New saddle...and knee pain?

[Drtgirl]

I just bought a new saddle and tried it out last night on a mountain bike ride. It is wider than the one I've been using for the past 7 years and I noticed some odd pains in my left knee. Overall the seat feels OK but I'm wondering if the knee pain will go away once my body adjusts to the new seat size.

Thanks!

[tulip]

I'm sorry to hear about your knee pain. Why did you get a wider saddle--was the old one too narrow? I cannot tell you if your saddle is the cause of your knee pain, but any time you change something, there is the potential for pains because of the new position.

You might want to put your old saddle back on and see if the knees feel better. That would tell you that there's something about the new saddle (width, height change, position) that is affecting your knees.

[Drtgirl]

Come to find out I have pretty wide sit bones (and the hips to go with them LOL) and I never felt that my old saddle supported them well. The saddle is at the same height and pretty much the same angle.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

If the knee pains are on the lower fronts of your kneecaps, you might want to raise your saddle 1/2". Believe it or not, sometimes a different saddle will require a slightly different height.

[spokewench]

I'd be curious to know where the knee pain is? Front, side inside our out/ back of knee?

[malaholic]

+1 to what BleeckerSt_Girl said. If the new saddle is not the same height rail-to-surface as your old saddle, or if it is squishier such that you sink down into it more, you'll need to adjust the seatpost height to compensate. Though, I assume you'd notice the height problems more with a road bike; on mtn bikes people (or at least me) tend to adjust the height frequently based on the terrain.