I've been riding the bike for a while and lately my legs, in particular my knees have really been hurting when I walk. It feels more sore and joint pain than anything else. Has anyone else experienced this?

Obviously I should start using something like the cross trainer?

Iv not had any probs with bikes myself, but could it be that the seat is too low? It could be that when you re putting a lot of force on to the pedals where your knees are 'too high up' causing more stress on them? just a thought

right when i saw the thread title, i thought "seat is too low"

Make sure the seat is the right height, and the resistance isn't too high.

agree with the others about making sure seat is right height, and also try to apply constant pressure all the way round. ie fit the hoops on pedals tightly around your feet, and pull up as well as pushing down. One thing that can cause pressure on your joints is the speeding up each time you push down on the pedals, by keeping it at a constant pace you avoid that.

Don't know how clear that is, but it works for me.

agree with the others about making sure seat is right height, and also try to apply constant pressure all the way round. ie fit the hoops on pedals tightly around your feet, and pull up as well as pushing down. One thing that can cause pressure on your joints is the speeding up each time you push down on the pedals, by keeping it at a constant pace you avoid that.

Don't know how clear that is, but it works for me.

All of the above plus:

Try the recumbant bike for a bit. I find that riding the upright bike, I am more likely to slouch and put pressure on all kinds of things that shouldn't be under pressure :o ...including knees, back, neck etc.

Your legs, at full extension, should be just short of straight -- not locked, but with a slight bend!

right when i saw the thread title, i thought "seat is too low"Dito. The vast majority of people ride with the seat way, WAY WAY too low. It should be so high that your legs are nearly (but not quite) locked out.

I think I was reading something by greg lamond and he was a pro already, but he had a new coach at some point who raised his seat height by something like an inch (so, he'd been a pro already with it an inch lower than his coach wanted).

Seeing somebody with a low seat is the first and easiest flag to spot a cycling newbie by!

I've been riding the bike for a while and lately my legs, in particular my knees have really been hurting when I walk. It feels more sore and joint pain than anything else. Has anyone else experienced this?

Obviously I should start using something like the cross trainer?

Like everyone else, my suspicion is bad seat adjustment. Can you lock out your knees on the pedals? Well, that's bad if you can. The knee should be bent a bit even at the deepest extension of the pedal. Likewise, don't have it bent too much at the shallowest extension.

The cross trainer is good too.

But I'm going to come out again in favor of alternative cardio. I've found that if you're going to do a large amount of cardio then you don't want to expose yourself to the injury risk of just one type of exercise every time. So I do some elliptical, some bike, some jump rope, some medicine ball lunges, some barbell squats, some step ups, some running, ... you get the idea. There is a range of motions and each one has different injury exposures. I figure by not doing all the same cardio I'm reducing the overuse risk that comes from precise repetition of the same motion. Plus, your cardio fitness is motion/activity specific. If you want the maximum cardio benefit you want a range of different motions to be trained.

Then it won't surprise you to find that I'm going to start using a rowing machine just to have another option.

So yeah, adjust your seat. Learn how to properly adjust any machine that you use for highly repetitive exercise to avoid injury. But I would also suggest don't just stick to only one cardio form. If nothing else, it's less boring.