knee pain from bike

I have been experiencing a lot of knee problems as well since I have clipless pedals. I am more of a fix it myself type of guy but in this case I would recommend to get a professional bike fitting or pedal analysis as my local bike shop calls it.

There are many parameters involved, very difficult to work them out yourself. Even for the professionals it is difficult. I am working with my second fitter now. The right leg is doing great, still tinkering with the left.

that sounds great, but where is the quick fix i was hoping for?
silver bullets, anyone?

thanks for the feedback. i am sure you are right.

Try this link...
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

Not a silver bullet....
Pain in the back of the knee - seat is too low
Pain in the front of the knee - seat is too high

Move you seat in millimeters until the pain goes away. Also warm up before hitting any tough climbs or hard efforts.

I have IT Band problems. My "fitter" lowered my seat 2mm. Pain is much better and I am warming up more before I hit the mountains. I also do more stretching and excercises for the ITB. By lowering my seat, I have a smidge of pain in the back of my knee and I really want to raise my seat back up, but I am going to wait another week until my ITB is more relaxed and stretched out.

You shoud spend the money get fit to find your optimal power and comfort position. Sometimes those are the same position!

Either FIST or SEROTTA, but invest in a good bike fit first and foremost.

You might have a functional leg discrepency. (your legs are different lengths.) Some people choose to correct this with a shim that goes between the cleat and shoe. I prefer fixing the biomechanical problem that started the imbalance in the first place.

or http://www.nettally.com/palmk/BikeFit.htmlfor more detail

My knee pain when I started riding came from:

1) Poor fit on the cleats. I switched to speed plays, problem solved there.

2) Mashing the pedals. I got a bike computer with cadence and I run a 90-100 cadence.

No knee pain anymore.

I did take me 2 months of slow riding with high cadence on my new pedals to get my knee pain all healed up though.

I alway check the pedals/cleats first.  How much rotation do your pedals have.   Next, I always have my cleats put on and placed by the LBS.  While I can do many repairs, your knees are not to be fooled with.  If it's a new bike, just stop by the bike shop and let them tinker with you to fix the problem.

thanks for all the advice. i have just bitten the bullet and called a fitter. i bought my bike online so no free fit for me.

Good suggestions.....hope the fit works - make sure they check to make sure your cranks are the appropropriate size for you....the wrong crank length can cause knee pain as well.

I had knee pain when I first started riding with clipless pedals. I changed to Speedplay pedals and it had enough float in them that me knee went away. The first ones I had didn't have enough float. Something to try any way.