Pinkbike Poll: Mountain Biking Injuries
Ask a mountain biker if they've ever been injured while riding and the answer will more than likely be a resounding 'yes.' Any sport that involves speeding down a track surrounded by immovable objects carries with it an inherent amount of risk, and mountain biking is no exception. Injuries aren't only relegated to beginners either – if anything, it's the top athletes that are injured the most, simply because of the sheer number of days they spend riding. Jared Graves is the latest high profile athlete to be forced to sit out part of a race season by gravity's excessive pull, but unfortunately he won't be the last. Of course, the easiest way to avoid a cycling related injury is to stay at home and sit on the couch, but what fun would that be? Not to mention the bed sores and morbid obesity that would arise with a sedentary couch-based lifestyle.
![The Chilean anti grip soil caught most competitors in the Andes Pacifico off guard at least once. Here Joey Schusler takes a high speed tumble on day one stage two.]()
After the initial pain subsides and the injured body part is stitched, stapled or screwed together, it's the next stage that can be the most painful – the waiting stage, the one where you're not supposed to even think about bikes, let alone cruise around town riding one handed or one legged... Six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks – whatever number the doctor orders before a return to two wheels is allowed always seems excessively long. Mountain biking's a powerful drug, and even the strongest pain pills don't do much to dull the urge to get out for a ride.
The first ride back after an injury is always a little awkward and tentative, as a brain that's been fed a diet of video games, internet, and bad television is forced back into action, and muscles that were constrained by casts and braces are finally freed, shrunken and shriveled versions of what they once were. But with time, those skills return, as does the confidence. The amount of time to full recovery varies, One of the best parts of the brain is that it doesn't have the capacity to remember pain. It can remember the event that caused the injury, but actually recalling that searing, excruciating pain is impossible. This feature makes it easier to get back in the saddle, to push those nagging doubts aside, and get back to sliding around turns and blasting off of jumps without a care in the world.
After the initial pain subsides and the injured body part is stitched, stapled or screwed together, it's the next stage that can be the most painful – the waiting stage, the one where you're not supposed to even think about bikes, let alone cruise around town riding one handed or one legged... Six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks – whatever number the doctor orders before a return to two wheels is allowed always seems excessively long. Mountain biking's a powerful drug, and even the strongest pain pills don't do much to dull the urge to get out for a ride.
The first ride back after an injury is always a little awkward and tentative, as a brain that's been fed a diet of video games, internet, and bad television is forced back into action, and muscles that were constrained by casts and braces are finally freed, shrunken and shriveled versions of what they once were. But with time, those skills return, as does the confidence. The amount of time to full recovery varies, One of the best parts of the brain is that it doesn't have the capacity to remember pain. It can remember the event that caused the injury, but actually recalling that searing, excruciating pain is impossible. This feature makes it easier to get back in the saddle, to push those nagging doubts aside, and get back to sliding around turns and blasting off of jumps without a care in the world.
Have you ever had to visit the hospital due to a cycling related injury?
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What's the longest period of time you've been unable to ride a bike for due to a cycling injury?
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Have injuries forced you to change your riding style, or have you been able to return to your previous speed and confidence level?
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P.S. Yay public healthcare!
I think they're saying that "Obamacare" helped them.
(still downhilled the next day by cutting the finger off a glove and extra taping the bandage from the ER)
now im going to tell my storie haha i was cleaning my bike then i think my mom called after me and i wanted to stop the wheel from spinning so i was going to grab it but i looked away and my finger got caught and the disc brakes cut into the bones haha 2 weeks with no riding and 4-5 stiches thanks doctors for saving my finger! xD
Cheers mate!
flight home the next day, in a walking boot for 6 months.. my lower leg bones had been ripped apart. (ruptured Syndesmosis)
so much for "being careful".. Made it back the next year though.. whew.
www.jonpratt.com/2006/Snowshoe-May-26th-29th/i-qJvsLS6
we're u on a bike bro?
i have never get injuried while riding but cleaning my bike gave me 4-5 stiches on my finger wanna know
the full story when i almost lost my finger go up 20 comments and you will find it, keep your finger away from the disc brakes and good luck with your riding!
Pictures in the link I did this on my bmxican. Crazy story I lived through my pedal bike almost took me on too the next one some real shit... read this story y'all will trip
Giantfaith, just read your story...Holy f#ck!! You're lucky to be alive or at the least not being in a vegetative state. Hope your ongoing recovery goes well.
2 broken collar bones
Separated AC joint
18 stitches to the face (wearing full face and goggles)
6 broken ribs
And one poor dude broke both his arms and shattered his patella.
