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I keep getting pain in my right knee when riding my road bike (clipless). I have had a bike fit done at race scene in Barnsley which was great and the pain has got better since then, but over the past few weeks its come back with a vengeance.
Im trying to ascertain why its always in my right knee and have been examining every part of my bike, pedal stroke, shoes etc. This evening I noticed that the clearance between the crank arms and the chainstays is uneven - on the non-drive side its 9 mm, on the drive side (the side where i get the pain) its only 5 mm. Is this normal? Or is something bent/damaged? Its a Surosa Toledo Frame with 105 cranks.
The other thing I notice is that my right foot is completely numb when im riding - especially around my toes and the ball of my foot. (SPD pedals) - both problems, and any other little niggles all appear on my right side - desperately trying to find out what's causing it.
Chainstays are often asymetric.
If they were asymmetric, I would have expected greater clearance on the drive-side (on a MTB, anyway).
FWIW, your problems sounds like they shouldn't be caused by such a minor tolerance/error/misalignment!
Was your bike fit static or dynamic?
If it was static, get a dynamic one done, it may pick up something in your pedal stroke.
What's your core strength like? Do you do any core specific exercises? The legs can do funny things without a stable platform to work from.
How old are you? Around 40 people often start to reveal niggles from misalignments that they've carried all their lives but youth has been compensating/masking for them.
Numb toes, are your shoes too tight?
In short, I don't think it's anything to do with the chainstays. Assuming your wheel runs in the centre of the frame, measure crank to wheel to put your mind at rest.
put each crank at the top of it's stroke in turn and measure the distance to a fixed point on the frame (like a bottle bolt on the seat tube).
As above, though, I'd be looking at you rather than the bike for a solution. Particularly if it's got worse with nothing being changed on the bike setup at all as you imply?
Iit'll probably be weak glutes/hip flexors.
Thanks for taking the time to reply
1) Im 32 years old
2) Core strength is good - 5x5 compounds 3 times a week - squats, deads, bench, chins, rows etc, since I was 20 years old.
3) I think it was a dynamic fit - basically got on a static bike that was made to allow all sorts of adjustments.
4) Im thiking of trying some road specific shoes and pedals - I use mtb pedals at the moment, and wonder if having all the pedalling force going through such a small surface area might cause an issue, where as a road pedal tends to spread the force across a larger area of the ball of the foot
Its strange that its always in my right knee - never even a niggle in my left knee. I also notice some hip flexor pain that comes on after an hour or so.