Hey all, about two months ago I installed a set of Favero Assioma DUO and they’re great. However, since installing, I’ve had decently high knee pain mostly in the left knee with some in the right.
Finally, this morning, I realized that my fitter installed three 1.5mm washers on the left pedal and two on the right. When I installed the new pedals I neglected to swap the washers.
Think it could have been my stance width that was causing tracking issues? Just did a quick seven mile test on the trainer and didn’t feel any pain at all. Felt pain after only four miles this morning before installing the washers.
Highly unlikely. If that were the case, people who ride Mountain Bikes would all have knee issues as the Q Factor is much wider than a road bike’s.
It’s more probable that your new cleats were adjusted differently than previously and causing a tracking issue or that you’re over developing your quads relative to your hamstrings which can cause tracking issues or just pushing a lot harder on the pedals and your knee joints aren’t ready for it.
There’s a lot of reasons for knee issues, but, a couple mm offset isn’t likely to be it.
Regardless, ask him why he chose to use all those washers instead of just moving your cleats in a couple mm.
Morning and thanks for your reply. I don’t think that we have a clear issue as I did go to the fitter to have them readjusted. In that session, I think we both missed, or didn’t look closely enough at the tracking.
Even a few millimeters here or there can have a big impact. I have a 3mm offset in length between my legs. If I just wear shoes normally, I get searing pain in my right knee from just a little walking. But with a 3mm boost in my left shoe insert, things are even and I get no pain. (Doctors try to tell me that only severe imbalances over 10mm can cause pain problems—ha!) So I wouldn’t be surprised if your 5x1.5mm offset could be felt in your knee.
While everyone’s experience is unique, I recently had a fit which leads me to believe stance width and Q Factor are incredibly important. I upgraded my bike recently, including the crankset. I began experiencing knee pain as my training intensity ramped up into into the Build phase of TR. After consulting my fitter and doing a deep dive on component specifications, it turns out that the Q Factor of my old crank was basically 1 cm wider than my new crank. After installing pedal washers to try and correct for this and widen my stance, my knee issues are clearing up. While 1 cm is more extreme than your example, the fitter explained to me that increasing stance at the crank can affect more than a 1:1 change at the knees as you move up the kinetic chain. So, several millimeters of washers can make a big difference.
I seem to be good. Spent some more time with a fitter who has been great and put a lot of focus on rest, recovery, ice and some PT exercises that I found online.
My main thing, if there was pain, I took some time rather than pushing through it. Limited short term riding a bit but have been pain free for quite some time now.
Hi, I’m having knee pain on my right leg just after install the favero assioma dio pedals and the red cleats, I already tried to move the cleats in order to release the pain but I didn’t go.
I found that the right pedal has a gap between the crank leg and the pedal more tan 2 mm, the manual mention that need to has 1mm.
Is the any problem with the pedal? What a te you comments.
I bought some pedal extenders to help with lateral knee pain, but after about a month was getting bad patellar tendinitis, until I took them off again. they’re quite long relatively but definitely has an effect
Assuming you’ve reached the max of lateral adjustment of the cleast, the next small step is to add 1 or 2 washers to shift the pedals just a bit more (and well less than the extender you used).
You do need to be certain to maintain sufficient thread engagement to the cranks, so 1 or 2 is max depending on the pedal.
I’ve used the washer approach for a couple of seasons after having knee issues when installing Assiomas and have been fine since. Probably would have been fine sooner if I gave myself more time to heal after the initial pain.
I had this same problem when switching from Shimano Spd to assioma duo. After a lot of trial and error “cleat, saddle height, fore/aft”
What fixed my issue was loosening the cleat tension on the back of the pedal. My settings are all the way counter clockwise until it bottoms out and then 4 clicks clockwise. almost as loose as it will go.
Although I have the red cleats the tension on my pedals was so tight that it wasn’t letting my cleat float freely.
ending up back at my original saddle, cleat positions.
