What injuries or bike damage has cycling cost you?

peddling_pilgrim

For me... I went over the handlebars at a high rate of speed and acquired a third degree AC shoulder separation from hitting the tarmac (my ligaments are completely shot). The front wheel broke into a array of pieces, the carbon frame ripped open in multiple places at the headset, my seat came off the rails, and my helmet cracked.

I was concerned about picking up the pieces of my bike first, then I noticed the pain/lump in my shoulder.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Amputated lower left leg, smashed tibial plateau, fractured fibula, severed posterior tibial artery, MSRA infection - all as a result of a cycle training accident. 4 months in hospital, away with the fairies for much of it. Plenty of money. Lots of anguish for my family and friends. Having to learn to walk again.

But it will also give me plenty as well - the determination to rehabilitate, get back on the bike eventually and race at an even higher level than before. Lots of love from those that matter most and the knowledge of the support of the hundreds that visited me, emails and cards from around the cycling world.

I've also had bikes written off before in training accidents but not with the consequences of my latest misadventure.

iainf72

Over handlebars at lowish speed (20mph) resulting in (initally) a badly fractured clavicle and a spiral fracture on my humerous. One week of being strapped up and they decide to operate on the clavicle because there were loads of bone fragments and it would be better plated. That was done and I had a cast on my upper arm for 5 weeks.

The movement was very slow coming back but I carried on - Had private medical cover so got private physio to work on it. After 6 weeks or so he asked another physio to take a look and they both thought it wasn't right. They thought perhaps there was scar tissue stopping movement or something like that. They worked with a shoulder surgeon and recommended I saw him. I eventually saw him 4.5 months after the accident, he looked at a new x-ray, winced and told me I'd had a severe posterior dislocation of my shoulder. He operated 2 weeks later to put the joint back in place - This involved moving a tendon and screwing it onto a different part of my humeral head. Because the joint had been dislocated for so long the bone had gone soft and worn down etc etc.

That was a year ago. Followed by loads of painful physio.

I now have a "functional" shoulder. I can't lift my arm very high up, can't put my hand behind my back very stiff external rotation and stuff like that. Next steps will be the onset of arthritis and a joint replacement.

The bike suffered a scuffed saddle, torn bar tape and a front flat. I missed out doing the etape to Alpe D'huez, have gained more than 10kg's since then and can count the number of times I've been on a bike on my fingers.

tyskie

Got hit by a car about 6 weeks ago - broken femur, severed quad tendon, couple of broken metacarpals and bike frame split in 2. Although, compared with Alex, seems nothing worse than a sprained ankle. Good luck on your rehab Alex. With your obvious determination I am sure you will achieve what you wish.

duckiciao

Ouch, makes my spill that resultyed in some ripped bar tape, an a hand sized grze pale in comparison. Maybe I ought to take up something less dangerous, like basket weaving fer'instance...

tyskie

I just cannot wait to get back on a bike (it's my family who are a bit apprehensive about me doing so). When I've got enough rotation back in my knee (and subject to the Orthapedic Surgeon giving me the nod), my other bike is going on the Tacx trainer and I'll be cycling indoors. Hopefully should be back on the road within 5-6 months as the femur should be fully healed by then and I'll have enough strength back in my legs.

vermooten

Never broken a bone in my life til I started cycling - then twice in 3 months.

Alex_Simmons/RST: how on earth did you come to have such a dreadful accident?

overmars

About three weeks ago... knocked off, fractured skull. Stayed in hospital three days to make sure it didn't worsen.

Back on bike (the other might as well be written off).

Second time I've been knocked unconscious and woken up in hospital in five years. Everyone I know and don't know thinks I'm very lucky... also most of them want me to stop riding.



EDIT: Should also say that one of the main reasons I'm still riding is from reading people who have been hurt yet continue.

chrisjsmith

Some people have all the luck.

Drain cover last Sunday: http://chrisjsmith.me.uk/images/ouch3.jpg

I've got purple toes at the moment - fun!

Alex_Simmons/RST

vermooten wrote:

Never broken a bone in my life til I started cycling - then twice in 3 months.

Alex_Simmons/RST: how on earth did you come to have such a dreadful accident?

I hit a boomgate. I described it here:
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... pened.html

I have since learned it's not the first time this has happened to a cyclist, several others have also hit it but fortunately none suffered the level of injury I did.