All these guys are shredders, State champs etc but each just had a bit of bad luck.
I'm still in QT riding having a rad time. Signed up for the Mega Avalance on Sunday which going off the groups odds may have been a bad call
was lucky it compressed with very little nerve damage, slight weakness in left arm for few years just...
Seeing a bit of your own ball naked inside the torn sack is damn scary!
The stitches were supposed to be dissolvable, but they didn't and they itched like mad.
The pain of getting them pulled out was way worse than when it happened ;(
Do I regret it? Yeah I guess, I f*cked up on a trail I've done 50 times last year.
Will it stop me? F to the NO!
Mountain biking is love, mountain biking is life!
I did the same on the most goony crash on my jump bike a year ago. Also hit my head pretty hard and lost vision in my eye for the day - similarly to Semenuk at Rotorua.
It's a pain in the bum but stay off for what the Doc says and longer! I had a sling for a week and was told not to ride for two. I didn't, but two weekends later There was no stopping me going out! Even though I couldn't put enough pressure on it to do a push up.
Consequently I still get pain in it, I worry every time I hit it (for some reason that should has been into trees many times since) and my collar bone sticks out of my shoulder.
The only think I can do is trolling bike related websites.
The good thing is, I won't buy a boost hub equiped 27"+ bike this year.
I would look on the internet every day looking for advice and motiviation withlittle success..
But the human body is a powerful tool, and it gets better. Just hit the gym as soon as you're cleared and start working out. I crutched my ass to a stationary bike the day the Doc said I could.
Feel free to PM me if you'd like to chat more about my/your injury.
Cheers,
-AH
Or bull riding? Sounds less dangerous.
always pee before rides
Also we like to slag those skinny roadies (well I do anyway
I can't trace my injury to one specific incident but rather a culmination of broken helmets and accidents, eventually compressed my spine.
Also from other accidents:
- two separated shoulders
- compression injury to right arm from car hitting me head on at 50 mph
- broken ribs
Wear a helmet, do weight bearing exercises to strengthen your neck, back, arms and core. Fitness is the best protection.
Second time I fractured a rib after a bad landing. There was nothing the doctors were able to do there. The worst part of that time was not the crash itself, but to caught the flu with a fractures rib. I got tears in my eyes every time I sneezed or caughted
the doctor who saw me at hospital asked why when out mountain biking why i wasnt wearing a helmet . when i told him he fairly wet himself laughing :-) , he said it wasnt rock n roll enough seeing as how i needed 10 stitches so i should make something up .... so ........
Removed spleen, had a laminectomy in 2002 - just started riding 2 years ago again.
Several years later, on the same course, but already with proper protection and bike, went air on a speed jump and didn't stand too well on the bike. The result: a wheelie followed by a massive crash on my back, followed by almost 40ft of dirt-glyding on my butt and back. Destroyed clothes, scars on my back and my butt, and problems sitting and lying for the next 2 weeks...
6 months off the bike and I've got a nice titanium eye socket now (upgrades, baby). Had I not been wearing glasses there's a decent chance I'd have lost my eye. Wear some glasses out there...
Then again, a colleague of mine slipped and fell on his icy deck, smashed his hand, and couldn't operate for 6 weeks. Stuff happens. Might as well go for the cool war story.
My experience consists of two broken wrists and a concussion.
Both wrists
2 ribs
Left collarbone
Put a hole in my right scapula
Nose x2
And lost track the amount of times I have dislocated my left shoulder. Just keeps getting easier to do each time it seems
My last crash. Now tere is a metal platen to gold evrything together. I hope tot het back on The bike this summer, waiting to ride is like much painfuller than than The moment of the crash.
Later on that year managed to face plant after hacking a jumped again this time knocking myself out and splitting my eye lid. Last year was a pretty shitty year to be honest
riding is as enjoyable as it ever was.
