MTB injuries...

[e rock]

Yuup.... my broken wrist that I talked about above was broken for about 3 weeks before seeing a doctor. I'd probably have never gone if it wasn't for the bruise on my palm that wasn't healing. I just thought it was a bad sprain..... but then I'm kind of an idiot like that.

And this kind of makes me wonder about the bone spur on the back of my heel (right at the upper attachment point of the achilles tendon). According to the doc, judging by the size, it's likely 5-10 years old - resulting from a mild tendon separation at some point.

At least my physical therapist is hawt.

 

[tcb]

And this kind of makes me wonder about the bone spur on the back of my heel (right at the upper attachment point of the achilles tendon). According to the doc, judging by the size, it's likely 5-10 years old - resulting from a mild tendon separation at some point.

At least my physical therapist is hawt.

ouch... I've got Haglunds and a bone spur on my right heel too. I'm in flip flops for 3 weeks when it flairs up. The surgical solutions don't sound very fun either... so I keep the ice on it and the tenny's close by.

 

[rsbcruiser]

Ok, first off, SPUD, when you wipe the glass off of your tire, much better to jam your hand into the front fork. That way you can do a face plant, much more enjoyable, ask me how I know. IdahoDoug, YEP, came to the same conclusion. Better to keep the wheels on the ground. On a downhill with my wife watching, I decided to jump a stump. Timed it badly, catching my chainring on the stump. face plant. Almost ripped my lower lip off. I had chunks of cedar leaf imbedded so far up there that they were still coming out a year later. False advertising I tell you. I was riding a Stump Jumper! Big fat LIARS!

 

[rsbcruiser]

Man Oh man Yoops, I cringe every time I see those shots. The new shots with the screws, looks like they wired through the wrist. Is that what those dark images are opposite the fixing plate and screws?

 

[Mr. Toad]

I dislocate a shoulder a year.... at least. It's like I'm put together with rubber bands. I never do it doing anything remotely atheletic, It will happen while taking a suit off a hanger or something rediculous. The only time it's a lingering problem is when I catch a nerve or other piece of meat when it pops back into socket.

Been happening since 7th grade..

When mine dislocated in December '06, I was reaching for the snooze bar on the alarm clock. I'm cringing and holding the shoulder as I type.

A week or so after the dislocation, I did a backcountry hike at Big Bend N.P. After the hike, I went to the gift shop to buy some trinkets to take home to the kids. The clerk was a tall skinny cowboy type. Gray hair, moustache, boots, the whole deal. As he reached up to get the items off a shelf behind the counter, he pulled his arm back down and quickly used the other one instead.

I told him I recognized that move because I'd been doing it for the past week after dislocating my shoulder. He said that he had dislocated his too. Turns out that both injuries happened on the same day. I asked him how it happened. He told me that he was alone out on his ranch many miles from his house when his horse got spooked and he was thrown off. His shoulder dislocated when he hit the ground. Then he told me how he walked a few hundred yards leading his horse by the reign to the place a where huge rock stuck out of the ground. There, he pounded his shoulder back into place on the rock.

So when he asked me how mine happened, I debated telling him that it popped out while reaching for the snooze bar on the alarm clock as I lazed in bed. I debated telling him that my kids stood there looking at me all freaked out because I was freaked out. I debated telling him that it was too painful for me to sit up (I was laying on my stomach) and that the paramedics had to pick me up so I could hunch over in the Dwayne Wade position and move about. I debated telling him that my wife then drove me to the ER where I chose the amnesia drug so I wouldn't remember the pain of re-locating it. But I decided instead to excuse myself by saying something like, "It's a long story, and I've got a long trip ahead," and saved myself the embarrassment.

 

[tcb]

When mine dislocated in December '06, I was reaching for the snooze bar on the alarm clock. I'm cringing and holding the shoulder as I type.

A week or so after the dislocation, I did a backcountry hike at Big Bend N.P. After the hike, I went to the gift shop to buy some trinkets to take home to the kids. The clerk was a tall skinny cowboy type. Gray hair, moustache, boots, the whole deal. As he reached up to get the items off a shelf behind the counter, he pulled his arm back down and quickly used the other one instead.

