mountain biking is dangerous

rhyko7

Recently i have started riding more gnarly stuff and it’s so rewarding when you hit things right, it’s a feeling that is hard to beat, as your riding becomes a rhythm.

When all is going well and you’re on it, you start to feel invincible, each corner you take quicker and quicker, you start flicking off drops and making shapes with the bike off jumps. You become more and more confident and almost cocky, the thought of crashing doesn’t even enter your mind, why would it when your riding so well?

I have had this feeling but recently it has not being going that way, it’s been a summer of bad luck so far. Starting with a crash in Spain, riding DH, off was due to in my opinion, to poor trail marking, this crash results in a KO & a badly sprained wrist.
See start of video-scroll to bottom of page:

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/rough-guide-fenasosa-bike-park.html

Next I learn a valuable lesson not to ride injured:
I started back on the HT doing road rides after a month off exercise letting my wrist heal. These road rides quickly became xc rides which became more and more aggressive and gnarly terrain even though my wrist was no where healed. I assumed so long as I wore my 661 wrist brace and didn’t crash everything would be fine. So ignoring the pain I felt under bumps, braking and any drops I continued to ride harder and harder each ride, even though I had to grip the handlebars much lighter and at a different angle to accommodate for wrist pain, I thought everything was fine. Well for a couple weeks it was,

I went off a small drop and my injured wrist gave way and I was lazily thrown up over the side of the bike, as I was falling down I made a conscious decision to pull my injured wrist in so I didn’t fall on it, this meant me taking the weight partially on the top of my head and my forearm, as my forearm scraped along the floor I felt a weird sensation through my skin. It was only a soft fall really so I got up calmly before looking down at my arm and seeing my worst nightmare, a big hole with blood spurting out.

This happened
:


So what have I learnt, and what do I want to pass on?

1) Riding injured aint brave or cool, its risky, so if you injured take it easy!
2) Don’t ride alone, luckily I wasn’t, not sure how I would have dealt with the situation alone, especially as my mate tied his top around my wound very tightly, not sure how much blood I would have lost.
3) Don’t go hammering down trails you don’t know, or feel like you have to keep up with the guys in front (I had not ridden the track before and was following riders who are more skilled than me)
4) Elbow pads aren’t gay, if I had elbow pads on this injury may not have occurred.
5) Helmets are essential-imagine this was your head?
6) Always take a phone, you really want the laughing gas/morphine asap when this happens so that instant 999 call is essential.
7) Don’t ride with me-I think ive become accident prone

Anonymous

blimey, thats a superb looking graze you have there, hope it gets better soon!!

Chronicbint

Ouch :shock: what the hell did you catch your arm on!

Anonymous

ouch!

supersonic

I totally shat myself yesterday when out riding. Was bombing down this heavily rutted and loose surface when suddenly I saw a hidden rut at the last second. Must have been doing 25mph. On the old Zaskar I would have been over the bars and looking for the pearly white gates, but on this the fork just sucked it straight up.

rhyko7

why has the image been removed-i scaled it down nice n small?
i have no idea what i cut it on, my mate reckons a log, but i like to think it was either rock or metal
full size image:
http://img208.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=13235_DSC00188_122_124lo.JPG

Anonymous

You mean hard rock, or heavy metal?
yeah, that would do it.

supersonic

I clicked on the link and got a porn pop up lol.

Horrific injury though.

Anonymous

For anyone wanting to share pictures, if you already have a hotmail/msn/live (or even xbox lice account I think) account, you can use the free skydrive service
skydrive.live.com

Jay dubbleU

Yes it is

scotto

tips 1-6 very good, though tip 7 surely refers to tip 1? :-)

hope you get better soon.

rhyko7

scotto wrote:

tips 1-6 very good, though tip 7 surely refers to tip 1? :-)

hope you get better soon.

very true, i find it too hard to take it easy, i think a switch flicks as soon as i get on a moving bike. hopefully i will remember this valuable lesson tho

Davy-g

crikey!!!!!! and here was me feeling sorry for myself cos i broke a couple of ribs after a bad landing and the handlebar end went into my ribs... i was grateful for my buddies being there at the time.. though they rushed to check my bike was OK before they checked me..

wish you a speedy recover bud.... and yer right.. limb protection is not gay..

butcher of bakersfield

That's proper horror movie stuff! Gnarly.

For some reason though, I don't mind stuff like that, but I can't look at broken bones.

Seriously though, it looks like it's going to take a while, but get well sooner rather than later.

TowerRider

Always carry Steri-Strips with you, two should fix that tiny cut

OUCH. I always ride alone. If I were riding with mates I think I would ride harder....

jay12

"mountain biking is dangerous" no sh!t sherlock

thats looks nasty :shock:

Macster1

Makes you wanna go out and buy a helmet :roll:

The Northern Monkey

MTFU you big girl.... tis but a scratch!


Get well soon!

Matt the Tester

The Northern Monkey wrote:

MTFU you big girl.... tis but a scratch!


Get well soon!

hehe

northern monkeys you don't happen to play on xbox 360 do you?? your name is familier?

GHill

Oooooh that's a good un. Hope you have a speedy and full recovery.

