*Blissful understanding!* Thank you so much for your detailed explanation, as I often work as a handy person, the door hinge analogy is perfect: loose hinge screws allowing rotation of the hinge out of plumb are the cause of tremendous stress and wear on the hinge pin itself! Basically what I understand from your explanation is that both my hip (as an attachment point for my quads) and my ankle/calves act to stabilise my patella where it should be to transfer load around my knee, and when my quads or likely the external section of my quads start complaining from hiking stress and disengaging somewhat, pain can ensue. This also explains why a bit of a restorative stretch of my hip and being more intentional about engaging my quads helps relieve the pain by allowing for better alignment of my patella.

I will indeed do some focused box stepping work, as, in my mind hitherto unrelatedly, I recently moved to a new apartment with a lovely attic bedroom up some steep and curved stairs, and I have found that I feel slightly unstable coming down them unless, again, I very intentionally engage my quads. Without doing so I can see my knees deviate slightly internally. I hadn't connected the two because on stairs I tend to experience the sense of instability in my ankles not my knees. My knees have apparently been happy to do stairs, even normal ones, without much (conscious) quad involvement forever.

Can I ask, since I cycle with cleats, is it possible that pulling up against my pedals, which I gather is accomplished mostly with my quads, disproportionately strengthens the interior parts of my quads and may leave the exterior proportionately weaker? Would such an imbalance factor into my situation?

I can't tell you how grateful I am for this understanding, it's like the most satisfying deep drink of yummy thirst quenching goodness after a long and hot ride, but on a bigger scale! Understanding *how* things work mechanically is almost as satisfying to me as just the reality that they do work!

Best,

Whilom