non-functioning ACL

[CrazyHorse]

I lost my right ACL in a baseball game 27 years ago. I was in grad school at the time and competed in amateur road racing. The loss of the ligament didn't impair my cycling. I have done well without the ligament over the years as long as I keep my knee in the same plane (running, cycling, etc. but no torquing - swinging a bat, etc.) I am now 61 and after many years off the bike have been back at it in a dedicated and serious way. I have a great bike (Serotta Legend ST with Dura Ace Group) and have steadily built up my mileage where I can do centuries without a problem. However, I am now getting pain behind the kneecap on the knee without the ACL. It is similar to the pain that you get when you peddle in too high a gear at too low a speed. Are there other cyclists who have lost this ligament that have experienced similar discomfort? Are there stretching exercises, etc. to help with this?
Thanks.

[slowgoing]

I am not sure if your pain is related to your ACL. You may just have tendonitis or tightness of the patellar tendon. I get that from time to time. It generally goes away with quad stretches.

Good luck.

[keno]

I lost my left ACL 17 years ago skiing - not a fall, it just snapped during a turn. Did not have it repaired. I'm 65 and do about 4,000+ miles a year, hills, did some track stuff. I find that the single plane of cycling has not been a problem. I've had similar pain experience as you, but have concuded that it has nothing to do with the ACL problem. I do find that hamstring stretches, both sitting on the floor and standing as well as calf stretches are generally helpful in keeping me in working order. More importantly, I try to keep my pedal stroke from behind as contrasted with a high rpm over the top spin. When I get sloppy and my knee gets ahead of the motion problems follow for me.

Oddly, my bigger problems arise in the right knee, which has complex cartilage tears. But no knife as long as I can keep it right with maintenance, pilates and some weights.

keno

[Birddog]

I'm same age as you, lost mine playing football game 35 years ago. I've never really looked back since I was PROPERLY diagnosed about 20 years ago.
The cycling in most cases should actually help the knee's stability. I ski and do most everything anybody else would do with no problems, and most importantly no pain. Have you changed any positioning? cleat placement, saddle height, setback etc?, I guess it's possible that there is some residual junk behind the knee cap that might be causing the discomfort. The MDs will surely weigh in. Good luck,
Birddog

[tomwd3]

I blew my ACL back in 1988, and have functioned w/o a reconstruction ever since. The last few years, I've been riding about 5K - 6K miles per year.
I had trouble last winter with pain behind my kneecap, when I jumped on my "winter bike" and rode it for like 7 hrs in 2 days. It turns out that that bike was set up w/o a setback post and my knee was too far forward.
I don't know why it didn't bother me the previous winter when it was set up the same way.
I would suggest you have someone (friend, bike fitter) see what your knee position is relative to your pedals.
Hopefully, you're back to pain free riding soon.
Tom

[93legendti]

I lost my right ACL in a baseball game 27 years ago. I was in grad school at the time and competed in amateur road racing. The loss of the ligament didn't impair my cycling. I have done well without the ligament over the years as long as I keep my knee in the same plane (running, cycling, etc. but no torquing - swinging a bat, etc.) I am now 61 and after many years off the bike have been back at it in a dedicated and serious way. I have a great bike (Serotta Legend ST with Dura Ace Group) and have steadily built up my mileage where I can do centuries without a problem. However, I am now getting pain behind the kneecap on the knee without the ACL. It is similar to the pain that you get when you peddle in too high a gear at too low a speed. Are there other cyclists who have lost this ligament that have experienced similar discomfort? Are there stretching exercises, etc. to help with this?
Thanks.

I partially tore mine March 3, 1990. I also had meniscus damage, as wella s a bone chip. I can ride in 53 x 12 up false flats at slower than dieal rpm and have NO problems. I DO have problems when I slip, miss a step, stop/start rapidly or jump (touch football, tennis, basketball are no-nos). The ACL gives your knee stability in rapid decelarations. Unless you had one of the above scenarios, the pain could be related to something other than the ACL injury.

Check your cleat, saddle and seatpost to see if they might have moved and that is causing the pain.

[CrazyHorse]

Thanks all for the advice. Because of the ACL loss I immediately assumed that the pain behind the kneecap was because of no ACL, because when I have torqued the knee in the past or isolated it too much in an exercise, etc. I had similar behind the kneecap pain. But as many of you have said, it could be unrelated. I will try moving the saddle back some, etc.