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I am an experienced cyclist (38M), I have been cycling for 30 years across MTB, gravel and road. I commute 20km per day and have completed several ultra distance events (1500km+)

I have never really had much body pain from cycling over the years and had a decent bike fit 2 years ago.

For the last few months I have noticed an occasional sharp pain in my right hip when gravel/road cycling (for example when looking over my right shoulder or going from seated to standing) and it feels like my hip is trying to dislocate (it's not moving enough for that to happen but that's how I imagine it might feel).

On multi day rides it hurts for the first day but then disappears with more use over the following days.

I have not changed anything in my setup recently and I run my saddle only 5mm lower than the optimal locked in road rider position.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

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    Consider whether you have a family history of similar ailments. Joint pain, arthritis, etc could all play a part as we age. See a doctor for an xray of your hip could be informative to the right people too.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Sep 4 at 0:57
  • The "a touch too low" saddle would burden the knees and should be irrelevant for the hips, in my experience.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Sep 4 at 7:08
  • @Peter-ReinstateMonica yeah the minimum edit requirements are annoying. Sometimes I pad out an edit by adding metric/imperial units too, which makes the question more approachable.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Sep 4 at 9:47
  • @Peter-ReinstateMonica: It’s not because it makes your knee come up higher (relative to your hips) which puts more strain on hip flexors and is more likely to impinge the hip. One of the reasons for getting short crankarms.
    – Michael
    Commented Sep 4 at 11:57

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Sharp pain is bad and is an indicator of some sort of acute injury. It's odd that this only occurs in some positions, and that it resolves with time but then recurs. It doesn't sound like any of the common overuse injuries.

I would suggest going back to the bike fitter, if you trust them. Our bodies change with time, and you are around the age when the rate of change is increasing - our muscles get stiffer, our metabolisms slow a bit, recovery rates decline a bit, etc.

The human body is complex. I don't know how well the general population of bike fitters is aware of all the complexities. Your bike fitter should have done some basic movement screening with you off the bike, e.g. checking flexibility in various joints. If they didn't do this, then you might want to consider someone else.

Physical therapists can also help with this. If you could recreate the pain off the bike, then you should definitely consider one. The downside with PTs is that they generally won't have the amount of bike-specific training and experience that bike fitters do. They will have had formal training in kinesiology that bike fitters will have had to get through experience.

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In my case it was hip impingement. I had hip pain on and off for months, went to two different PTs who just thought it was an inflamed hip flexor. When I finally went to an orthopedic doctor he quickly suspected hip impingement and confirmed with an X-ray and MRI. I ended up getting surgery a few months later.

My only regret is that I didn’t go to a doctor earlier. Would have spared me months of pain where I couldn’t do bicycling or anything and probably the cartilage damage wouldn’t be as bad as it is now.

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    Hip impingement in this context is a structural feature or change in the hip ball or socket, correct? If possible, you might say more about what the surgery was targeting. Also, were any changes in your bike fit recommended, e.g. shorter crankarms to increase the hip to torso angle at the top of the stroke?
    – Weiwen Ng
    Commented Sep 4 at 14:38
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    Yes, FAI cam impingement in my case. Surgery for reshaping the ball into more of a ball shape, smoothing the labrum and removing a piece of broken-off cartilage layer (cartilage flap) as well as smoothing the remaining cartilage. I saw a bike fitter who raised my saddle and I have switched to shorter crankarms (from 172.5mm to 165mm) though I’m actually not sure if this was before or after the surgery. Strangely I did have a ton of tendon/muscular problems after the surgery (iliopsoas tendonitis, ITBS, plantar fascitis etc.).
    – Michael
    Commented Sep 4 at 18:37

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