The more common cycling knee injury will be repetitive motion problems due to faulty underlying biomechanics that cause an overuse syndrome. These include quadriceps or patellar tendonitis, ilial-tibial band syndrome and rarely hamstring tendonitis. Rarely will there be an injury from cycling be an actual knee joint issue. Even those people with severe degenerative joint disease of the knee joint are usually able to cycle on a bike and benefit from it. There is not the trauma to the joint that there is with weight bearing exercise. The perfect bike fit for an individual and his/her bike means the marriage of the two is also perfect. This means the various settings of seat height, saddle position, foot/cleat position, toe-in vs toe-out, stem height and/or stem length and Q factor distance must be optimized to the specific individual's unique biomechanics, geometry, flexibility and goals. Foot pronation and/or supination is another often critical fitting factor that is often missed and best fixed by custom made cycling orthotics that are worn in one's everyday shoes as well as in their cycling shoes. Keeping the foot in a neutral position has tremendous benefits for knee function when riding.

The Q factor is an often overlooked factor in bike fitting that when ignored, is a major contributing factor to cycling knee injury. Lateral knee pain is very commonly related to a Q factor that is too narrow as is pain from the foot all the way up to the hip while riding in many cyclists. The Q factor specifically is the distance between the feet when placed on the pedals. Road bikes tend to have a narrower Q factor than mountain bikes due to a narrower bottom bracket. Recumbent cyclists often benefit from a wider Q factor due to the natural "knees out" position one's knees assume when in the sitting position.

When I began bike fitting in the mid-1980's it became apparent to me that there was need to move people's feet apart to a wider position on the pedals for all sorts of reasons including larger body size, larger feet, a toe out gait pattern, bow legged structure and various other biomechanical issues. Often times the problem is on one side only often due to an old fracture with healing of the foot in an outward bound position that the bike must be fixed to accommodate.

His vision lead to (3) different Kneesavers™ widths, Kneesavers™ that fit both road and stationary bikes, Pedal Adapters that allow one to use their cycling pedals and shoes on spin trainers or stationary bikes, Titanium Kneesavers™ and custom made Kneesavers™ of any length and thread size as needed. He continues to develop ways of improving cycling mechanics for both recreational and competitive cyclists to improve speed and/or comfort.

His expertise in this area has also lead him into creating the world's most nutritionally complete energy drink/meal replacement (www.SPIZ.net) and the establishment of a bio-identical hormone replacement program in Temecula, California (www.VintageMedicalGroup.com).

Also, if for some reason you find you have selected the wrong size and need a longer or shorter pair of Kneesavers™, we will gladly exchange them at anytime for a $5 restocking fee only.

We offer telephone consultations at no cost to advise you of which size and thread type you need should you be unsure what it is you need. We are also the only pedal extender company that offers custom made Kneesavers™ should you need a long pair than our stock offerings.

For an in-depth Power Point presentation of all aspects of bike fitting including the Q factor that illustrates all the different cycling pain syndromes and how they are best relieved, see my presentation "The Importance of Proper Q Factor Alignment in Cycling" elsewhere on this website.

His vision lead to (3) different Kneesavers™ widths, Kneesavers™ that fit both road and stationary bikes, Pedal Adapters that allow one to use their cycling pedals and shoes on spin trainers or stationary bikes, Titanium Kneesavers™ and custom made Kneesavers™ of any length and thread size as needed. He continues to develop ways of improving cycling mechanics for both recreational and competitive cyclists to improve speed and/or comfort.

His expertise in this area has also lead him into creating the world's most nutritionally complete energy drink/meal replacement (www.SPIZ.net) and the establishment of a bio-identical hormone replacement program in Temecula, California (www.VintageMedicalGroup.com).

Also, if for some reason you find you have selected the wrong size and need a longer or shorter pair of Kneesavers™, we will gladly exchange them at anytime for a $5 restocking fee only.

We offer telephone consultations at no cost to advise you of which size and thread type you need should you be unsure what it is you need. We are also the only pedal extender company that offers custom made Kneesavers™ should you need a long pair than our stock offerings.

For an in-depth Power Point presentation of all aspects of bike fitting including the Q factor that illustrates all the different cycling pain syndromes and how they are best relieved, see my presentation "The Importance of Proper Q Factor Alignment in Cycling" elsewhere on this website.

