Sore Knees! Any help appreciated

I am a physio and it could be any number of structures around the knee: patella tendon, fat pad, plica, the patella itself or it could be the femoral nerve. If it persists then follow the advice of those above that have said to see a physio. Don't google fix it!!

Places stress on patellar and quadriceps tendons (apparently) - I googled it...

Also consider strengthening the VMO muscle group on the inside above the knee. They rarely get properly extended when cycling, so end up weaker than the ones on the outside.
Try this: lie back on bed or floor, stretch legs out and support top of thigh with hands (initially) point one top and trace out a, b, c, d to z with your toe in the air with leg straight. That helped to balance out my knees, along with sorting out cleat position. Works your core too

I wore SPD's on my road bike and had all manner of problems with them as well as seat height issues. When I started out the seat was quite low. As I got fitter the seat height increased and like a nit I thought I would put it really high - a whole extra cm!. Took nearly 6 weeks of limping and a sports physio to sort that mistake out. I also got road cleats and shoes and they are far easier to adjust and get just right.

I had similar problems when I started out....read loads of articles, but to no avail.

There is a simple solution, the only drawback is that you need to lay out some cash.

I had a Specialized BG Fit done; it cost £120 but considered pretty much all aspects of my position on the bike and what was right for me. The initial fit took a good couple of hours and there were a couple of follow up sessions included to fine tune the fit. I also switched to Speedplay Zero pedals.

The combination of the fit and pedals made riding a pain free experience....expensive, but worth it

For what it's worth, I've also had knee pain from having the saddle too high. The rule of thumb of heel on the pedal is a little too high for me apparently. This manifested itself when I was doing extra mileage on a training camp in Spain and started getting knee pain. Dropped the saddle about 5 mm on the recommendation of one of the guys I was riding with and it solved it the next day

Before you scare yourself silly about medical words and conditions, make sure the two items below are done.

The most common cause of knee problems is
a) saddle too low - this is very common. It's nothing to do with being able to touch the ground, you are cycling, not scooting the bike.
b) cleats set wrong.

For a) get someone who is an experienced cyclist to help you. If you don't know anyone, set the saddle so that when your shoe heel is on the pedal, your leg is fully straight. That is a reasonable quick starting point.

For b) take the cleats off, ride a few miles in the shoes and then see where the pedal has marked the underside of the shoe. Fix the cleats so that they line up with the marks and go for another ride with the tool in your pocket and stop and make adjustments until they feel OK. Take the tool with you for the next few rides and don't be afraid to make more adjustments.

Intercostal muscles are the muscles between your ribs if I remember my A level Biology right

D'oh. I do. What's the IC band then? Have I made something up?

I think Bashthebox might mean iliotibial (IT) band.

Are you riding on clipless or flat pedals? Incorrect set up of cleats is a common cause of knee proplems. Stand normally and just look at the angle your feet are at compared to your knees. Once you clip in should be roughly the Same self floating cleats also help. Try a few stretching exercises before riding too. Most of all don't give up and a visit to a physio may well be worth while. A good one will probably give you advice on shoe and pedal set up too

My knees used to hurt on a longer ride. Turned out that my saddle was too low.

Using cleats/pedals which allow your foot to pivot slightly from side to side (often called "float") can help reduce knee pain if your current setup is holding your foot at the wrong angle.

see a sports physio - seconded, internet diagnoses and cures are worthless

it could be all manner of things, if you can see a physio that understands cyclists and can look at you on a bike that will help

i had a painful left knee that turned out to be nothing to do with the knee, some shoe inserts and some stretching sorted it

See a sports physio - I had a similar problem, 1 hour and £40 quid later they diagnosed a similar thing to mentioned above and some exercises - now good as new.

Also consider a bike fit - costly but worth it.

Might well be related to your intercostal band - that's the muscle and tendon group that starts on the outside of your hip and goes down to your knees, down the outside of your leg.
This group can get very tight, which means your patella gets pulled about too much and causes knee pain.
The way to treat it at home is to get a foam roller and do lots of exercises on that. Hurts like a bastard when you start doing it, which is symptomatic of the tightness of the IC band. After a while it becomes easier, and this should also mean that you're stretching the muscle group properly.

As for the root cause - could be many things. Wrong saddle height, bad cleat position, bad saddle position, etc etc.