My source of knee pain - Chrondromalacia Patella

Picture from www.nln.nih.gov

I noticed lately after hard road rides my right knee is sore for a couple of days. Sunday, it happened when I road up GMR to Hwy 39 with David. After the ride my right knee cap was killing me. Well, I applied some Ben Gay and off to Coates I went for some advice.

The guys at Coates suggested I look at my saddle height and cleat position. I adjusted my cleats in thus turning my shoes outward and away from the center of the bike. My natural stance is what you would call "Duck Toed" so I hope this helps. I also took another look at my saddle height and saddled center in relation to my knees and ball of feet when at the three o'clock position. I raised my seat about 6mm and centered my saddle biased forward. Saddle height is tricky because if your saddle is too low, your knees will be sore, if your saddle is too high, your "boys" get numb. I'm not sure I'm describing saddle center correctly but basically the saddle is still level just the rails are pushed 3 to 4 mm forward.

I hope all this works because I can't be injuring myself due to poor bike setup. I really think its my setup that is causing my knee pain because when I run I don't have any pain in the knees.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and will keep tweaking my bike until I find something that works. I also have a tendency to mash my gears, the next time I ride, I'm going to try to spin versus mash.