I hate to vindicate the doubters who claim singlespeed is bad for your knees, but over the last few months… I think singlespeeding has been damaging my knees.

I’ve lowered the gearing on the bike (a Genesis Day Cross) and try to avoid any seated climbing, but nonetheless the protests from my knees are getting more frequent, and more painful.

For the sake of a continued hillwalking career I’m beginning to think I just need to sell up and chalk it up to experience, unless there’s an obvious solution I’m missing that doesn’t involve silly low gears or endless strengthening exercises…

I saw someone on here who was touring the alps on a singlespeed, with luggage AND a stiffer gear than mine, how do people manage it?

IIRC it took a while to get into the SS way of things.

I became a doubter and sold mine but after watching a friend ride his I have come to the conclusion that a lot of my problems were down to inconsistency in pedal RPM.

I found that I mashed the pedals rather than smoothly spin.

For me this didn’t equate to any pain other than to my pride as I was constantly falling off of the back of our group.

Possibly something to do with your pain?

I commuted in Taunton on a 48 x 16 – took a while to adjust but all was good in the end 8)

Don’t give up with SS yet but equally don’t ignore constant pain/discomfort

i encountered serious knee pain when riding a geared bike, most likely due to over training and as above, not spinning smoothly

since riding SS my knees are better, i also run now to keep my leg muscles balanced.

I was fine on the ss mtb with 32 – 16/17 etc – no problems over many years. The cross bike was too much though, definite knee pain after about 6 months. Wasn’t a big gear in SS terms either, forget which but whatever a singlecross comes with.
[you actually sold it to me IIRC at the coop – great bike but too knee hurty in the end].

Garry, that actually mirrors my problem, the MTB 32:16 never caused any problems, but I never attempted any 100km+ rides on that, and the Day Cross is higher anyway (40:18 + bigger wheels).

(Think the singlecross was 42:17 iirc)

SS MTB seems to actualy be better for my knees than gears. But I live in berkshire where there arent too may singlepeed unfriendly hills, theure either shallow enough to make 2:1 (38-19 for me) about right for seated climbing or short and steep enough to sprint up.

Only one I don’t like is Cesars Camp in Farnbrough, but even that isn’t really too long.

So the guys who are still getting on with SS, how often are you out of the saddle, every climb?

My initial problem was with seated climbing, standing for the climbs stopped that problem, but has resulted in different pains instead.

I have no knee problems on 42:13 fixed on my day one. You might want to try using flat pedals if you dont already.

I am happy to see if there’s anything obviously wrong with your knees or pedalling style if you want.

I try and stay seated for all climbs – geared and SS.

I only get out of the saddle when things get difficult/I start blowing out of my a$$.

I found on my SS that as soon as I got out of the saddle I started stomping and lost all smoothness.

Out of the saddle sprints were fine but less good on climbs.

Silly question(s) but …. is your saddle the correct height and are you running the correct length cranks for your size?

Look after your knees – if it hurts – stop. My feeling, and it’s only gut feeling backed by no science, is that single speeding doesn’t help if you have any knee problems. Stop, and see if your knees improve. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what you ride as long as you can still ride 😀

letmetalktomark- not silly questions, I did dick around with crank lengths briefly, but am now on 175mm cranks which is what I’ve been riding for years now.

Likewise SBZ, I’ve been on SPDs for years and they have plenty of float, I’ll get you to give me a pro critique next time we cross paths!

I guess maybe I do need to work on the stability of my knees, wether or not I persevere with the SS in the interim is a different question!

Reluctant, I agree with you in principle, but SS gets addictive… 8)

As above I find that my SS helps my knees. I think due to the fact that it strengthens the muscles around them and holds them in the right place. Anything that becomes a hard push though and I am out of the saddle. As with riding geared riding pushing too high a gear while seated is what causes me the most grief.

I overcame my knee pain by riding fixed on my commute. Its a ride I know, I know how long it should take and how fast I should be going. As a result, when I ride freewheel now I keep my cadence under control, with a good steady stroke and suffer no knee problems. But my sisters jeans chafe a little.

I’ve had dodgy knees for years, from when I used to do Karate back in my youth. Quite often I limp a bit.
I’ve only been singlespeeding for a couple of years or so and haven’t noticed any worse knee pain than when I rode only gears.
What does happen though, is when I occasionally change bikes and ride my geared hardtail, then seem to I get worse knee trouble. Perhaps it’s adjusting back from ss style pedalling? Dunno.

Have you been through the usual suspects? Since you’re standing up a lot, that makes the saddle an unlikely one. Think very closely about the pain: does rotation hurt? If it does, a tweak of the cleats could help.

Just because your current setup worked with gears, that doesn’t mean it was right. With the extra strain of singlespeed, you might uncover something that has always been wrong but never showed itself.

I’ve had new shoes with the cleats slightly wrong that were great for 3 hours and only really showed a problem when I rode more than 100 miles per day.