I told him I recognized that move because I'd been doing it for the past week after dislocating my shoulder. He said that he had dislocated his too. Turns out that both injuries happened on the same day. I asked him how it happened. He told me that he was alone out on his ranch many miles from his house when his horse got spooked and he was thrown off. His shoulder dislocated when he hit the ground. Then he told me how he walked a few hundred yards leading his horse by the reign to the place a where huge rock stuck out of the ground. There, he pounded his shoulder back into place on the rock.

So when he asked me how mine happened, I debated telling him that it popped out while reaching for the snooze bar on the alarm clock as I lazed in bed. I debated telling him that my kids stood there looking at me all freaked out because I was freaked out. I debated telling him that it was too painful for me to sit up (I was laying on my stomach) and that the paramedics had to pick me up so I could hunch over in the Dwayne Wade position and move about. I debated telling him that my wife then drove me to the ER where I chose the amnesia drug so I wouldn't remember the pain of re-locating it. But I decided instead to excuse myself by saying something like, "It's a long story, and I've got a long trip ahead," and saved myself the embarrassment.

My first one was caused by a pulling guard putting a helmet on it in 7th grade.... and it hasn't been the same since. I bet the clerk just had a better imagination than you do.

 

[Lugboot]

Wow. At least I'm not the only one.

Currently off the bike due to a bulged disk between L5/S1. Overuse. Kinda boring I know. But I also have to stare at a brand new, freshly built Kona Hei Hei 2-9 full suspension 29er while I can't ride.

Last July fourth, I was about 3 hours into a ride on the 29er SS when I wasn't paying attention on an off-camber downhill switchback and ended up highsiding off onto my face. Missed a stump by about 3 inches but had to finish the ride with a hole in my face and go to the ER to get stitches in my lower lip. Luckily a neighbor is one of the trauma surgeons there, and she was home, so she took me in, we went straight in the ambulance doors, she stitched me up and we left. Total time spent was about 45 minutes. Best ER visit ever.

When I first started using clipless pedals, I guess about 10 years ago, it made total sense to get used to them in a rockgarden. Of course, I stalled out, couldn't clip out, fell straight over to my right and bounced my head off a rock. It deflected off the edge of my helmet and then into my forehead. Yay, blood. Trip to the ER (that one was 4 hours) and 11 stitches.

Was screaming down a fireroad at about 30-ish mph and got on the off-camber outside part of a left-hand switchback. Couldn't make the turn, drifted into the ditch and my right fork leg caught a rock in the roadbank, instantly sending me over the bars and into the forest. I landed upside down on my shoulders with my legs flipped back over me. There was a tunnel of destruction through the brush I made with my flightpath. Somehow I came out of that one with some bruises and a pretty scraped up forearm and that's it.

Couple years ago at a 24 hour race, I was on my last lap and was chasing some other guys down a hardpack section in excess of 20 mph with a tight turn at the bottom. I was trying to downshift and brake at the same time when my left hand twitched the wrong way, instantly locking up my front wheel and sending me down, fast. Couldn't move my arm. Had to get up and ride one-handed backwards on the course to the transition tent and bag my lap at the medical tent. Turned out I had partially torn some of the ligaments in my shoulder.

Somehow I haven't broken a bone that I've known of, yet...

 

[Southeast Overland]

Some pics:

The first three don't look bad...the next three do!

I used to race cross-country and then did downhill for a bit. Going over your handlebars mid-jump @ ~ 49 mph hurts. Ended up being carried off the mountain on a backboard. Final tally was a broken leg and enough skinned flesh to last a life time. Shin guards (a carry over from bike trials) saved the day though - they were shredded.

 

[yooper]

Man Oh man Yoops, I cringe every time I see those shots. The new shots with the screws, looks like they wired through the wrist. Is that what those dark images are opposite the fixing plate and screws?

There is a curved plate fixed by four screws and a wire and there is a fancy shaped wire held in by two screws on square washers stabilizing the head of the radius.

The little wire things you see are staples holding the incision open during surgery. Those are intraoperative xrays.

 

[mot]

I haven't broken any bones, but I've fallen/crashed several times, both by myself and with another cyclist(s).

I once was following someone too close coming down a gravel hill through a mountain and clipped another rider's rear end and we both crashed.