McBain_v1

Jesus wept Alex :shock:

Makes my scarred elbow look utterly pitiful in comparison (which it is :oops: )

redddraggon

-Bruised and battered leg and 3 inch long cut, and sprained shoulder
-Multiple cuts and scrapes from clipless falls

I've had a real bad looking accident which I got up and walked away from with little damage to myself after flying through the air 10m after going over a car's bonnet.

(I can't say the same for rugby though, a rather tame looking tackle (me hooker, opponent little winger), next thing I remember waking up seconds later unable to move. I thought I was paralysed, thankfully my mate's father was there and thankfully he was a surgeon, so it was decided that I had hadn't broken my neck/back. Six months later though, stiff neck and barely usable right arm, but I started playing rugby again. 3 years on, I still have problems and have lost most of the fitness I had when It happened, hence taking up cycling and retiring from rugby for awhile)

Clever Pun

sh!t me that's fu<king nasty Alex

My worst was traveling along around 20mph and drifted left to take a right hand corner at speed, there was a ridge and somehow I managed to flip the bike over me in a forward cartwheel motion I managed to use my arm as leverage then the handlebar caught most of the brunt and bent down 45 degrees... eventually I'm lying there thinking WTF just happened and still clipped in somehow. got up and then it started to hurt, just bruising luckily, but I took the bike home very slowly and spent the day in bed feeling sorry for myself.

Most embarrassing was 20 mph into the canal and coming out looking like the swamp thing, horrible green stuff all over me :x

flattythehurdler

F@cks sake, I'm getting a cab home. Wishing all of you the very best. :shock:

genki

peddling_pilgrim wrote:

For me... I went over the handlebars at a high rate of speed and acquired a third degree AC shoulder separation from hitting the tarmac (my ligaments are completely shot). The front wheel broke into a array of pieces, the carbon frame ripped open in multiple places at the headset, my seat came off the rails, and my helmet cracked.

I was concerned about picking up the pieces of my bike first, then I noticed the pain/lump in my shoulder.

Same AC injury for me, together with fractured elbow, bith common biking injuries. It was the 2nd time over the handlebars in a row for me racing at Chertsey, both on lap 13 :roll:, both times because several riders right in front of me went down :evil: . The first time I cracked my frame, wrote-off the back wheel and walked away intact after the hitting the tarmac at 30mph. The second time, at a more sedentary 25mph, apart from a cracked helmet, the bike was fine but I took the knocks.

Are you going for surgery peddling pilgrim? Mine's still a problem and I'm getting some new ligament put in later this month.

tardington

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Sometimes my hair looks funny when I take my helmet off.

Should I start cycling on the motorway to keep up with you guys?

Richrd2205

Some of you guys have had some nasty offs!!
My worst was earlier this year when my back wheel lost all grip on a corner at about 20mph & I fractured my scaphoid bone breaking the fall. Oh & I now have osteo-arthritis & can't see myself being able to use drop handlebars in the forseeable future...
To balance this though, being off-bike for 4 months made me appreciate how much I love cycling & I'm as fit now, 3 months back on bike, as I have been & being both more serious & applied in getting fitter. As well as enjoying it a whole lot more....
It's also opened up the wonderful world of recumbent bikes to me, but that's another story!
Whilst I wouldn't wish it on anyone & hate the pain I still have in my left wrist, the benefits have outweighed the costs for me.

DavidBelcher

Worst injury to date - June 2006. Misjudged a bend near Burley Woodhead after coming up from Ilkley via the Cow & Calf, hitting a dry stone wall at around 25mph. Glasses took a fair bit of the impact (odd as that may seem), such that the left lens gouged into my face just below the eye socket (a lucky escape, on reflection, since I still have full use of both eyes), leaving me with a scar to prove it. Various cuts and grazes, a huge black eye, slight concussion, plus a mystery hole in my left thigh - possibly where the front lamp bracket sliced into my leg - which took a long while to heal but still left its mark as that part of my leg has the appearance of having a small piece scooped out! Had to wait the best part of 40 mins for an ambulance to arrive all the way from Bradford (ambulance station just down the road at Menston had no free vehicles!) and cart me and my bike off to Airedale General Hospital. Some extremely kind motorists stayed with me in the meantime and helped clean me up a bit. No major damage to the bike itself bar a ruined saddle (which only cost a fiver in the first place), since I took the brunt of the collision. Eventually allowed back on the bike by the GP after 8 weeks or so, thereby missing out on some quality summer miles

David

Cunobelin

#Skull
#Clavicle
#Ribs
#Pelvis

Somehow I think I shouldn't apply as a promoter of the "Cycling is a Healthy activity" campaign.

