[sergius]

Hi Folks,

Looking for some advice here (preferably not of the “don’t ride a bike for a few months and see if it gets better” sort which my Doctor wife recommended).

A little bit of background:

I got my first road bike about 8 months ago, loved it, and have been doing a fair amount of cycling (30-80 miles once a week) over the last few months. I’ve been riding for years but had been of the bike for a little while and I never used to go out four 4+ hours on the MTB.

For the first seven months, the only pains I had were in my back and shoulders. I followed some advice from here and started doing some targeted core training which helped a lot. Things were getting better on that front.

I got myself a new saddle bag for my birthday (end of May) which didn’t fit on the bike as-is. I had to move my saddle backwards around 1cm in order to fit the thing. I went out for my “normal” 65 mile loop around Surrey and after a couple of hours started getting pain in my right knee (specifically on the front and inside of the knee – it’s especially pronounced when I push hard. If i’m just spinning out it’s fine, climbing and getting out of the saddle make it much worse).

The next week, with the saddle remaining unchanged I went out for a quick loop of Box Hill (35 miles) – knee pain again returned after an hour. At this point I put the saddle back how it was and took the new saddle bag off the bike.

I took this as a sign that I really should get a bike fit done. So I popped off to my LBS and ended up spending £450 on a bike fitting + new shoes/bars/stem, ouch. I guess that’s what you get if you buy everything of the internet and haven’t had your feet measured in 20 years. The chap didn’t have to change much, my saddle was already in the “ideal” position, the reach was too long and my shoes way too big. I went out for another quick loop of Box Hill and the pain was still very present, but I figured I’d tweaked something at this point and needed a rest.

I knew I had a Sportive coming up on the weekend just gone, so I took two weeks off riding. I still went to the gym a bit, but stuck to core and upper-body – I left my legs alone for two weeks.

I did the Wiggle Chiltern Classic (75 miles) on Saturday and my knee is worse if anything. My left leg/quads are now really sore as well – I suspect from over-compensating for my weak right knee. On the plus side, shortening the reach and narrowing the bars with the new stem/bars has eliminated the back and shoulder problems entirely.

My wife is of the opinion that I should stop riding for a while (funny that) and see what happens. I’m not particularly enamored with that idea, it’s not like I ride a huge amount anyway – once a week maximum.

Has anyone had any similar issues? Assuming the bike fit was good, could this just be my body trying to adapt to an “ideal” cycling position?

Right now I see my options as:

– Stop riding and hope it fixes itself, then build up the miles again slowly.
– Do a bunch of strength training, squats etc, focusing on the problem muscles. Try riding local 4-5 mile loops and build up the distance until the knee pain starts again. Essentially train through it.
– See a doctor and be told, “if it hurts, don’t do it”. I’m not a big fan of this as you may have guessed, every other muscle injury I’ve had (and there’s been a few, I did a lot of gym work when I was younger) I’ve worked through with targeted training and they’ve fixed themselves.
– Try playing with my bike adjustments to see if I can sort something myself, this strikes me as massively iterative and hard to judge as to whether or not it’s the current injury getting inflamed further or actually making things worse.

Any other suggestions?

Topic

[don simon fbpe]

Straight back to the bike

Straight back to the bike fitter to sort out.

Without seeing you on the bike,I’d suggest that the saddle needs dropping a touch, the pain being caused by stretching the joint.

I am many things, doctor is not one of them.

[Anonymous]

My solution to this sort of

My solution to this sort of thing is to no longer ride through it and hope that some physio exercise can be done at the same time as your problem’s healing. 

If you cut the palm of your hand open, you’d let it heal before you started wrenching about on things otherwise it’d just open all the time and you’d take a long time to get anywhere. 

I only learned this when another illness forced me off the bike for about 3 months. Without that I’d still probably be grinding through it, as it’s hard to stop riding sometimes. When you get a point that you can only hit about 130w before pain it’s time to rest. If I get any sort of twinges whilst I’m riding now, I’ll put myself into limp mode, go home and give up on the all important Strava average. 

[willsdad]

In the first instance save

In the first instance save your money.

Put the seat back where it was prior to the problem. Find some other means of carrying your tubes, CO2 canisters and whatever.

Start with shorter rides and see how you go.

I can’t think of any bike fitter who would move your seat back in such an extreme manner. That sort of adjustment will play havoc with all sorts of other measurements.

I hope this helps

[Jimnm]

Perhaps you need to look t

Perhaps you need to look t your cadence. Could be pushing too hard in high gears. Drop it down a cog and see how that feels. Good luck. 

[landsurfer74]

Bike fits are the latest

Bike fits are the latest “Emperor’s new clothes” .. how ever badly it goes its always your fault it didnt work because , your fitter,  you’ve lost weight, you’ve put on weight ,  you changed your shorts … etc etc …. it’s never the bike fitters responsibility ….

