I am a bit concerned that the mild pain I’m experiencing in my left knee is chondromalacia. It certainly feel like irritation of something under the patella after pedalling hard. Is it just the cold weather? Is it cold weather combined with singlespeeding?

I’m wondering if I should temporarily put some gears back on the bike to ease pressure on it.

What are your experiences?

Anyone?

Yup – got it in both knees – I keep soldiering on 🙁 The worst I can to is an epic ride on my FS up steep climbs – keep off the big gears/high torques 🙂

I had a lot of problems with it when I was a kid, you can get exercises from the physio. 3/4 tights and gears might sort it out.

8 years of it 🙁
Had an arthroscopy 2 years ago, that made it worse.
Going under the knife of another surgeon in 3 week’s time. This time it’s open surgery to release pressure on the patella, combined with micro-fracture and another clean up.
I did everything to prevent this: Bike fit experts, physio-therapy, single speed, gears, no riding…… the lot!!

I’d advise you to see a physio asap. It is probably an imbalance that can be addressed with some hard work. I’m not convinced that single speeding made mine worse, possibly the leg strength helped, but in the end it became too painful to put so much pressure through the knee so I had to become a twiddler!!

Keep it warm when on the bike, plenty of quad stretching, maybe ice packs in the evening and avoid kneeling.

I’ve got chondromalacia patella…and osgood schlatters….and loose ligaments….and a big willy but that’s irrelevant and I’ll thank you for not asking!

Treatment will vary from patient to patient but I’ve found that privately made orthotic foot inserts, a pooh load of glucosamine+chondrotin and plently of heat have stopped any pain dead in it’s tracks.

I’ve also recently purchased some over sized 661 kneelockers. With a clever bit of sewing I’ve not got some designer knee warmers which can be left on all the time as they don’t provide any support.

I had it for maybe 2 years when i was about 18.

It came about because i used to row at a high level and my technique meant that the supporting muscles around the knee developed at different rates. As a result the kneecaps moved inwards causing me pain.

Luckily a family friend was a physiotherapist and recommended me a set of exercises to strengthen the weaker muscles along woth taping the kneecapsin position while i exercised.

Get physio advice buddy, u only have 1 set on knees 😀

I do find repeated squats help my patellar tendons 🙂

I had it bad in my teens, luckily my GP was a sports injury specialist and was helpful. I wore a support that moved my patella to run in a different ‘track’ rather than grinding over the damaged tissue, which seemed to work. Took a load of ibuprofen too. They are a bit better now but don’t like the winter, or anything involving bending like cycling…! My advice would be go to the doctor, see if you get a referral to a sepcialist and don’t play internet doctors.