knee pain

dbasher

hoping someone out there can help me, suffer from knee pain both knees during cycling. Have had to stop riding road bike, now just ride mountain bike in runners. Need to ride with balls of feet a couple of inches out from cranks/ ankles close to cranks to minimise pain [mimicking the way I walk.] Also have trouble with piriformis, which I am sure contributes, along with kneecaps that track to the outside. Does anyone else have this problem?
Dave.

Postie

Hi dbasher. I just posted something to a forum called "Grinding Sound from the Knee!" http://www.cyclingforums.com/t82035.html

The discussion here is about the most common knee problem called Chondromalacia. You may want to give this a read.

If you're already off your road bike, you need to go for medical help from a sports physician that knows his knees.

davidbod

I think most knee problems are caused by incorrect fit on the bike and yours is a good example. I am assuming that your road bike has clipless pedals which locks your feet into a particular position. The fact that you can ride a mountain bike in runners with no pain clearly would indicate it is the postitoning of your feet in the clipless pedals that is giving your knees the problem.

I have the same issue with my feet. When I sit on the bed and let my feet dangle and come to a rest on the floor, my feet point out quite a bit at the toes. If you can imagine then if you can't properly get this fit with your road shoes and clipless pedals your knees are not going to like it.

I solved my problems by going to a pedal / cleat combo that allows for a lot of float (ability to move your heel in and out relative to the cranks). I went with the Speedplay Zero pedals and cleats. I set the float so when my heels move to the inside they can float until my foot is just about to contact the crank. I then set the float on the outside so they dissengage with about half the float as that on the inside. This realy helps on longer rides as I can move my feet around as I get into different positions on the bike. I have found that when I stand to climb or sprint my feet like to point more straight ahead. When I am on the saddle and particularly forward in the saddle spinning my feet like to point out at the toes which is more my natural walking position. I have another problem in that one of my lower legs (below the knee) is longer than the other. Speedplay has shims to account for this.

Another positioning problem with the feet could also be pronation. Look at a well worn pair of your shoes sighting down the bottom of the show looking from the heel towards the front. If the heel of the show is significantly worn more on the inside or outside then you might have a pronation problem as well. You can get custon shoe inserts that provide lift either on the inside or outside of your foot to help compensate for this also. If the wear is greater on the outside then you need lift on the inside.

Good luck,
David

hdtvkss

dbasher,

ive had a similar problem to you in my left knee. ( although mine was cause from martial arts , not cycling ) after 6 months of stuffing around, what it turned out to be was weak muscles in my hips that were causing my knees to pull out of allignment , hence pain.

my advice is go see a GP then get him to check it out, insist to him that you need to see a specialist, then dont skimp on specialists, if your in sydney australia i can recommend some fantastic ppl. if alls good there, then the surgon will refer you to a physio ( which im doing at the moment ) and hopefully they will be able to help you out

hope this helps!

cheers

Graham

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Read all:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t86579.html

Hope it'll help