knees

DH <[email hidden]> wrote:
: I traded in my DF for a Giant Revive about two months ago and have noticed a kind of pain in my
: knees. The first time I experienced any kind of stiffness/mild pain was after biking very hard for
: about 20 km. Yesterday I biked at a leisurely pace for 44 km and noticed afterward (and this
: morning) a mild stiffness when walking.

Sounds fairly normal. Your knees and muscles need to adapt to the bent riding position, and age
probably makes the process slower for the knees.

You could be more careful, ie. don't sprint hard or push hard uphill. Maintain a good cadence
above 80 rpm. Give your knees the time to adapt. You could even do the leg press for strenghtening
your knees during the off season. I took a rather gradual approach to benting and my knee pain has
been minimal.

Otherwise treat it like any knee pain from cycling. AFAIK some very mild knee pain the next day is
ok if it happens now and then, probably happens to many cyclists. If it persists or is more intense
it could be serious. Then again they are your knees not mine.

: I never had this with my DF. There's a slight break in my legs as I bike. Should the break in the
: leg with a recumbent be roughly the same as with a DF?

I think it should be similar. IMO the distance between your seat and pedals should be close enough
that you can push against the seat (this is not so good for the knees though it produces nice power
🙂 but also you need to be far enough to spin comfortably.

: I also realize I am 53 and age itself could be a factor and not necessarily any change in the
: bike ... or not?

Some people indeed report knee pain after going to the bent platform, but eventually it should go
away. I'm not sure about the time frame, but I would think knees are a structure that adapts very
slowly (several months or years). Maybe your knees have adapted to hard riding on an upright but the
bent position introduces different kind of stress.

--
Risto Varanka | helsinki.fihpv.htmlOpen ↗ varis at no spam please iki fi

Knee soreness during the transition to bents seems to be fairly common.

I experienced it myself during the first year. It seems to be caused by the "leg press machine"
nature of the bent set up. During high effort DF sessions, you rise off the seat if you over do
it.No such safety valve exists on a bent.

I don't know that set up changes will eliminate the problem. It didn't for
me. Only time and attention to pedaling technique helped.

I was a "Masher" during my DF years. Early speed efforts on my new bents caused some chronic knee
pain to arise.

I had to learn to spin and back off on maximum effort sessions for quite a while. Knee pain is no
longer a problem after about three years riding bent.

I continue to toy with the ergonomics. I have found that, for me, the seat continues to come forward
more than my instincts dictate. The more you recline the seat, the more forward the seat must
move(again, MUCH more than I estimate is required). I'm still looking for Jude's "sweet spot". I now
check for "slouching" in the seat as an indicator of being too far back.

Hope this helps.

--
Miles of Smiles,

Tom Blum Winter Haven, Florida Homebuilts: SWB Tour Easy Clone Speed Machine Clone High Racer Clone
www.gate.net/~teblum

Risto & Tom, thanks for the replies. What you guys wrote makes sense and makes me feel better re
this knee problem. The pain (very slight) and stiffness go away in a day or so and I'm not
terribly concerned about it, but it is directly related to biking and I just wanted to be armed
with more info..

I'll just take it easy and avoid biking real hard. Thanks again, Dave Horne

Quoted message said:

I now check for "slouching" in the seat as an indicator of being too far back

This works for me also. And when I adjust, I only do so in increments of 3mm - 6 mm.