knee pain help please

[BigonaBianchi]

I'm 5 weeks into the trans America ride and I have developed bad knee pain.

The pain is on the inside and on top of the left knee cap.

I took a day out of the saddle to rest but the pain is still there.

What can I do to cute this without stopping riding?

Many thanks.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have always found alerting the height of my seat helps. I never really thought 1mm would make much difference, but a seat height adjustment of 1mm up made a huge difference for me on my 12 month tour.

Only you will know which way is better for you - are you over stretching or feeling like you can't stretch your legs whilst cycling.

Otherwise you need to look at your alignment when cycling. how in, or out are your knees whilst actually pedaling? The knees should be in a straight line between your big toe and your pelvic bone where it would stick out/sticks out around the hip area (as I understand it from a norwegian cyclists physio). Changing this is much harder than your seat! Much of it has to do with whether you stick your toes out or not when you ride. the more the toes stick out, so feet less parrallel to the bike, the more the knees stick out. I found it easier to change my foot position than knee position and it really helps if someone else can watch your technique from behind.

 

[Scoosh]

A couple of useful pages here and here.

HTH and keep enjoying your trip !

Chapeau for going for it too

 

[defy-one]

I found on flats my feet and hence knees were slightly out. Gave me knee pain. With cleats and locked in - no pain

 

[Holly]

Keep your cadence high and if you are using cleats pull up on the peddles don't push.

 

[judder]

Could be your pedal action,, ii was told I was only transferring power on the downward action, and at the bottom of the pedal stroke to pretend I was scraping mud off the bottom of my shoe. Helped my knee.

 

[Manonabike]

Here might be your answer

 

[Keith Oates]

It's hard to know what is best for your knee pain but possibly raising the saddle a little may help. I also once read that exercising the two muscles above the knee can help. I've been doing this for a while now by lying flat on my back on the bed in the morning and then tensioning these muscles for for about 2-3 secs each time and repeating for 20 times. It seems to help me. Of course there is also the well known solution of keeping the cadence high to reduce the load on the knee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Flyingfox]

I was getting knee pain when I was clipped in. I went for a bike fit and found that my right knee was 'flicking' outwards at the top of a pedal stroke. The guy in the bike shop put in pedal spacers on the right side and 'hey presto' no flicking out, and no pain.