We both laughed because we were trying to go down as fast as we could, trying to out-do each other.

Good memories!

And of course, the same bike I was on then got trashed when I got hit by a car a couple of months ago.

Bad memories!

 

[carboncycles]

Remember guys, metal, carbon and such will not heal, unlike tissue and blood...so the moral, save the bike at all costs; everything else eventually heals!

 

[mustardfj40]

I got two major crashes that resulted in some lost skins...And somehow I always fawked up when training hard...Last year, I trained hard for a big ride for months and got into great shape, I thought I was in the best shape of my life (for a 44 years old man at the time), one day, I just passed out because exhaustion and dehyradation...And I had to cancel last year 2007 Rubithon . This year I got rejected from the Death Ride lottery registration so I signed up for Rubithon 2008 and got a great time

I need to learn how to train properly to avoid injuries.

 

[SLOonTheGo]

So far I haven't had anything major from the mtb. Worst one was a weekend at the local state park I was descending a ridge on my hardtail with a bit too much speed. I got on the brakes in order to make the turn at the end of the ridge that drops me back into the valley and the rear end glanced a rock and hopped to the side putting me at nearly 90 degrees from my bars. I tumbled and slid and came to a rest in a bush about 2 feet from a serious slope to the valley floor. Bruised and cut but nothing to major, a nice line of scrapes in my helmet from the rocks I slid over.

On the bmx bike I haven't been so fortunate.
At the local skate park, all concrete, there were two bowls connected by a hip that was about 4 feet wide. Childs play, would do one footers and stuff over it easy. One day I decided to try the transition, not straight over but from the curved edge, to the other curve. Think ovals with the long sides together. Anyways I didn't get enough clearance and ended up putting my front wheel onto the lip of the drop in. I crashed face first into the transition portion of the bowl and slide about halfway across the bottom with the bike crashing down on top of me. Peg landing about 4 inches from my head. I get back up after my friends get my bike off and to my amazement nothing other than a banged up knee, a busted lip, and a sore wrist. My bike had a majorly tweeked triple wall rim, bent my forks, chromoly dirt jumpers, and tweeked my bars around 40 degrees around and 20 degrees back.

Smacked it all back together as best I could, rode for another 20 minutes before my knee gave out and then gimped it home with my one good leg. Ran a track camp 1 week later.

 

[OZCAL]

You havent broke anything that you know of... I have fractures in my right wrist from wrecking on both BMXs and MTBs. I had no idea they were there until they took an X-Ray when I tore a tendon awhile back...

Are you sure it wasn't an avulsion? Did it happen (the tendon injury) when you were a kid or an adult?

 

[Butt Ugly Chuck]

Pre-MTB, but one of my funniest/most painful wrecks came on one of these when I was about 7

I had always wanted a motorcycle but couldn't have one. So I did everything I could to turn my Stingray into my imaginary dirtbike, complete with cards in the spokes for that "sweet motorcyle sound".

To imitate a twist throttle one day I was riding with a 7-11 Slurpee Baseball Cup over the right hand grip. I don't quite remember why, but I also had a football wedged into the handlebars... those big ape-hangers were perfect for that!

Now, all the kids on my block knew that to catch extra big air over a jump you needed lots of throttle (we were big Evil Knievel fans back then). I was feeling pretty superior though sporting my extra-cool twisty motorcycle grip.

My approach to the ramp was textbook perfect, and my motor was "screaming" with seemingly perfect RPM's as I twisted the "throttle" for all its worth! Somewhere very shortly after takeoff though, my throttle grip suffered mechanical failure and separated from the handlbar. I came down slightly endo, and in moderate panic I pulled on handlebar with the only hand that still had connection, which brought the front wheel hard left and sideways to my path of travel, sending me on a secondary flight path over the bars. Midway in my trajectory, the utter brilliance of placing an airbag (football) on the front of the bike suddenly occured to me. "If I can just get this airbag in front of me before I land I'll come through this OK... it'll be more like recovering a fumble". But the distance between pavement and my face closed faster than I could unwedge the airbag from the handlebars. My nose was pretty bloodied and I needed stitches on my chin... again.

