Good retro Spuds for iffy knees

[secret_squirrel]

My knees have never been the best and I'm finding putting in decent mileage - especially on the road makes them worse but not quite bad enough to visit the doctors. My usual goto retro spd's are Onza HOs but I was wondering if anyone else would recommend any other makes for those with explodey knees?

 

[Mike Muz]

Re:

Never had troubles with cheap Shimano M520s myself. Not sure if that is a recommendation, or just luck.

Do the cleats allow float?

Mike

 

[ishaw]

Re:

I'm in the same boat, though 3 knee operations under my belt and i fear a fourth soon, seeing the Dr tomorrow as it goes.

I use crank Bros pedals currently, but have heard good things about speedplay pedals and have acquired a couple of sets of frogs which I'm yet to try so can't speak from experience. They are supposed to allow a lot of float, but apparently take a bit of getting used to.

 

[Lhatch4]

Also try a set of shorter crank arms. A bike with a more upright seating position wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[Mike E.]

Speedplay Frogs.

Love mine, and are very friendly to my wobbly knees.

 

[Thias]

Do a lot of stretching before and after biking. It will help more than any technical changes. Oh - and don't use klickies.

I had some knee problems for a long time. All went away when I started to do a few minutes of the right warmup exercises before and after every ride. Seriously! Try it!

The reason why it helps is that your muscles and tendons tend to shrink in the wrong places. They then pull your knee out of position. The stronger your muscles get the more of a problem it becomes if you don't do proper stretching.

 

[mattr]

Shorter cranks helps a bit, more upright position will probably just move the problem elsewhere unless you have very restricted mobility elsewhere (Hips/lower back).

For pedals, just get the earliest time ATACs that you can find (if you want retro).
Think the very first Aliums are *just* old enough, and the design stayed almost the same for 5 or 6 years. So even the later ones still look fairly retro. Plenty of smooth, almost free float.

I've got one very explodey knee, and have done since i was 18 (big crash), was told i'd need a knee replacement before 30. Now well into my 40's on the original knee. No sign of any major problems yet either.

So the other thing to do is see a doctor/physio and do all the exercises they recommend. Plus a bit of massage, ITB is very often the entire cause of knee issues and is quick and "easy" to fix. (But can be extremely painful for ~30 seconds!)

Have had issues with some pedals with small bodies, the shoe can roll off the end of the pedal body while still clipped in and make any knee issues far worse, so that rules about 80% of the pedals on the market out!

 

[secret_squirrel]

Shorter cranks helps a bit, more upright position will probably just move the problem elsewhere unless you have very restricted mobility elsewhere (Hips/lower back).

.....

Plus a bit of massage, ITB is very often the entire cause of knee issues and is quick and "easy" to fix. (But can be extremely painful for ~30 seconds!)

ITB seems to be on the outside of the knee - mine is inner side of knee - medial I think it is...

I didn't occur to me about crank length - thats a blinding idea.

This site here is seems to be a good guide to crank length.

http://bikedynamics.co.uk/FitGuidecranks.htm

Now anyone got a set of RS3's in 165cm?

Also I need to do more stretching before riding

 

[mattr]

Don't think ITB is that specific, if it gets really tight all sorts can end up hurting, IIRC a tight ITB can potentially give you knock knees when pedaling.

Oh, cleat position too. Under the ball of your foot *can* be too far forward, gives you (potentially) quite a bit of imbalance, especially if you have other issues. Mine are about 15mm behind the ball these days. Cured a series of shin and knee niggles.

 

[Matthews]

Re:

Had ops on both knees , run Time Aliums with no problems , cheap and bomb proof but as previous my cleats and well behind the ball of my foot (as far back as I can get em ) as I found having them under the ball caused big ouchy knee issues .