Just call me stumpy

Do we really want to leave him walking around in circles?

Hey, he asked to be called Stumpy and nobody did, so I’m just accommodating the poor little fella.

not anything of the caliber of others here when it comes to bike mechanics and such but I did find this to be an interesting read.

When I used to do a lot of distance running, I was constantly in and out of sports medicine clinics for one thing or another. One of the first things they do for any sort of leg problem is measure your legs to look for differences in length. A sports medicine doctor or sports podiatrist can make custom orthotics for you that will be better than store-bought shoe inserts.

and most people are able to compensate. Accurately measuring the discrepancy is pretty difficult.

It only becomes a problem when you notice problems. And . . . sometimes the solution causes other problems to emerge because of how your body has learned to adapt.

So, the first step is to assess whether this is really a problem that needs addressing—i.e. if it only becomes apparent during the 4th hour of 4 hour rides, BUT you only do 3 of those rides a year and the discomfort only arises during the ride, well . . . maybe it’s not really necessary to worry about it.

But, if it turns out that you also have recurring saddle sores and hip rotation problems from accommodating your leg AND the stress/pain persists more than a day after the ride . . . and the orthotic isn’t solving those problems, then the first solutions would be—

a. weight training to strengthen the muscles and ligaments involved in knee flexion;

c. adjusting current saddle height a couple mm to split the difference between legs (see bloviating below);

d. inserting a shim of the needed thickness between the cleat and shoe of the shorter leg.

Btw, which leg do you think is shorter? It sounds to me like it’s the right leg . . . but I’m assuming that you’re experiencing stress at the front of your left knee—which is the classic indicator of “saddle too low.” Otoh, if the pain presents at the lower rear of the knee (where the patellar tendon attaches—that would suggest left leg is the short one).

This is a complicated business, really. It sounds like the left leg is longer – usually shoving yourself back on the saddle is a too low saddle – and the right leg is shorter, with your saddle height set to the right leg height.

One thing worth considering before digging into this one: The trainer, because it’s static – the bike can’t move laterally at all – may exacerbate previously un-noticed imbalances, especially in marathon sessions. This is definitely true for me, and I’ve never been able to spend too many hours at a time on the trainer – you simply can’t move around enough and the bike doesn’t move the way it does on the road.

Okee, that said. Two kinds of leg length differences: actual and functional. Actual means that the bones are actually different lengths. Simple, eh? Funcational means that something about one leg makes it act shorter, though in actuality it isn’t. Things that can make it act shorter: tightness in your back, hip, or hamstring, different pronation – inward roll – in your feet, a muscle imbalance, an asymmetry in your overall posture on the bike.

The solution will vary depending on what’s causing the leg length difference, natch.

In my own case, my left leg acts shorter because my left foot pronates more and I have a tendency toward tightness in my back and hip on the left side. Solution? Shim the cleats to cant the left foot outward and limit the pronation. Also, many much stretching. (Digression: the combo of pronating feet and slightly wider hips than the average dude does some irritating things to IT Bands and the like. Shimming both cleats and widening q factor = relief.)

BF of Gav also has a leg length difference. His may be actual, though we’re not sure. In years of miles of riding, it has never really given him troubles. His body has simply adapted and he doesn’t shim or do anything. No pain, no problem.

For an actual leg length difference, you typically need an MD to figure it out for you. You can, by process of elimination – that is ticking off all the possible functional thingies – figure it out yourself. The solution, if you have pain and problems, is to shim the cleat of the shorter leg. R Mc’s point about taking the average on saddle height can also sometimes solve the problem if your difference isn’t especially big. One clue to leg length differences that doesn’t require an MD is to look at the wear on your shoes. Does one side wear faster? You can trial and error this with shims and see what happens, not scientific, but how lots of peeps have sorted themselves out.

I dunno. Without seeing you on the bikey, it’s hard to answer this one. If this has just started giving you problems, there may be a tightness or imbalance causing your problems. Give some thought to stretching your back, hamstrings, IT Bands, if you don’t do that already. That alone may well solve your problem. Sometimes winter weather brings out tightness and imbalances that don’t exist or arent’ a problem during the warmer months. Me, I drop my saddle a few mm as a rule during the “winter” even here in Cali. It may be that you simply need to drop your saddle a bit for winter use, and the leg length difference will drop into the background where it usually hangs out and won’t give you any more trouble.

Okay, I’ll stop. I’m totally babbling.

This is great. Let me address a few things that came up:

Orthotics – They were prescribed for running in my previous life as an ultimate frisbee player. And I don’t wear them on the bike. The main reason was that I was told that they primarily function to stabilize the heel during running which I didn’t think would be an issue for pedaling.

Nature of discomfort – I would call it more of a “a cramped feel in the pedal stroke” than a “stress at the front of your left knee”. And I have a LOT of experience with the stress at the front of the knee from my ulti days…and was the primary reason for my switch to cycling. I noticed the discomfort on my 4hr ride primarily since I had so much time on the bike. But I also noticed it on my 90 min ride last night as well. The reason that I suspect that it is a leg length issue is that the cramped feeling can be temporarily relieved by sliding back on my saddle. But as it has been mentioned, this could be either a functional or anatomical issue.

Stretching – Oh boy, I love stretching more than the combined love at this site for Benna. It was instrumental in rehabbing my knee in my ulti days. I teach the off season spinning classes for my team and any of the kids there will confirm that I’m a bit of a stretching nazi. And no, I haven’t noticed a lateralization of tightness…but I will keep an ‘eye’ open for it now.

Plan of action – I will start with raising my saddle a hair for my ride tonight. If that doesn’t help (or switches the discomfort to m right leg), I will pick up some shims when I"m at my LBS this weekend. Is there anything particular to look for? Or are they pretty much standard? I have look pedals.

Oh, and most importantly…I will restrict my mountainous hiking to a counter-clockwise nature.

Thanks for everyone’s input.