Another thing to think about is dropping your heels across the top of the pedal stroke. It’s easy to end up climbing with your body right up over the handlebars and your toes pointing down on a SS. It takes more core strength to drop your heels but, if you can get used to it, it seems more powerful.

I’ve been SS’ing for about 8 months, (32:16 ratio) naturally stood up from the beginning for any gradients that requires a hard push while seated, as a result, I stand most of the time and have never had a single knee problem to date. I use flat pedals, not sure if that might help too as I’m not locked into one position for the whole ride?

I developed a well dodgy left knee from a variety of football injuries as a youth.

I’ve been riding SS for over a year, including commuting on a 42:16 and MTB on 32:16 and in all honesty I think it’s made my knee stronger – I’ve played footie again recently and not had any issues.

I tend to be out of the saddle a lot, but on smoother longer climbs I do my best to stay seated.

I usualy stand to accelerate, then sit down and push the pedals. It was hard work when I wasn’t fit but regular riding seems to have made it almost easy, I almost considdered going up a gear but that seems unnececeraly masochistic seeing as I can keep up mid group why make life harder?

Been riding SS for years, only ever knee related problems come from foul set-up of cleats or badly worn cleats.
Climbing seated or standing depending on traction available and how fast I want to go up said hill.
Don’t give up…try each different possibility of solving this situation one at a time. Don’t do all at once.
I would suggest look at saddle height, just to gain full leg extension of all muscles rather than pushing away while seated with non extended joints

Fixed gear with spds wasn’t too good for my knees. As I was locking up to skid (front brake too mind), plus honking from lights all the time I think my body didn’t like the sudden increase in strain.

Depends on your set up, knees, style, terrain.

Anything that becomes a hard push though and I am out of the saddle. As with riding geared riding pushing too high a gear while seated is what causes me the most grief.

+1

I thought it was accepted wisdom that seated climbing is what causes problems.

What problems do you get after climbing out of the saddle? I guess not as permanent as knee-damage?

hmm I’m having trouble with my knees lately, been singlespeeding for a good few years now. If my knees are giving me gyp SS sometimes seems to aggravate it slightly so will switch to gears then. But I don’t think SSing causes the problems.

MY knees feel the strain when on the SS, but I think it’s primarily down to the muscles in that area not being used to dealing with such work frequently. After a good few rides it goes away. That said, if I can’t climb it at 90rpm in the saddle I stand and thrash it, seems to work wonders for my fitness.

My knees are a bit knackered now. I have arthritis in one and both of them are a bit ‘creaky’. Having said that I do the majority or riding on a rigid SS 32:16 and it’s far from flat where I live. I tend to stand up on climbs and can ‘thrutch’ up most things. After some initial soreness when I first started with the SS (yonks ago) I now am fine with it. I’d probably go as far as saying that my knees are better for it. Plus I am pretty sure it has made me a lot better at fell running.
As with most things it’ll be horses for courses – nobody else has your knees – so if you think SS is **** them up then sack it.

cynic-al – Member
I thought it was accepted wisdom that seated climbing is what causes problems…

I agree. I’m almost a listed relic and if SS was going to knacker knees, mine should have been stuffed 20 years ago.

I use a very hard saddle on my SS and never have any discomfort – even in 24 hr races and no chamois – which suggests that my posterior doesn’t spend much time on it.

I only sit to climb on a bike with gears.

Above all else, remember that there’s no point in trying to climb the impossible. That’s what walking is for – because it’s faster…

Above all else, remember that there’s no point in trying to climb the impossible. That’s what walking is for – because it’s faster…

Well, there has been an element of that recently, although I managed to overtake some walkers so didn’t look too silly.

My saddle is actually 1cm lower and maybe 1cm further forward than the saddle on the road bike, so I’ll reposition it, and replace my very worn cleats while I’m at it (although those are the same shoes I use on the road bike, so probably not a factor).

By a (sort of) process of elimination, I think its the excessive standing thats caused the recent problems, its a different pain than when I was sitting down in a high gear. Since I don’t run and have only recently taken up hiking with any serious intent, I reckon my knees are maybe just a bit weak and wobbly when pedalling stood up for any length of time.

That said, I’m not sure if its worth keeping the bike till I know my knees are stronger, or just ditching it and enjoy trouble free hillwalking and get a bike with gears, decisions…

Unfortunately, my left knee persistently ached when MTB single-speed. It felt like a friction problem under the kneecap. I tried dropping to 32:20, and both flat and SPD pedals – same problem. So I have sadly reverted to 9sp and the problem has quickly gone. It’s sad because I otherwise really enjoyed the “feel” of that riding style.

On the plus side, the single-speed experience has improved aspects of my geared bike riding. Notably: standing climbing balance and technique; and pumping down-slopes to keep up speed (and getting used to that).

The other thing I forgot to mention is that a low saddle is a killer on a SS.

Been doing some fairly high mileage on a SS since I bought one and not noted any new knee pains.
I generally sit as much as possible and only stand for climbs when the cadence drops below 60ish at a guess, so that’s most short steep ones and a few long slogs.