The knee is the central joint when cycling. On a 50 kilometre bike tour, the knee joint is bent around 10,000 times! Accordingly, incorrect settings on the bike can quickly lead to pain in the knee on longer tours. In order to prevent chronic complaints and thus permanent damage to the knee, we show you the eight most common causes of knee pain when cycling in the video - and what you can do about it! However, there are many different types of knee pain. For some, it pinches at the front under the kneecap, while for others the pain tends to occur at the side. Therefore, the first thing you should do is localise the pain as precisely as possible before doing anything. If you can't get to grips with the knee pain yourself using our tips, you should go to an orthopaedist or seek advice from a specialist. Bike-Fitter Seek help.
The most common reasons for knee pain on the bike
- Incorrect saddle adjustment
- Incorrect adjustment of the cleats of clipless pedals
- Misalignments (e.g. in the foot or leg length difference)
- Lack of familiarisation
- Low temperatures
- Incorrect translation/choice of gear
- Wild, out-of-round kick (excessive movement of the ankle)
- Muscular imbalances
The be-all and end-all: the correct saddle setting
Whether it's knee pain under the kneecap (saddle often too low or too far forward) or in the hollow of the knee (saddle too high or too far back): The correct adjustment of the saddle is crucial to avoid knee problems or to get rid of pain that is already bothering you. You should therefore take enough time to adjust the saddle height, position and angle correctly. Because adjusting a saddle correctly is more complex than you might think. A basic setting is quickly found. However, if you go into detail and take the cleats of the clipless pedals the matter quickly becomes complex. This is because changing the saddle height, for example, also affects the saddle offset and cleat position. That's why we show you in the video how to quickly and easily adjust the saddle on your mountain bike correctly:
