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(longish post warning, sorry!) Looking for advice here as I'm in a bit of a rabbit hole!
I recently picked up some new cranks for my gravel bike, which have a 5mm wider Q-factor than 'standard' Shimano road (Shimano GRX 810 / 151mm)
I ride with Eggbeaters normally on that bike.
With the new crank, I've found that I'm getting pain inside the knee on both sides that wasn't there with the old crank (a 147mm Q-factor Praxis)
I threw my road bike pedals on there as the cleats (speedplay) let me adjust to a narrower stance than I can with my gravel shoes and crank brothers cleats.
Pain disappeared.
But the curveball is that I've run these same CB pedals on a 152mm q-factor SRAM crank for commuting (120km / week) for ages with no issues.
So I'm thinking there might be some other aspect of fit on this bike that is causing this, and the cleat position is just the way I have ended up compensating for it?
Has anyone had similar issues and found the culprit? Am I missing something?
Cheers!
I'd been through the mill with knee pain, tried all the various adjustments etc.
Physio seemed quite dismissive of most of the adjustments and was more interested with core strength and/or glute strength.
HOWEVER what it ultimately boiled down to was over-use, I'd increased my mileage quite a lot and was also riding a lot of singlespeed, so had increased how hard I was working in certain situations.
What I noticed about my new gravel bike was that it seems to force you to work harder (in a good way), maybe because gravel bikes ride better over bumps when you're going fast?
Anyway, long reply short, have you maybe changed how hard or how often you're riding, and maybe your knees are just playing catch up? Worth building up with smaller/more frequent rides?
What's your average cadence? Does it differ on different bikes?
Have you just put new cleats on the shoes? Are the angles correct?
Cadence is pretty similar on road and gravel bikes, 85-90 for normal riding. Don't measure anything commuting but it's in the same ballpark.
Cleats and shoes were both new but I'm pretty sure the angles were right as I've used Eggbeaters a fair bit, and the have good amount of float also, will take second look though!
Do you have some old shoes to try?
I switched back to my road shoes when I put on the speedplays, so I guess I can't rule out the shoes being the issue, good shout.
The problem when you change lots of things at the same time is working out what it is that's causing the problem. You need to eliminate the variables until your sure what it is.
II don't think 2.5mm on either side is enough to make knee pain. You commutted big distances day after day with them with no issues.
Have you changed your saddle height or position?
Are you shoes and cleats higher or lower than you are used to?
I've had knee pain on the past. Haven't had it in a while. I did a very big 2 day ride recently and my right knee hurt. Turns out my saddle was to high but I didn't notice it on short rides. Changed it and the pain went almost straight away. I was over extending.