Originally Posted by
xroadcharlie
I have been having pain just above my left knee cap for a while after a 20 km ride. So I moved my seat back 3/4" and the pain seems to have subsided. While pleased, I was surprised how such a small change can improve my biking experience so much.
This is a comfort bike so I sit almost bolt upright. Perhaps these bikes require a more forward peddle then hybrid or road bikes.
After some reading and thinking about things recently related to KOPS (knee over pedal spindle) and whether it's really the bee's knees, I experimented by setting my saddle back approximately 1.5 cm.
It was awful. I didn't also drop the seat post a tad, which I should have, and not doing so left my legs feeling much closer to overextending during the pedal stroke. The worst, though, was just the way setting back my saddle changed the angles of my knees and whatnot during the pedal stroke. I was now "behind" the pedals, and I didn't at all like how it felt. I was kind of shocked at how obvious it all was, and I'd assumed that ~1.5cm wouldn't be all that dramatic, and yet it was. I gave it several rides to see if I really felt that way because it was worse, or whether I just didn't like it because it was different than what I was used to. After several rides I still didn't like the effect it was having on my pedaling and my knees, and changed it back.
It can go both ways. In my case what I'd previously dialed in when I first got this bike was at least very close to an ideal for me (I'd used a plum-bob and did KOPS, which some will say is a rubbish technique, but it worked for me and was the "rule of thumb" for ages for a reason), and setting back 1.5cm from that made it worse. If you were in a worse position, of course, then a 1.5cm change might make a dramatic improvement. I'd say if you're not willing to pay a pro for a fit (I haven't paid anyone, just read and experimented and did it myself) then consider just starting out with KOPS and go from there. In my case I sat on the bike in my garage using one hand to hold onto my car while balancing on the bike, got one of my pedals to the 3 O'Clock position with my foot cleated in to the pedal, and dangled a thread with a little weight attached to it from my kneecap to see where in relation to the pedal spindle the weight hung, and adjusted my saddle until it was over the pedal spindle. It's possible that there's a better position for me than this, but I know for a fact now that 1.5cm behind my original position ain't it.