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Recently got my first full sus bike after years of hardtails. Only done half dozen easy rides and on each ride, have experienced pain in my left knee after c.40 mins. Have played with seat height etc to alleviate it to no joy. Have had a number of hardtails so am familiar with setting up a bike to suit.
Am pretty confident the frame size is right (Yeti ASR), it feels intuitively a great fit. I have occasionally in the past (more football related) had knee pain (chrondomalecia (SP!?) patella) but seldom from cycling. Went out on my hardtail today and pain free on the ride (vs an uncomfortable ride on the full sus on Friday).
So, can full sus aggravate? Assuming sizing is right, maybe a technique issue? Do sizing 'rules' change between hardtail and full sus?
Any thoughts?
Could be any number of things. Is the saddle the same distance behind the bottom bracket, pedals the same distance apart, heavier bike, cleats at wrong angle or feet at different angle on flat pedals amongst a million others. But anything can cause knee pain. If it's not too bad keep at it and see if it gets better.
I was suffering from knee pain after long rides on the singlespeed. I since figured out it was down to staying seated too long in too high a gear. This was happening on the ss MTB as well but I hadn't noticed it as much because I wasn't doing the same sort of distances.
Maybe going full sus you are staying seated more? If so maybe you should adapt your style slightly and pedal faster in a slightly lower gear?
Tried the saddle at matching height to b/b as my hardtail (will check distance behind b/b); pedals and cleats match the hardtail; matching chainset and gearing; very similar top tube length
In my experience its usually solved by simply adjusting saddle,bar,stem until you dont have any problems.
I would place your hardtail frame alongside the yeti and see how the bottom bracket to seat, to bar positions, compare.
The yeti seems to ride best with a fairly soft rear shock, so your actual riding position seat height will be higher than your hardtail while static.
The best adjustment for knee pain is usually at the saddle imho,a few mm up forwards or back can make all the difference,failling that the frame sizing could be a consideration..hth
13th - thanks, and kind of makes sense. On my hardtail I tend to climb out of the saddle ... wonder if I'm more seated on the full sus?
I tend to be a spinner on both
I used to get a lot of knee pain, until I stopped using SPDs. I had tried adjusting angles etc. I just don't think my legs agree with them.