I’ve had the bike fit, the phyiso .. with no effect. So starting out on a 14 day LEJOG the last week of June was worrying… but i took some old advice and ran very, very, low gears .. 12 – 32 cassette and 26 tooth single front chainring …

By day 2 my knee pain had gone and has never come back, i had no issues keeping up with my fellow WIMPS in our 5 man group and throughly enjoyed the experiance…

I have now fitted a 33 tooth front chainring and still enjoy the ride …

[Anonymous]

fukawitribe wrote:

fukawitribe wrote:

4 years down the line i’m figuring he’s either ok or his knees have actually exploded…

 

Lol i’ve just seen that ! 

[fukawitribe]

4 years down the line i’m
4 years down the line i’m figuring he’s either ok or his knees have actually exploded…

[Anonymous]

As others have said go see a

As others have said go see a physio or similar however it may be down to degradation of the cartilage in your knee, i dont know how old you are or what other sports you’ve done previously, but this can be checked very easily via your GP in your local hospital. 

I played a lot of contact sports when i was young and this caused the damage so when, in later life, i started to go cycling the pain was apparent and after a scan a quick clean up of the loose cartilage solved the problem. 

Hopefully your knee hasn’t reached this stage and a bit of tlc will solve the problem. 

Keep us updated as little things like this may help others in the future. 

[Drinfinity]

Really? Please don’t show up

Really? Please don’t show up on here pushing useless supplements.

If I want to increase my intake of cumin and Vit D, I’ll go out for a ride on a sunny day, and have a biryani on the way back. 

 

 

[Edison78]

I have verry positive

I have verry positive expirience with Acuraflex capsules and cream from Nutrilago. It saved my knees and back.. http://www.acuraflex.co.uk/

[sergius]

Thanks for the additional
Thanks for the additional replies, my LBS use Cyclefit Precision. They have a couple of options, the “full” fit and an “on the bike” fit – I went for the latter.

This is focused on adjusting your existing bike properly, while the chap wrote down some details – there’s not a huge amount other than my physical measurements and some of the key measurements of the bike after his changes.

he certainly observed and measured my leg extension angle, likewise I got a 9/10 in the various flexibility measurements he took. Core stability measurement was “how long can you hold a plank”? My reply of “well I’ve never bothered doing more than 5 minutes” seemed to be enough for him.

There’s a record of what he changed if that’s of interest:

– Saddle height dropped 0.4 cms to compensate for thinner shoes than the previous ones.
– New shoes, slight wedges on both feet to compensate for the Varus, obviously new cleats + positioning
– Saddle wasn’t entirely horizontal, adjusted it slightly.
– Saddle moved forward 1.5 cms
– New bars/stem (narrower/shorter) reducing measurement from tip saddle to hoods by 6 cms. This change is great btw, lots more comfortable.

[lifefan]

Had to join road.cc as this
Had to join road.cc as this was interesting.
It would be interesting to know what fit system the bike shop used. Precision, Guru, Bio Bike, Retul etc. They should have given you a flexibility assessment and set your leg extension as appropriate. Do you know the angle they set you at? It should be written down somewhere. (45-30deg) The Knee over pedal (KOP) can be a little fore & aft to suit body mass, so a little adjustment like you suggest should not have caused the dramatic effect you suggest. Reason I am interested is because fit systems above differ on how they asses the riders ability. Eg, Fitness, flexibility, Core stability. They should have fit to your week leg, and posture. Without seeing you it is hard to guess, but my first thoughts are that the shortening of your reach has closed your hip angle forcing an irregular leg movement beyond the reach of your flexibility. Maybe you can check by observing the tracking of your knee in relation to your Iliac spine and ankle in front of a mirror. If your hip is closed you will see you compensate by rotating your femur out. Your fitter should be more than happy to review your fitting either way. Good luck.

[iso2000]

I found this site really
I found this site really interesting for all types of knee pain:

http://www.knee-pain-explained.com

Visiting a physio though is the way to go.

[beekie1]

Get to the physio. I’ve had
Get to the physio. I’ve had two bouts of knee pain, had the bike fit first time around (which seemed to fix the issue the first time in conjunction with physiotherapy) and when I increased the distances this year it returned and this time I upgraded my shoes and pedals (my shoes were twisting under load). Both times I used the physio and they gave me exercises, ultra sound, infrared and laser treatment to improve blood flow and aid the healing.

I don’t see the bike fit as a one off activity – as you adjust to the new position, new factors and new shoes etc bed in, so you may need to return a second time. Your ligaments stretch, you gain and loose flexibility and so its a constant process.

Do try and find one with either sports, or cycling experience. Just because they ‘cycle’ doesn’t seem to mean they are expert about cycling related injuries.

Beekie

[sergius]

The fitter didn’t comment to
The fitter didn’t comment to much on the pain (though admittedly I did the normal bloke thing and probably downplayed it a bit, especially as it was very recent and likely caused by my playing with my saddle positioning). He was mainly concerned with getting my ankles/knees straight – hence the shoes that fit and a slight wedge under the cleats.

I’ll take the advice on seeing a physio, it can’t hurt to get a professional opinion.

[Author]

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