However the Pelvis did give me an ideal excuse to buy my first Recumbent!

vermooten

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

I hit a boomgate. I described it here:
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... pened.html

Wow...

What's shocked me is that a moment's very bad luck had such out-of-proportion consequences, and it's amazing, having had a quick scan of your blog, that you seem to have no concept of self-pity. Awesome. I hope your return to the bike won't be too long now. The blog's on my feed reader now so I'll be watching!

Mark Alexander

that repeatedly bruised pride is about it. quite pathetic since I've been dubbed the flying Alexander.......

peddling_pilgrim

genki wrote:

Same AC injury for me, together with fractured elbow, bith common biking injuries. It was the 2nd time over the handlebars in a row for me racing at Chertsey, both on lap 13 :roll:, both times because several riders right in front of me went down :evil: . The first time I cracked my frame, wrote-off the back wheel and walked away intact after the hitting the tarmac at 30mph. The second time, at a more sedentary 25mph, apart from a cracked helmet, the bike was fine but I took the knocks.

Are you going for surgery peddling pilgrim? Mine's still a problem and I'm getting some new ligament put in later this month.

Mine hasn't really been a problem, besides the initial month of intense pain and the psychological mess of realizing that a part of your body is not where it used to be, and those slightly deformed feelings!

Anyway the ER doc, and my doc did not recommend surgery, as that would just increase the time that it takes to heal, and would be cosmetic in my case. I did some phys therapy, stretching and resistance exercises, and now I'm starting to be able to lift some light weights and do push ups again. I guess if I had to do heavy lifting, or it was my dominant arm, or I was involved in a contact sport I might think differently. I'm just concerned about arthritis developing later on.

Alex_Simmons/RST

vermooten wrote:

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

I hit a boomgate. I described it here:
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... pened.html

Wow...

What's shocked me is that a moment's very bad luck had such out-of-proportion consequences, and it's amazing, having had a quick scan of your blog, that you seem to have no concept of self-pity. Awesome. I hope your return to the bike won't be too long now. The blog's on my feed reader now so I'll be watching!

Thanks. I'll have another entry in a few days about progress - I've migrated to using one crutch. Tomorrow is three weeks with my first prosthetic. Spent today back at the hospital for more scans, hopefully to finally give me the all clear on the infection front.

term1te

I intended to shift to a much longer gear, stood up on the pedal in anticipation, and for some unknown reason shifted to a nice short one. No resistance on the pedal so off I came. One mashed knee. My mother collected me and took me to the local A&E. Feeling rather faint in a hospital cubical I heard the nurse say to the arriving doctor, „he’s lost a lot of blood, he’s O negative, should I get some sent down?“ doctor, „I wouldn’t bother, it’ll only come out again.“ The scar was an almost exact map of Cyprus, until I fell off a wall, but that had nothing to do with a bike. The skin was so thin on my knee for about a year after that, that I couldn’t ride a bike with any type of longs on. After about 10 minutes the friction would rub the skin off. Twenty years later, no problems

Nothing to some of you guys, for which I’m very grateful, but some inspiring stories.

V-twin

Being knocked off by a 60mph Mondeo in 2004 was nothing* compared with a bad landing on a kerb edge (left foot still clipped in) after cars ahead did emergency stop.

Landing on the kerb broke my left hip (I couldn’t figure out why my leg wouldn’t obey orders). 3 pins in the femur head and prayed that I wouldn’t lose blood supply to the head of the femur which = hip replacement. Pins out last year under general.)

Hip break prompted scan of bone density. Diagnosed with osteoporosis of the spine. So 3 monthly injections and continuous high calcium diet (with other consequences) and a great fear of falling/slippery streets.

Turbo trainer is main output but intend on hitting the Alps next year. (probably with any of the bones I have left).

Anybody else want to join “Team Denial”?




V-T



* I had 2 reliable witnesses for the car incident that even phoned up to see how I was, but the polis took an hour to reach me and decided to give the b****** half a day’s driving training and invited me to prosecute him privately – bike was written off; I have permanently deformed right shoulder.)