 

[OZCAL]

Pre-MTB, but one of my funniest/most painful wrecks came on one of these when I was about 7

I had always wanted a motorcycle but couldn't have one. So I did everything I could to turn my Stingray into my imaginary dirtbike, complete with cards in the spokes for that "sweet motorcyle sound".

To imitate a twist throttle one day I was riding with a 7-11 Slurpee Baseball Cup over the right hand grip. I don't quite remember why, but I also had a football wedged into the handlebars... those big ape-hangers were perfect for that!

Now, all the kids on my block knew that to catch extra big air over a jump you needed lots of throttle (we were big Evil Knievel fans back then). I was feeling pretty superior though sporting my extra-cool twisty motorcycle grip.

My approach to the ramp was textbook perfect, and my motor was "screaming" with seemingly perfect RPM's as I twisted the "throttle" for all its worth! Somewhere very shortly after takeoff though, my throttle grip suffered mechanical failure and separated from the handlbar. I came down slightly endo, and in moderate panic I pulled on handlebar with the only hand that still had connection, which brought the front wheel hard left and sideways to my path of travel, sending me on a secondary flight path over the bars. Midway in my trajectory, the utter brilliance of placing an airbag (football) on the front of the bike suddenly occured to me. "If I can just get this airbag in front of me before I land I'll come through this OK... it'll be more like recovering a fumble". But the distance between pavement and my face closed faster than I could unwedge the airbag from the handlebars. My nose was pretty bloodied and I needed stitches on my chin... again.

That story's better than a video!

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Excellent story, indeed!

 

[Ruadhrigh]

no breaks, I usually get pretty lucky in my wrecks

I remember one day I was hauling through a trail I knew well, a little faster than normal, and ended up jumping over something I hadn't jumped before, I landed in some deep sand. The front wheel got buried and I tried riding out the endo. Somehow I unclipped and landed on my feet running to make up for the momentum. I got maybe three steps in before I had to leap over a cactus. I have no idea how I did not end up in the cactus, but I never took that jump again.

My first ride with clipless was also in a rock garden. Difficult climb, stalled and fell right over. Hit my foot hard on a rock. I still have to lace that shoe loosely.

As a kid we had a neighborhood bike race. I was tearing it up on my BMX when my foot slipped of the pedal and got wedged in between the fork and the wheel. Not sure exactly what happened after that, I just remember having a huge scab on my face and arm.

I know there's more, but I can't remember them now.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Living in Germany this time, riding a ghey Peugeot hybrid bike I'd bought while living there. (Think road bike with MTB geometry and knobbed skinnies) I was hammering through a long set of whoops near an apartment complex, and bunnyhopped off the last one, folding my front forks out and doing a header over the bars. Ouch.
Picked up my yardsale, and got the forks somewhat near normal rake by slamming the whole bike down vertically onto the front tire. Never shoulda been riding that hard on such a lightweight platform. When I got back to the states, I got a Rockhopper FS that was still cheap, yet could handle a bit more abuse.

 

[e rock]

The BMX stories remided me of my first real jump. It was the summer before second grade and I had become pretty proficient with the new bike I got for the previous Christmas. Several of the neighborhood kids were a few years older and were alway building jumps that were too big for me but I loved to watch.

After building a few smaller jumps out of whatever wood I could scrounge from my dad's scrap pile, I decided I needed something bigger. Searching the garage, I found the perfect thing - my dad's car ramps! After a couple slow-speed get-to-know-you rides over the ramp, I was ready for the real deal. Of course, not wanting this moment to be lost forever, I called my mom to serve as witness. For some reason, her protective instinct was drowsy that day and she allowed the stunt, but she did insist that I angle the ramp at the end of the driveway such that I'd land in the grass of the front yard (this would end up being critical to my survival). And now, since there was an audience, I was going to go all out. I rode up the hill to the end of the block, and quickly raced back down the hill toward my glory.

I don't remember much after this point except for reminding myself to pull up at the end of the ramp so I wouldn't crash. Apparently I pulled up too hard and landed flat on my back in the middle of the front yard. With my mother, sister, and dog watching. I learned all about getting the wind knocked out of you that day (which is scary when you're 6 and it's the first time).

I also learned about ramps that are shorter than your wheelbase.