Might be worth sending the pic to MBR for their monthly gore show? You might win something.

captainfly

Not riding because of a sprain?? b*gger that I'd never be able to ride

Red Route

That's why I prefer natural trails, less chance of landing on a tree stump & usualy more room to avoid tricky obstacles & take it easy.
Were you on at a Trail Centre?
Looks horrible, get well soon!

homers_double

Meh, it'll buff out!

rhyko7

thanks for all the positive messages guys, im not gonna quote everyone to answer questions but her are a couple responses to comments:

it wasn't at a trail centre, trail is kinda natural with man made improvements, its probably best i dont mention where it was in case it raises huge health & safety issues and the track gets bulldosed again.

"Not riding because of a sprain?? b*gger that I'd never be able to ride Surprised"

-that kinda bugs me man, sprains can vary from slightly pulled ligaments to a full tear, i aint no big girls blowse dude, my wrist was bad, i couldnt brush my teeth after i did it for a couple weeks (was swolen like hell too) i still couldn't do a push up on it now, and i would't have had this crash. :twisted:
anyway my point is some prains are bad, i shoulda used the term torn ligaments as the doc said, it sounds more legit

thanks to all who say its nothing and im a big girl lol
nothing can prepare you for looking down at your own arm and seeing a chunk missing with cut tendons :?
photos to mbr you say-could be worth a go i guess

Greig M

supersonic wrote:

I clicked on the link and got a porn pop up lol.

Horrific injury though.

Same, I got some sort of webcam site.

cee

Greig M wrote:

supersonic wrote:

I clicked on the link and got a porn pop up lol.

Horrific injury though.

Same, I got some sort of webcam site.

All i got was some gory image of a guys arm with a chunk taken out of it! You wouldn't want that!

looks a belter no doubt...see if they can stitch skin back on and make a little pocket for carrying your keys or some jelly babies!

captainfly

rhyko7 wrote:

"Not riding because of a sprain?? b*gger that I'd never be able to ride Surprised"

-that kinda bugs me man, sprains can vary from slightly pulled ligaments to a full tear, i aint no big girls blowse dude, my wrist was bad, i couldnt brush my teeth after i did it for a couple weeks (was swolen like hell too) i still couldn't do a push up on it now, and i would't have had this crash. :twisted:
anyway my point is some prains are bad, i shoulda used the term torn ligaments as the doc said, it sounds more legit

It was about the advice of not riding when injured, what other people do is up to them, Winter brought me four avulsion fracture sprains in my hands and wrists and a broken finger, and I think my little finger on the left has a pretty serious spain at the moment (all free running not bike related) and forearm tendonitis in my right arm. It won't stop me riding. But like I said I always wear pads when riding, that cut is pretty bad but on the brighter side chicks dig scars

rhyko7

captainfly wrote:

rhyko7 wrote:

"Not riding because of a sprain?? b*gger that I'd never be able to ride Surprised"

-that kinda bugs me man, sprains can vary from slightly pulled ligaments to a full tear, i aint no big girls blowse dude, my wrist was bad, i couldnt brush my teeth after i did it for a couple weeks (was swolen like hell too) i still couldn't do a push up on it now, and i would't have had this crash. :twisted:
anyway my point is some prains are bad, i shoulda used the term torn ligaments as the doc said, it sounds more legit

It was about the advice of not riding when injured, what other people do is up to them, Winter brought me four avulsion fracture sprains in my hands and wrists and a broken finger, and I think my little finger on the left has a pretty serious spain at the moment (all free running not bike related) and forearm tendonitis in my right arm. It won't stop me riding. But like I said I always wear pads when riding, that cut is pretty bad but on the brighter side chicks dig scars

sorry dude i kinda interptetted your post as saying "man up,its just a sprrain you big girl"
it was fine for riding gentle xc, but i tried to do too much too soon, it should be healed by the time i get out of cast, but ive got horrible feeling ive knackerd my other wrist too, as it constandly throbs in casting.
im hoping for a decent scar lol, i just hope the surgery was succesful and i can ride an injury free indian summer

Boy Lard

I sprained my wrist about 4 weeks ago, (trying to learn to bunny hop properly, probably best not to ask) and I haven't been able to bowl since (I do a lot of 10 pin bowling). Every time I think it's getting a bit better I end up hittting a rock/stick/big puddle/small dog or something which tries to rip the handlebars out of my hands and it always hurts like hell. Even when I think I'll just have a gentle ride along the canal path I end up in the woods again anyway.

Are there any wrist supports that are actually going to help this? I've tried riding in weight lifting gloves (with the big straps around the wrist), and I also have a proper wrist support from the hospital (Dad had a fall and ended up with a similar injury), but as soon as I have to wrestle with, or pull up on the bars, bang, there it is again.

projectsome

on the plus side, that's a few grams off the riding

x-isle

All good coments, one thing to add and not a lot of people know this.

If you are dialling the emergency services from a mobile phone whilst out in the wilderness, use 112 and not 999.

112 is the European access number for the emergency services, when dialled from a mobile, although it goes through to the same contact centre, they are able to use triangulation to determine your approximate location.

Most importantly, if someone has a broken leg, don't waste time, just call out the professionals. A broken leg needs to be seen to ASAP due to the contracting muscles pulling the broken bone out of shape!

I can also strongly recommend that if you are doing a lot of wilderness riding, get yourself on a Outdoor Incident Management (first aid for outdoor activities) as you never know when you might need to use it!