely no pain. 😄

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause such
a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

Yep, though in the opposite direction. Raising my seat 3mm (yes, less
than 1/8 inch) stopped my knee pain.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
newsgroups if possible).

Per Elmsäter said:

As Others have said, moving your saddle an inch forward is rather a radical
change. Since you then only raised your saddle a "smidge" you were probably
sitting lower than you were used to.

Yeah, I know it's a radical adjustment on a regular skinny racy seat, but
with my Brooks I've got about three different fore and aft positions that
are all very comfy--I basically made the forward position the middle one
by adjusting the saddle forward. I've a feeling that you're right about
the saddle height though--I was in too much of a hurry to get on the road
to dial it in right, so probably too low.

Oh well, guess this body is getting a little persnickity, I'll have to be
a little more careful in the future.

😄

maxo said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever experienced this:

Quoted message said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position would cause such

a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

I started having knee pain so I measured my knee position wrt the axle
- it was 4cm (cm, not mm!) forward of the axle. I moved the seat back
3cm (about the same as your inch forward) and the knee pain mostly
went away. I moved it back another cm and haven't had any knee pain
since.

Michael