For real. When I walk up the stairs after a morning run, and for part of the day, my knee creaks so much it sounds like walking on rice crispies. I have no pain, some very occassional weakness, and its not particularly stiff or bothering me. But the noise is odd. I am 45. Any thoughts?
Dunno, but I’m 42 and my ankles and toes sound like I am walking across bubble wrap, and same as you, no pain. I’ve had two head-to-toe physicals recently and both doctors, plus a trip to the podiatrist, have heard my symphony of cavitation within the joints and haven’t flinched or showed any concern.
Mine dissappears once I’ve walked a few minutes and pretty much stays gone until I sit again for a long time or manually crack them, which drives mrs mck414 crazy 
Sorry to say it sounds like “crepitus” which is often one of the first signs of osteoarthritis. At least it was for me. I had crazy cracking and popping sounds without pain for about 1 year before I started feeling pain. I now treat it with Supartz injections in my knee and they really help. Supartz is basically WD-40 for knees.
Same here. Left knee, toes, ankle to some extent… no pain and the doctors essentially are all saying - if it does not hurt, get some earplugs or something…
More likely to be rough cartilage than anything else.
For me this has been going on for at least 20 years and I don’t believe it’s gotten any worse. It certainly hasn’t slowed me down as I’m faster now running than I’ve ever been.
Most likely chondromalacia, which is a slight roughening of the knee cartilage, usually under the kneecap, and possibly a bit of meniscus abrasion, though meniscus problems usually involve pain. My right knee was a full blow out years ago, and had aggressive surgery to fix it. Cartilage on the underside of the patella was very damaged, so it was scraped and drilled to encourage new growth. Anyway, surgery was successful, but the knee sounds like a gravel pit on stairs, etc, but no pain or noise on the bike. Mine is due to small fragments of cartilage floating in the knee joint. If it becomes painful, get an arthroscopic exploratory.
For me this has been going on for at least 20 years and I don’t believe it’s gotten any worse. It certainly hasn’t slowed me down as I’m faster now running than I’ve ever been.
Same here.
For me this has been going on for at least 20 years and I don’t believe it’s gotten any worse. It certainly hasn’t slowed me down as I’m faster now running than I’ve ever been.
Same here.
x2.
Hello all! I am 41 years old. Four years ago, after a life almost sedentary, I started doing endurance sports like triathlon, marathon and Ironman. It seems that I destroyed my right knee in this way. Two years ago I heard some noises in my right knee when I descended stairs. I started visit doctors. Now, the noises are high and awful and all doctors told me that I have an advanced Chondromalacia. One doctor said that the femur’ canal for patella is to narrow, a physiotherapist told that my Vastus Medialis muscle is too weak, but all of them told me that the patella track isn’t correct. Very important thing is that I have any pain, only horrible noises, like something is crashing inside my knee at every stair! If I am pushing the patella down (to the tibia) all noises disappear. I started to do some stimulant exercises for VMO, but it isn’t clear for me what is bad for my knee: jogging, running fast, using supportive shoes or barefoot (I am severe over pronator), cycling light or riding bike hard. For the moment, I stopped all these activities (I miss them), but I am still swimming freestyle. It is very strange because I have any pain!
I have the exact same thing . My doc said it was chondomatia . I was very nervous although my doc. said if you you can do 70.3 and run marathons not to worry about it , short version. Motrin and a steroid type arthiritis ointment works awesome. no surgery is needed at this time. Forty mile bike and a six mile run last night and have no problem at all,
Put your mind at ease and talk to your doc. only takes an hour
Probably all of those things! Particularly as you’re not as young as you used to be 
As one owner of crap knees to another owner of potentially crap knees it’s possibly worth getting the opinion of a physio and getting some guidance on specific exercises and strengthening exercises, particularly if it’s patella tracking related. They do make a difference and can increase knee & hip stability significantly.
My knees have done that Rice Krispies noise for years.
No pain from it.
I’m having patellar tendinitis in my L knee now, which also had the meniscus scoped 10 yrs ago. The noise doesn’t seem like it’s specifically related to either of these (it was there before and after these issues anyway) but who knows?
For peace of mind - go get it checked out.
No reason not to.
Add milk.
These are two pictures from my Computed Tomography with my both knees. First is with my legs relaxed and second with quadriceps muscles in contraction. With this conformation, I destroyed the cartilage of my right kneecap in 2000-2500 miles of running. This is the total mileage that I run in my life. I still have a papery cartilage there: I think that this is the reason for I don’t have yet any pain, but, unfortunately, I don’t have the courage to run again. A doctor told me that if I didn’t run (never), my knee is possible to be in current situation at my age of 60! It is one month since a doctor injected in my knees some hyaluronic acid: any change! I am from Romania and I am living in Belgium now. I visited doctors in both countries, but I get a lot of different opinions.