Originally Posted by
cubewheels
I'm not sure what is going with you now but studies have shown that excessively high saddle is worse than too low saddle. You may have put too much strain on your knees in climbs with the high saddle.
I also need to stretch my legs straight from time to time in the bike as I do lots of climbs everyday. But I do it with the correct saddle height. How I do it is bend my ankle down while pedaling OR pedal out of the saddle at high gear. You don't have to do that for long periods. Several seconds is enough.
I also take 1 tablet of Calcium with Vitamin D everyday. Strong bones is crucial in cycling.
OK. This sounds promising. My saddle height is where it should be (and has been this whole time) according to the bike shop and a friend who rides semi-pro. But I do *almost* exactly what you do. I bend my ankle down while pedaling--but more frequently than what you describe. I just figured that since I was able to do that, it wasn't really at the right height. This begs the question then: what did I do to screw up my knees? I suspect I put too much strain on them when climbing hills. While hills are my absolute favorite aspect of cycling, I'm going to start riding again, but stay away from hills for a while, and see what happens. I rode for almost 8 months with zero pain. It didn't happen until a couple months after climbing hills.