I’ve started to get some pain in my left knee after I’ve been on the trainer. Looking at my pedals I seem to have a lot more wear on the outside of my left pedal than on my right. I’ve been fine since a bike fitter recommended 2 cleat wedges under the inside of my left cleat but I’m thinking that in view of the wear patterns perhaps I should try an extra one. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Where exactly is the knee pain?
I am assuming cleat rotation is good. I also assume the fitter added 2 Varus wedges in the shoe, based on your description.
Did he do this to correct for significant Varus (big toe high, small toe low) condition on the left foot?
Was part of the goal to orient the knee as desired while pedaling?
Sorry for all the questions, but understanding the ‘why’ behind the fitter’s choices is useful in helping.
If you had no knee pain before, I’d say it’s worth a try of removing one wedge, and see how that works for you.
Yes, it was to correct, big toe high. My knee seems to track ok and I’ve got wedge’s on all my shoes. Apparently my knee tracked ok except every so often it would suddenly track outwards for a stroke or two then settle in again tracking Ok.
Got it. With the pedal wear, I wonder if stance width could be an issue? It might be a benefit to move the foot in or out to address the loading.
Actually I,ve already got 3 spacing washers on the left hand pedal spindle. I can’t really put any more there but your post had reminded me I’ve got some 20mm pedal extenders kicking around somewhere. I got them initially to try and counter my left foot “waterfalling” over the outside of the pedal. I might give them a go again on the trainer. It would only give me the same stance width as my MTB.
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I solved my knee pain issues by lowering the saddle. It forced me more upright than I wanted to be (for aero reasons) so I raised the saddle back up but shortened the cranks and pushed the saddle forward.
YMMV.
Thanks: The bike fitter actually put me on 165mm cranks which I think are great. I’ll have a think about saddle height.
Just stumbled across this article about stance width: https://blog.bikefit.com/tag/q-factor/
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Those guys know their stuff. No idea if it is worth it for you, but sounds like you already have some adjustments based on the washers.
I put the 20mm pedal extenders on together with my speedplay zero’s from my road bike and it was a lot better. Early days of course. It’s a pity they look so awful on the bike. With the 3 x1.5mm washers removed and my cleats moved out by 5mm on the shoes it resulted in a net outward movement of some 10-11 mm.
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At least it seems to work, that feel matters most. 