Bad knee pain from new roadbike – ideas?

Bought myself my first ever roadbike for Christmas – been out on it for 3 rides so far this week and really enjoying the extra speed. However, having been out on a 175km road ride yesterday I’m now unable to bend my left knee, incredibly sore and has scuppered plans for another ride today even though I feel raring to go out otherwise!

I consistently ride 180-300km/week and I regularly do 100km+ rides on the mtbs. So far on the road bike I’ve been using a spare pair of Time ATAC pedals (I use these pedals on all my mtbs) with my mtb SPD shoes so there’s nothing new to the mix apart from the road bike itself.

Any ideas? I’ve checked saddle height and I have a near on straight leg on full downstroke of the cranks so that feels right. Frame size at 58cm seems comfortable for me at 6ft 2 (certainly no issues on the long ride yesterday).

Or maybe it’s the Mtb gods punishing me for packing up my mtbs for Winter! 🙂

Is the saddle further fore/aft than on your mtb?

Your leg shouldnt be near straight but around 140 degrees at full extentsion. It’s surprisingly bent actually IMO. Use one of the big bike websites to spit out ball park fit dimensions then vary to suit. You need to start from somewhere. I used competitivecyclist.com. seemed pretty bang on.

what speedstar said…

I dont understand why anyone would want to ride a road bike in the winter.. There arent designed for adverse weather, whereas MTB’s can be used in pretty much anything.

first ever roadbike for Christmas – been out on it for 3 rides so far

175km road ride yesterday

I think I see your problem

I find it takes a while for my body to adjust to a new bike and get aches and pain for a while. If they persisted for a while then I’d probably pay for a bike fit to avoid damaging myself

…I dont understand why anyone would want to ride a road bike in the winter.. There arent designed for adverse weather, whereas MTB’s can be used in pretty much anything.

Because roads dry out quickly, and I can go for several rides before I need to do any cleaning or maintenance. Even my clothes come back mostly clean and dry.

The trails won’t dry out till April at best, every mtb ride leaves me with hours of clean-up.

You’re trolling obviously, but just in case you really didn’t know, road-riding is almost always bloody great.

Anyway, as above, the OP’s saddle sound like it might be a little high…

Hard to diagnose over the web but it sounds like your’e over extending your leg as has been pointed out above.
You should get a proper fit,sooner rather than later if your’e doing lots of miles.I went here; http://www.cadencesport.co.uk/bike-fitting/

crank length ok?
FWIW I had 175s on my long distance GP bike – 170s now and that’s much better.

first ever roadbike for Christmas – been out on it for 3 rides so far

175km road ride yesterday

I think I see your problem[/quote]

This.

Thanks for the ideas so far, I’ll take a closer look at the fore/aft saddle position compared to one of my 29’ers – the road bike has a layback post whereas I’ve got inlines on both my mtbs. I’ll look at where the saddle rails are relative to the centre of the seat tube.

I’ll also try some of those bike fit calculators although a bikefit in a LBS certainly confirmed a 58cm would be good.

Seems very strange that 3 road bike rides this week have caused pain in my left knee than nearly 9000km of mountainbiking this year couldn’t!

scaredypants & sofatester – I’m not 100% ruling out yesterdays high mileage road ride as the sole cause of the pain but at the same time I consistently ride 180-300km per week on my 29’ers so the legs are pretty well used to that sort of mileage.

As I said, crank length will make a bit difference between road and MTB.
Whole posture is different between MTB and road, also tend to stop more on MTB, out of saddle and generally vary position..

kcal – hmm, 175 cranks on my 29’ers, 175 cranks fitted to the road bike. I have long legs in proportion to my overall height (6ft 2).

Saddle a bit too high if your leg is pretty much straight at the bottom of the pedal stroke?

Will a difference in the OPs two seat angles cause issue.

I found that when i started road bike riding I had a problem with my knees and in the end I worked out it due to pedals are wider apart on my mtb than my Defy and after fitting some pedal extenders I have had no more problems ride the Defy.

scaredypants & sofatester – I’m not 100% ruling out yesterdays high mileage road ride as the sole cause of the pain but at the same time I consistently ride 180-300km per week on my 29’ers so the legs are pretty well used to that sort of mileage.

I just think that a new bike takes a little bit of getting used to, esp if it’s your first ever road bike. It’ll feel weird anyway and you’ll take a few rides to work out if it’s just weird or is it wrong. There’s also the pretty much constant pedalling that’s different to mtb riding – for me anyway.

what pedals are you using – do they have any float ? (maybe try yr mtb shoes & pedals for a bit & see if that’s better)

Unlikely to be your saddle fore/aft, especially if your road bike has setback seatpost. Saddle too far forwards might cause knee pain, but too far rearwards is unlikely I think.

Also, do not set the saddle for/aft on your road bike the same as on your mtb. It’ll probably need to be much further back I’d imagine, especially if you’re 6’2″

Hard to guess without knowing where abouts the pain is as to what’s wrong. Sounds like the seat is probably too high though. Your crotch to floor measurement minus 10 cm is a good starting point for saddle height.