The problem was especially bad when putting miles on the Longbike's Slipstream, reviewed recently in RTR issue #13. I had really began to wonder whether I would be able to complete the century that were in the plans for this season. As wonderfully comfortable as the Slipstream rides, my knees were just about shot after the first 15-20 miles.

Then the pain around the outboard diameter of my kneecaps would become to sharp to allow enjoyable riding. I have always adjusted my clip-less pedals to allow the maximum amount of toe-out, but the limiting factor was always the interference between the crank arm and my heels.

Perhaps it's was the unique geometry form the Longbike's crankarm height, crankarm length, seat height/angle and seatback angle, combined with my own hip/leg geometry that really aggravated the apparent misalignment of my knees, but the problem had escalated to the point that I was whining about it to my riding buddies, so you know how serious it really was.

 A quick look at the website revealed much (www.bikescor.com).

Kneesavers are simple. Machined and case-hardened from billets of stainless steel, they fit between the crank arms and the pedals. Sold in pairs or individually, Kneesavers Pedal Adapters come in 20mm, 25mm and 30mm widths. The standard width is 20mm, which weights 6.1 ounces per pair. For all of you weight warriors, titanium Kneesavers are also available, in 20mm length only, and they are more costly.

stainless Kneesavers on the way to me after a charge of $45.00 plus $3.00 for shipping. Within a few days the package arrived via US mail. As is evident in the photo, Kneesavers are really quite simple. What isn't evident is how finely they are precision-machined, likely to closer tolerances than many pedals on the market. At first blush, it seemed that $45.00 was a lot for some simple pedal spacers, but hey, the money was already spent so onto the bike they went. Besides, after enduring such a lengthy period of riding pain, I was just about the point where money was no object. It's hard to know what to say about Kneesavers without sounding like over the top hype. One of life's never-failing truisms is that if something sounds too good to be true, it is. I am particularly skeptical when it comes to health claims. Magic mumbo-jumbo that help you melt off fat, gain weight, improve your memory, increase size and stamina, the world is full of them and the people that buy them. My wife insists that I take my vitamins each day, so I do, but I avoid so much as an aspirin and the like unless I am really suffering. I've been blessed with pretty good health so far, without using a lot of additives.

So when I first clipped into the SPD pedals after the installation I was amazed. Without even so much as turning a pedal, I could feel a profound difference while I braced the bike against the workbench. My hips, knees and feet felt perfectly "lined-up" and centered the instant the pedals clicked in. A quick trip down the street on the Slipstream had me thinking that we might be on to something here. Even without adapters, a quick spin would not have incited the knee pain, so it wasn't the absence of pain that had me excited. I guess it was the feel that everything was finally aligned correctly, and the prospect of long rides was alive once again. I put several hundred miles on the slipstream after equipping it with the Kneesavers. I wanted to make sure that they were the "real deal" before writing an evaluation. To be honest, the pain did return in the first few long rides, but it took longer and longer for it to occur, and it was certainly less severe. I believe that a good part on the continued pain was from the inflammation that just took some time to heal. I also adjusted the cleats on my shoes to the position closest to the heal which also seemed to help.

Over time, my legs have actually become stronger from being able to pedal without the pain. I think that I had been unconsciously contorting my knees, ankles and feet to avoid and alleviate the pain. With the kneesavers, I could now apply full pressure throughout the powerstroke without fear, and I could feel muscles in my legs firing that I hadn't felt before. Longer and longer rides became possible, climbing hills was easier and my overall speeds picked up. I was fully confident and ready for the first century of the season, the Solvang Century in Solvang, California. My knee problems were most pronounced on recumbents. On upright bike, it would take the better part of a century about the 60-70 mile mark before I would have any trouble with my knees. So far, I have not ridden an upright with the Kneesavers, so I can't report about their effectiveness in such an installation. But that's OK with me. The Kneesavers have been the best $48.00 riding accessory I have bought in many years. I may give some thought to a pair of $100.00 titanium units.

Contact: SCOR Productions at:

P.O. Box 2466

Fallbrook, CA 92028

Tel: 800.548.4447

Fax: 760.728.0571

www.bikescor.com