Bad things happen when you don't listen to Smiley

[scottcw2]

Lesson learned.

I set my saddle height at 78.9 with 172.5 cranks. I run 170 cranks on my fixed gear, so I checked with Smiley when I bought his Bedford fixie and he said to drop the saddle height.

I need to learn things the hard way so I set my saddle at ~79.1 because the pedal at the bottom of my stroke is closer with the shorter cranks. I pretty quickly started feeling pain behind my knee. Dropped the saddle height to 78.6 and knee pain went away.

I'm guessing that having the top of my pedal stroke further away with the shorter cranks combined with raising saddle height is what caused the knee pain.

When Smiley speaks, listen.

[tctyres]

Remember to stretch, too: hams, quads, glutes, and lower back. Try to work te smaller muscles in that area, too. A foam roller helps, and their are plenty of routines on youtube.

Fixie and single speed riding puts you at high torque/low cadence and high power/very high cadence. Most people will shift on a regular road bike before they get to either of those extremes.

Glad you are pain-free.

[ultraman6970]

Big difference between 2.5 millimeters (difference between the crankset) and 25 millimeters (difference in the saddle height).

[FlashUNC]

Centimeters vs millimeters.

[Clean39T]

Yep, I hopped on my new Ellis today and had inadvertently left the saddle a bit high trying to compensate for the more forward position - after the first climb my left knee was bugging. Dropped the saddle 5mm and all was good from there on out.

[scottcw2]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

Big difference between 2.5 millimeters (difference between the crankset) and 25 millimeters (difference in the saddle height).

Sorry, typo. I only raised the saddle ~2mm originally - 78.9 to 79.1, maybe 79.2. Then dropped it down to 78.6.

[ultraman6970]

6 mm is a lot if you arent too flexible. Back in my racing days 5 mm wasnt that much, now those 6 mm make a lot of weird stuff to happen, starting for pain in the bowling balls...