Q factor will probably be narrower on your road bike compared to your mtb, so your cleat orientation will possibly need altering to accommodate this.

I wouldnt bother with pedal extenders, unless you’ve got some serious issue, they’re more likely to hinder rather than help.

One other point,make sure there’s a bit of sideways movement in your shoes/ cleats when your’e clipped in.That way you’re allowing a little float in your knees

I’d check the shoe/cleat/peddle angle myself.

If it’s slightly out of line and you don’t know it your foot might not be in line each time you downstroke on the peddle.
Only takes a small amount of deflection to put undue pressure on the knee. Are you knees out/knees in or knees straight kinda rider? and has that changed a little from your 29’er?

But if it’s setup like your 29’er then I’d take another look at the angle of your foot/shoe knees alignment..

Another thing, roadie tyre pressures are a lot higher than your 29’er and the road buzz/clatter maybe sending small shockwaves up your leg.. Possible cause, dunno but sure mine hurt after some damn hard clattery rides.

HTH

Can’t see much wrong with the mileage myself so long as it wasn’t all at full chat 😆

In terms of pedals / shoes – I’m using a spare set of Time ATACs (I run ATACs on all my mtbs) so that I can use my current mtb shoes in the short term. The fact I’m using kit straight off my mtbs makes the sudden knee pain on the road bike all the more strange, especially as ATACs have such high levels of float.

The pain itself is acute and underneath the left patella (the right knee is fine!), also some tenderness to the inner edge of the kneecap, it certainly seems to be a patella tracking issue. I got half a mile down the road today and simply couldn’t put any pressure through my knee so had to come straight back home… grrr!

Here’s a stab in the dark diagnosis (the best sort) your seat is too high which is causing you to rock your hips that in turn is rocking your knees which is causing your patella pain. How do you like them apples?

Ibuprofen before and after, works a treat.

OP if your mileage is genuine get a pro fit ASAP. I didn’t but then my knees didn’t hurt. If they did I’d bloody sort it cost no problem. Fit. Mine sorted itself through kind words and keen aggression from stw’ers.

Riding that much mileage that quickly on a brand new bike will nearly always cause problems. Position is never going to be exactly the same as on your mountain bike, and even fairly minor changes can cause issues if you jump in with a 175km ride straight off the bat. Also, on a road bike you’re sitting in one position all the time and spinning constantly, so its a lot less forgiving than a MTB.

Try easing in a bit more slowly once the pain has gone, try doing a few squats every morning to strengthen all the stabilising muscles, and maybe try dropping your seat height slightly.

Because roads dry out quickly, and I can go for several rides before I need to do any cleaning or maintenance. Even my clothes come back mostly clean and dry.
The trails won’t dry out till April at best, every mtb ride leaves me with hours of clean-up.
You’re trolling obviously, but just in case you really didn’t know, road-riding is almost always bloody great.
Anyway, as above, the OP’s saddle sound like it might be a little high…

I don’t think it was trolling, I think it just meant riding your MTB on the road in dodgy conditions is safer than the road bike.
I know when it’s wet, leafy and slippy out, I much prefer road-riding my MTB than trying to get my road bike to stop without killing me 😉

Wilburt sounds like you are stalling a problem for a later date.

If you can get a photo up of you sat on the bike, that’d be useful. I reckon drop your saddle though.

@hora

Yup. Pain killers mask problems, don’t deal with causes.

@cross hair

Disc braked road bike with quality tires and mudguard(s) = pleasurable riding in the cold / wet winter months.

@op. Get your new bike fitted properly, by an experienced bike fitter. You can quickly rack up long mile/km on a road bike and do some nasty damage very quickly. Road bikes have a much less dynamic position than mtb, good fitting is very important for comfortable road miles…

saddle height …. try 109% of inseam (that’s full inside leg not down to the
ankle as it is for trousers !!)

(inseamx109%)-cranklength … measured from the center of the bb to the top
of the saddle. That should be closer than leg straight.
then check fore/aft. that should stop extra injuries followed by “Get thee
to a fitter” 🙂

while i think of it … the other check is knee angle at the bottom of the
pedal stroke … somewhere between 140 and 150 degrees measured with a
goniometer.

Has been said a few times but 175km on a new ‘type’ of bike has the potential to cause you some problems.

There are some good bike fitting websites to give you some pointers or pay for a fit. I would check your position, probably not ride the road bike for a week and then retry it on shorter rides and see how you go.

Jealous that you can get in such a long ride over Christmas!!

Thanks all again for the replies and ideas posted a week or two back. I took a week or so off the road bike and thankfully suffered no issues whilst being back on a 29’er and happily managed a few New Year 100km Winter epics!

I’ve been back on the road bike over the past week and whilst still suffering a little knee discomfort the adjustments I’ve made to saddle height / moving the saddle further back on the rails and removing the 3 degree Varus insert in my left SPD shoe seems to have stabilised the knee.

The pain is almost certainly caused by the narrower Q factor on the road bike and subsequent mistracking of my patella.

This was an insightful article:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Stance_Width_2562.html

You can get spacers to increase q-factor. Cav uses them in fact.

Edit: here you go