Clipless pedals and knee pain

colm_gti

Since changing from my old carnac trs5c shoes and time challenge pro shoes and pedals to a set of new shimano r077 shoes and 105 pedals I've developed some knee pain due to ITBS.

I'm currently seeing a physio for treatment and am booked in for a bike fitting next weekend.

My knee pain may or may not be related to the change in pedals, I just think it's quite coincidental that I've been averaging 300km a week since March, but less than 2 weeks after changing I've been suffering. Now I'm aware that the cleats may just need setting up properly, I'd say they were set up with too much toe in at the start, but I've since set them to a more neutral position, tending towards toe out, and I've wound the pedal tension back to the absolute minimum to allow as much float as possible, but even on a short spin today my knee was beginning to feel quite sore, and from what I could make out, clipping out really aggravated it, again, coincidental that my left knee is the one giving trouble when that's the foot I usually clip out at junctions etc? Maybe?

I was just wondering if anyone else on here was experiencing pain from clipping out, is this a likely cause for such pain? And are there any other pedals that don't require as much twisting force to clip out of? Such as speedplay pedals?

furiousox

Have you altered your saddle height or fore/aft position?
Some info here concerning knee pain (about halfway down the page)

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/sport/a/bikefit.htm

colm_gti

furiousox wrote: »

Have you altered your saddle height or fore/aft position?
Some info here concerning knee pain (about halfway down the page)

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/sport/a/bikefit.htm

I got a free fitting when I bought the bike, probably not as thorough as a pro fitting would be (which I'm booked in for next Saturday), but I was comfortable enough on it for the 1600 odd km I've done since I bought it, before switching to the new pedals and shoes. I just think its very coincidental that within 2 weeks of changing my problems have developed, and seem to be aggravated mostly when clipping out at junctions.

Idleater

New pedals and shoes will also possibly mean longer / wider foot extension / position. My race shoes have almost 1cm more drop than my old hacker / commuter shoes. That means different seat height for my bike fit correct measurements depending on my choice of footwear.

colm_gti

Idleater wrote: »

New pedals and shoes will also possibly mean longer / wider foot extension / position. My race shoes have almost 1cm more drop than my old hacker / commuter shoes. That means different seat height for my bike fit correct measurements depending on my choice of footwear.

This had crossed my mind alright but I thought the differences were so marginal it wouldn't make much of a difference, obviously not if that's the case

Pablo Rubio

Just changed from Carnac shoes and old style Time Equipe Pedals to DMT shoes and Time rxs pedals . Had to alter saddle height straight away and it has taken a few weeks of tweaking to get comfy , also had pain in knees at first. The insoles are different in the DMT shoes and took a bit of getting use to as well.

Idleater

colm_gti wrote: »

This had crossed my mind alright but I thought the differences were so marginal it wouldn't make much of a difference, obviously not if that's the case

I noticed the difference between 175 and 172.5 cranks :-)
The bike fit I did was a great help. It made me concentrate any changes to specific areas and I'm now very happy with my position changes. Before it was guess work, now I know my legs need 76cm so I can set saddle height accordingly. Next is cleat position which is easy to tweak as I'm sure of the other parameters.

monkeyslayer

I usually get knee pain when I start playing around with either a new or hired bike, takes a few spins to get right but it pretty much always relates to the saddle height. Probably to do with where the cleats are transferring power to the pedals depending on the angle of my knee. My knees are sh*t tho so I'm very prone to pain at the slightest aggravation. My advice would be play about with saddle height, in even half centimetre increments, and go easy climbing in them hard gears till u feel it's right! I was pulling my cleats about for weeks once till I eventually a one centimetre saddle raise sorted me.

kuro_man

I have ITBS also (knee pain) and from my research & trip to physio I have concluded it is predominately an over-use injury. Rest is essential and, perhaps, core-strength exercises.

smacl

Just finished reading watch your line this morning, and it had a bit on proper knee alignment to avoid knee pain and injury. One of the exercises the author advocated was knee sweeps, which involves brushing the top tube with your knee every 15-20 minutes to re-enforce proper straight line alignment of the knee. Could be worth getting someone to ride behind you on a spin to see if your knees are sticking out unduly.

sy

colm_gti wrote: »

and I've wound the pedal tension back to the absolute minimum to allow as much float as possible,

I don't think adjusting the tension has any effect on the amount of float. It only affects ease of entry/exit AFAIK. My guess is that the stack height of the new shoe/pedal combination and the cleat positioning is probably the culprit. No point in us guessing, Get your professional bike fit and I'm sure they can sort out your problem. Best of luck

doozerie

I've twinged my knee when clipping out of a pedal badly before, which left it sore for a few days. I think my knee was brewing for trouble at the time anyway (I believe partly due to cleat position, partly due to inadequate arch support in the shoes, and some other factors unrelated to bike fit), the clipping out badly was the final straw. Under normal circumstances clipping out doesn't cause me any problems.

On the occasion that caused me the problem I twisted my foot to unclip while my knee was bent, so it put quite a bit of the force into the knee itself. The cleat, an SPD, caught/snagged a little and I had to put extra force into it to unclip it, which put even more pressure on the knee. Even while my knee was sore/recovering I was able to safely unclip without any pain by unclipping with my foot in the 6 o'clock position.

colm_gti

Thanks for all the replies folks, was with the physio again yesterday and he said my flexibility had improved drastically since the first visit, following numerous deep tissue massages, dry needle treatment, using a foam roller and stretching 3 times a day. He reckons we've done all we can from that point of view and it can only be a result of an ergonomic issue now. Have a fitting with irishfit on Saturday morning, so here's hoping they can get to the bottom of my knee pain.

kingdomlad

I also used to have alot of knee trouble with clipless shimano pedals. Somebody told me to switch to Speedplay pedals as there is alot more float. Did this, and problem solved. Havent had any trouble in over a year. I average about 200km a week these days without a problem.