Sore Knees

[mjblair]

This is going to sound funny... but here goes.

On my cruiser I had floorboards- not pegs. I sit and stand naturally with my toes pointing outward. The cruiser let me ride this way and I had No knee pain.

On the ST, the heel of my boots locked up against the peg and forced my toes to point forward. This is not a natural position for ole wobble legs here and I had a lot of knee pain.

So, in addition to the highway wings, I ride with the heels of my boots on top of the pegs so that my toes can rotate outward. For me, this solved the problem.

YMMV depending on how weird your feet are.

Yes, I agree I personally think the sport touring design could be improved to by making it more of a sit up straight legs on a floor board kind of like a mini sized goldwing. At least for us older fellows.

 

[SammyTheSnake]

+1 on the circulation thing. I find the pressure point I need to work on is the gap between my bum bones and my hip bones. If I'm not careful, it lines up really well with the edge of the ST's seat and after an hour I really notice!

Try wiggling the behind a little to find a different sitting position. Slide forward and backward. Shake a leg once in a while. Consider riding with one cheek hanging slightly off the side, then swap after a while.

The LD riding guys have lots and lots of wisdom about making longer trips comfortable, most of which is applicable to shorter trips too...

Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny

 

[stellarpod]

OK , after owning the 1300 now for six weeks and suffering sore knees , and sore back I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life in getting rid of the cruiser. However , went for a ride today with the club and for the first time had the time of my life . What changed , well I put the seat hight all the way up, fitted risers to the bars , lowered the foot pegs , and fitted highway pegs. What a difference , 400kls without any pain what so ever.
Without the pain I was able to enjoy how sweet that bike really is , in terms of performance and handling. No more regrets.

Sounds like you got it all sorted out. Good for you! :clap2:

I, too, had similar problems and solved them with, 1) higher seat position, 2) handlebar risers (MCL), and 3) highway pegs (Steed Sticks). I thought about doing the peg lowering, but opted not to. The combination seems to have relieved my knee problems for the most part - especially being able to switch foot positions from time to time. But, honestly, I believe putting a lot of miles in the saddle helped as much as anything.

BTW - You might find that putting the front of the seat in the high position and the back in the middle position will give you the best seating position, as it keeps you from sliding forward. You'll have to wrestle with the back of the seat to get it into the middle slots, but it's not too hard.

Steve

 

[Macca]

Thanks for the suggestion , funny thing is I didnt realise you could adjust the height of the seat from the back as well as the front ( still learning things about this great bike ). I will definatley spend some time this weekend and play around with it , as I do tend to slide forward when braking etc.

 

[Mountain Mike]

Rode my first 10-hour day in my Aerostich Roadcrafter and had a lot of knee pain after the first 5 hours. I found that grasping the kneepad and pulling it away from my kneecap or straightening my legs temporary alleviated the pain, so, on the return trip I pulled out the knee pads and the pain was gone.

Now I am looking for a way to keep the kneepad's safety, without the discomfort. I think highway pegs are the way to go.

 

[Phartz]

When I have to stop and put my feet down ( I hate when that happens it hikes up my pant legs to where the pads are slightly not where they're supposed to be, causing discomfort after awhile. I will stand on the pegs, while still at slow speed, to shake my pants legs down where they need to be. This goes, too, with adjusting the knee pads positioning inside the pants. I found I had one more little notch of adjustment lower that helped quite a bit.

Someone else also touched on it - the rotation of your foot on the pegs. If I square up the ball of my foot on the peg, with the foot pointed forward, it does stress the knee and cause pain down the road. If I move the ball of my foot outward, alowing the heels to rotate in, it relieves most of that stress.

Also I'll move foot position fairly often. Ball, heel, middle, rotate in, rotate out. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[Stump]

After buying my ST I was unhappy with my knees getting sore after about 300 miles or so. I ride on my toes mostle but tried flat footed and moving around some. Didn't work. I had replaced the saddle with a Sargent (taller seating) and hoped that would fix the hurt. Nope. But I bought some new boot with a lot of ankle support and that fixed it! I did 12,500 miles in 50 days, longest day being 910 miles without any knee pain. I think the boots keep the ankles aligned and that keeps the knee joint from moving.