Knee pain on cross bike?

[gree0232]

I mostly ride on the road, but have been trying out a few of the trails on the corss bike lately. However, I have noticed that my knee tends to hurt after riding the cross bike and cannot figure out why the knee hurts after a cross ride, but not after even a particularly hard hill work out on the road bike?

I run the same crank length on both road and cross bikes, and have adjusted the two bikes to virtually the same position. Both bikes are comfortable to ride, and feel fine in terms of fit. The only difference is that I run either Dura Ace or Sram cranks on the road bike and an FSA crank on the cross bike.

I am stumped on this one? I certainly don't want to give up riding the cross bike (way too much fun), but am not sure what to adjust?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[markrosen]

As you might have imagined, the geometry between a cross bike & road are very different. Your cross bike typically would have more relaxed angles (steeper seat angle, thus the position of your seat could be much further back than your road bike). Also, do you ride with different shoes? Most riders do, and I suspect the "fit" could be causing some problems. I would recommend to go to your local bike shop with both bikes & shoes and get professionally fitted. Good Luck.

 

[ustabe]

I'd look at your pedaling technique, too. Changes in shoes, terrain, pedals, and upper body position could be altering the way you apply power to the cranks.

 

[M Sport]

Do you use the same saddle on each bike?

 

[Notso Swift]

I often commute on a mountain bike and I can get a little knee pain, which is never a problem on the road bike
A little bit of self analysis and I realised that I was grinding the gears more, I suspect that is at least in part to the geometry which puts more load on the quads