Hey All,
Just out of curiosity … does anyone else experience sore / achy knees on Zwift only? I don’t really seem to experience the same issues when I’m out on the road, only on Zwift. I’d love to figure out why that is, since it’s the same bike and I’m on a direct drive trainer.
Currently, my front wheel is just on the ground, no support block. Could the angle of the bike cause issues with the knees? Maybe I need to raise the front end up a tad.
That would be the first thing I would try. I imagine it is due to body position. Did you have a good bike fit when you got the bike?
Yeah, I had a bike fit and it’s pretty dialed in now. Like I said, I don’t really experience the same achiness out on the road. Maybe I’m leaning forward too much and need to raise the front wheel an inch.
If I had to guess, I would chalk this up to just not having as much ‘free movement’ on the trainer as you do outside. When riding IRL the movement of the bike can compensate for a number of issues that suddenly become more noticeable when we are in a fixed position indoors. You might start with just making a more concerted effort to get out of the saddle more frequently and also change your hand position more often (things that most do naturally outdoors, but don’t happen as often indoors since the angle of the bike doesn’t change as much).
Make sure your seat hasn’t slipped down. You may want to use a marker to mark your post height.
Since we tend to sit more and the bike is in a more fixed position, shifting side to side on the seat while pedaling tends to work the post down.
Not getting good extension can be 1 cause of patellar discomfort.
I think raising the front is a good start because the downward orientation may be masking other changes that may have developed.
All: the solution was that I needed to site every so slightly forward on the saddle while on the trainer.
it took 7 months to figure that out? 
Haha. No. I figured it out like a week later, but I’ve been riding almost exclusively outside since and thought I’d double back to provide an answer for anyone with the same issue.