knee pain from saddle position

maxo said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such a condition--anybody else experienced
anything similar?

yes. it's only that finicky with high-mileage climbing, tho
(i'm in idaho). for me, that tends to be seat down a bit
lower than usual. but it's the achilles as well as the knees
that get affected.
--
david reuteler [email hidden]

maxo said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such a condition--anybody else experienced
anything similar?

Yep, though in the other direction- moving the seat back led
to almost immediate knee pain, and moving it back forward
got rid of it. Go figure...

maxo said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever
experienced this:

I was doing some serious hillclimbing the other day here
in middle Tennessee on my old road bike which is set up
the same way I've been doing since the eighties: legs
straight when heels touch pedals, plumb line from bottom
of patella goes through pedal axel. At any rate, I got
tired on the umpteenth hill of the day and slid forward on
my Brooks and found that I could spin just brilliantly in
that position. When I got home I adjusted my saddle
perhaps an inch forward and raised it a smidge to
compensate. The next ride, on fairly level ground, my
right inside knee just crapped out with severe horrible
pain--I limped home the last couple miles on pretty much
lefty leg power. So I took a couple days off, and thought
I might have to give up riding, or see a specialist--which
I can't afford at the moment. Of course the riding bug got
hold of me, and I returned the seat back to it's usual
position and did a fierce 40 miler today with absolutely
no pain. 😄

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such a condition--anybody else experienced
anything similar?

IMO, an inch is /not/ "such a small" adjustment. It is, in
fact, quite radical.

Bill "mm increments" S.

Quoted message said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such a condition--anybody else experienced
anything similar?

I remain, after all these years, skeptical of the idea that
there's this perfect position that your knee has to be in
when you're on a bike. Rather, I think the human engine is
an amazingly-adaptable piece of engineering that can get
used to just about anything. But... over time, what we can
adapt to becomes narrower and narrower as we train our
muscles & tendons & ligaments in a certain way.

If my idea is correct, it implies that you can, at a younger
time in life, vary your position on a bike from time to time
and never suffer from issues associated with relatively
minor changes in seat height or setback. But as you get
comfortable with being in a specific place, it becomes
increasingly difficult to move from that position without
suffering painful consequences.

For what it's worth, I'm trying to become less hyper-
sensitive to minor changes in seat height. Mostly an
experiment for no good reason, just trying to prove to
myself that it's absurd that I should be so sensitive to
changes of less than 1/16 of an inch. I'm making some
headway; I can tolerate a range of about 1/4" or so without
pain now. Still, there's a very narrow sweet-spot where I
feel most comfortable.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"maxo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever
experienced

this:

Quoted message said:

I was doing some serious hillclimbing the other day here
in middle Tennessee on my old road bike which is set up
the same way I've been doing since the eighties: legs
straight when heels touch pedals, plumb line from bottom
of patella goes through pedal axel. At any rate, I got
tired on the umpteenth hill of the day and slid forward on
my Brooks and found that I could spin just brilliantly in
that position. When I got home I adjusted my saddle
perhaps an inch forward and raised it a smidge to
compensate. The next ride, on fairly level ground, my
right inside knee just crapped out with severe horrible
pain--I limped home the last couple miles on pretty much
lefty leg power. So I took a couple days off, and thought
I might have to give up riding, or see a specialist--which
I can't afford at the moment. Of course the riding bug got
hold of me, and I returned the seat back to it's usual
position and did a fierce 40 miler today with absolutely
no pain. 😄

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such a condition--anybody else experienced
anything similar?

maxo said:

When I got home I adjusted my saddle perhaps an inch
forward and raised it a smidge to compensate.

As Others have said, moving your saddle an inch forward is
rather a radical change. Since you then only raised your
saddle a "smidge" you were probably sitting lower than you
were used to. Last summer I lowered my saddle a little bit (
5mm ) just so I could spin really fast easier. No problems
until I did a really hilly trip. One knee started hurting on
the last 70 km of the first day. In the evening I raised my
seat 3mm and the next day I had no problems whatsoever on an
even hillier
climb.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever
experienced this:

I was doing some serious hillclimbing the other day here
in middle Tennessee on my old road bike which is set up
the same way I've been doing since the eighties: legs
straight when heels touch pedals, plumb line from bottom
of patella goes through pedal axel. At any rate, I got
tired on the umpteenth hill of the day and slid forward on
my Brooks and found that I could spin just brilliantly in
that position. When I got home I adjusted my saddle
perhaps an inch forward and raised it a smidge to
compensate. The next ride, on fairly level ground, my
right inside knee just crapped out with severe horrible
pain--I limped home the last couple miles on pretty much
lefty leg power. So I took a couple days off, and thought
I might have to give up riding, or see a specialist--which
I can't afford at the moment. Of course the riding bug got
hold of me, and I returned the seat back to it's usual
position and did a fierce 40 miler today with absolutely
no pain. 😄

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such a condition--anybody else experienced
anything similar?

Yep, though in the opposite direction. Raising my seat 3mm
(yes, less than 1/8 inch) stopped my knee pain.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

maxo said:

I solved the problem but I'm curious if anybody else ever
experienced this:

Quoted message said:

I'm just bewildered that such a small change in position
would cause such

a condition--anybody else experienced anything similar?

I started having knee pain so I measured my knee position
wrt the axle
- it was 4cm (cm, not mm!) forward of the axle. I moved the
seat back 3cm (about the same as your inch forward) and
the knee pain mostly went away. I moved it back another cm
and haven't had any knee pain since.

Michael