On a side note jesus christ I knew hospital bills were bad but seeing a $15,000 bill just for the emergency room, and $78,000 for hospital stay is ridiculous. Thank god I've got decent insurance. Only bill i really been nailed on was $2,800 for 11mile ambulance ride to transfer me between hospitals because apparently the hospital close to me isnt a trauma center ( rode bike home and wife drove me to ER). How the f*ck am I supposed to know that the ambulance called by my in network hospital to transfer me to another in network hospital is out of network and is gonna charge me nearly 3 grand for a 15 min drive
bad internal bruised sacrum and coxis ( could not walk tidy for months).Loads of flesh wounds and I ride with full body armour. Body's full of arthritis and worn out bits. Started riding XC now , but still have the odd spin DH . Better to have lived a fun filled life with some constant aches and pains ,than wish you'd had a go , when its to late. But on saying that try and keep it safe as possible. Wear some armour," its better to ride sweating than lay bleeding". a second slower to me is better than a 6 weeks out of action. Remember keep fit , not just bike fit, but plenty of core , hip , shoulder and neck conditioning will lessen the chance of injury and help the recovery of injury. If someone told me , at 49 you will be struggling with pains and lack of sleep, the only thing I'd have changed is my job and not my life (hobby). eat well , laugh loads, f.. the haters and RIDE as much as you can fit in
98, split a gash in elbow, had it sewn up, but next day it got infected, with septicemina which put me in hospital for a week or so. That was bad, they told my parents i was 70/30.. Against ! I was pretty bad ! Had mouth ulcers and a gash in my knee got infected, my imune system took years to recover.
2007 - megavalanche .. Landed on head at speed, with concussion, for a several hours. My right hand was a lump, they cut my ring off my finger with bolt croppers because all my fingers were swelling up fast. Not sure what i did to it, never had it looked at. But spent a few days grenoble hospital. I ended up compressing a few lower vertebreas in my back. I drove back to UK a week later...
I had four ops in end, wires and bolts the usual. I also landed on my head though, so ever since that very first day in hospital in France, ive had 100% permanant tinitus which ive learnt to live pretty well. Ive had short term memory issues and even worse, i was recomended an op to replace a disc in my neck, beacuse it got pancaked, which trapped a nerve (x-ray showed it poking out!) which makes my left hand/arm tingle quite a bit.
I was told to stop riding DH, with the risk to another hyperextension of either my wrist or neck would be pretty bad.
For me, its all 100% in the head. I simply blank ALL of the above out, the more you think, and talk about injurys, the more "they" become something.. Mine have not (yet) got a hold of me, so still see myslef climbing the ladder of progress, going harder faster and higher. Sounds cheesy, i know, but its what i love. Last year i did my biggest jump (berm gap at tidworth) and i smiled all the way home
Not bad for a 40 year old huh.
Is that weird?
In some cases the fact that I survived just pumped me up in the long term. In others I learned from my mistakes and incorporated that learning, but my drive to improve has never diminished.
It really sucks, but when you have a mortgage / family / business, sometimes the risk just isn't worth the reward.
By far the worst element of crashing & injury is always the down time. I've just had 9weeks on crutches which was mentally tough. Finally light at the end of the tunnel.
Healing vibes to anywhere out there thats currently injured & recuperating. Being injured & off the bike sucks
First go down I went down what is apparently only used for skiing, not biking, and ended up going OTB in spectacular fashion as the front wheel caught a boulder.
Smashed my knee and shoulder and couldn't properly walk or move my arm weeks after, but couldn't stop riding that day.
That's all I got, as I just did XC before that, and pretty slowly as well.
Just managed to buy my nemesis used from the bikepark as they stocked up on new bikes
I couldn't be any more stoked on what's to come this season, and reading what some people here have come back from to ride a bike again...tough bunch.
I ended up dislocating my shoulder / AC sprain grade 3 + fractured elbow + hematoma on my stomach
Had to relocate shoulder on the trail and walk down.. worst part was my elbow.. I couldn't straighten out & every little bump or movement of the elbow would make blood gush out.
Per doc's, I almost entered shock from losing too much blood.
I figured out my main problem = always trying to keep my bike safe during a crash (habit from racing road) & a shitty RD
www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=166167
Shattered collarbone into 11 pieces, 6 screws and a plate, 2 surgeries and 6 months off the bike
Dislocated finger, then broken hand, wrist, and then with my brace on:
Broken fibula and dislocated foot, 5 screws and a plate, surgery, 5 months off the bike
Dislocated thumb, broken thumb, surgery, 2 pins.
Most of my legs and arms are all scar tissue, hips are scarred from crashing, eyesight is 20/300.
Too many dislocated shoulders, jammed fingers, concussions, both of my ankles and knees pop every morning and my wrists click all the time, that's probably from Y wrenches though.
Oh, and I've been riding for 5 years.
Here's to hoping I get a little safer!
6 months recovery.
Thing is when my girlfriend crashed I've become very nervous riding for some reaso.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/4791429
www.pinkbike.com/photo/4791428
www.pinkbike.com/photo/10890740
www.pinkbike.com/photo/10588567
The crash is on my profile, won't let me copy & paste the link on my iphone
www.pinkbike.com/photo/8502966
thanks-norman