How should I adjust saddle height after heel-on-pedal setup to ease knee pain?

[Mason78]

I’ve been trying to dial in my saddle height using the heel-on-pedal method, but my knees still feel a bit strained after longer rides. I’m wondering if that initial setup is just a starting point and I need to make smaller tweaks from there.

[RichardVM]

Yeah, that initial setup is just a starting point. After a few rides I found that tiny tweaks mattered more than big changes. I would ride for 20 minutes, adjust 1 or 2 mm, and see how the knee felt on the next ride. I kept the height within a narrow range and also checked the fore-aft position.

[JoshuaPT]

I tried logging my changes for a week and it felt almost random. Some rides with a 1 mm bump made the knees feel better, others not. It seemed like any improvement was temporary, and I kept chasing a moving target.

[Mila.C]

There was a ride where I swapped more than one thing at once and the knee pain actually got worse. After that I learned to isolate one variable at a time, but honestly I still can’t tell if it was the height or something else.

[MichaelVR]

Are you sure the problem is the saddle height, or could it be something else like cleat position or crank length?