Been riding/racing for 45 years. Started racing BMX at age 6 and progressed into racing Mountain Bikes in late 80’s / early 90’s and have since road / raced on and off. Used to do some road racing but no longer have a road bike. Just have a mountain bike and gravel bike.
Injury wise lots of crashes in BMX but only injuries were broken arm and concussion racing. I also cracked my head and chin open messing around at home…kids didn’t wear helmets then. The cracked head at home was crazy as I have no idea what I did and no one saw it. I picked my bike up and walked home. The only thing I remember is leaving the house and then waking up on the couch with blood everywhere…and then stiches.
Mountain biking broken collar bone in 2005.
Otherwise, last year I had a bad crash on the gravel bike and destroyed my helmet but no injuries. I partially attribute that to carrying more muscle now on my upper body from lifting compared to most cyclist and being much more durable. I was surprised I didn’t mess up my shoulder as my head and shoulder took the brunt of crash.
Well MTB may in some ways be more dangerous demanding more ridding skills but overrall on a MTB the safety depends mostly on the rider while on the road in large bunches its scary and even a small toutch between two guys can send dozens to the asphalt so safety there is also much dependent on other riders behaviour.
45 next month so 40ish years, the injuries go back that far. Didn’t ride much late teens to late 20s.
Currently race triathlon, for fun road and gravel. Raced BMX and MTB in my teens, and around 28ish I got back into MTBing for a year or two.
6ish? tried a ramp for the first time, handle bar to the gut, thankfully no long term injuries. But put me off ramps for a while, not long enough as you’ll see below.
13-14ish range first major concussion (second was snowboarding at 15ish and put me into the ER). We were having a who can do the jump the slowest competition at a friends farm. The family also owned an excavating company so they had lots of dirt and equipment… Managed to ride the mile+ home and get on the bus for a swim meet, made the wise (probably just lazy at the time)
choice to not compete.
Similar age flat pedal to shin, down to bone doing 1 footers, stitches. still majorly visible 30 years later and very sensitive area.
I don’t think I had any real injuries when I switched from BMX to MTB at that age. But a few friends broke collar bones, one lost an eye! So I am lucky to have come out of that phase unscathed.
24ish? college friend I then worked with was going to an indoor skate park. I had built a street bike (bmx/20") I didn’t use much so went along with him. First ramp brain didn’t work and didn’t drop in right, landed right on my right shoulder and head. Partial dislocation and probably minor concussion.
That has been my worst lifetime nagging injury even now 20 years later. As long as I am swimming or working out and the muscles stay strong I don’t seem to have too much issue. But there are situations where it will start to pop out. squat down reach forward/down for something like to put a lift arm under a car and I can feel it getting iffy.
Started BMX at age 4, so 33 years of BMX, MTB, road, cross and some tri with a break in there for college… Only real injury in BMX was a green stick fracture to my ulna.
Adultish:
Junior high - hit a tree on MTB, resulted in 12 stiches reattaching my lower lip to jaw inside, plenty of road rash, liquid diet for a couple weeks, wasn’t fun
high school, ulnar styloid while MTBing. Never saw medical for it, just rolled with it.
Adult:
Ran into the side of a truck that ran a red, while I was going about 30mph on my road bike, injuries as follows, ulnar styloid fracture, seized ac joint, full rupture of ACL, popliteus and LCL, shattered proximal head of fibula. 5 weeks from injury to surgery, 6 weeks non weight bearing after surgery, that one messed up the body pretty good
Lots of road rash from MTB crashes, but no really injuries, just plenty of scars.
Dumped it off the back of a BMX bike doing a manual and munched my right elbow, must have chipped it, because it hurts like an SOB when I hit it just right.
Been riding for about 42 years. Serious about road for 25 but also mix in some MTB.
I’ve had one serious crash in all that time where I hit a guardrail that resulted in a broken scapula. It was caused by a combination of too much speed into an unknown corner on slightly wet/oily roads. In fully dry or fully wet conditions, I would have made it through but since it had just started raining after not raining for weeks, the road had that slight oily film we all hate.
Recovery was about six weeks until I was comfortable on the bike and ready to push training again. No surgery was needed thankfully so I started short 10 minute sessions using one hand after about two weeks. The only lingering effect several years later is that I have to change bar position for squatting. Minor inconvenience.
This would have been 1995 I think? worked at a bike shop and a resort that was opening to bikes was giving shop employees free passes. The first time I ever rode my hardtail trek 7000, with probably a manitou 3 off road was at this place a weekish before the incident. I had gone up with one of the kids my age and the manager, all on ill equipped hardtails for this type of downhill. We were blowing tubes left and right riding our rim brakes down.
Another group went up, same deal 2 that couldn’t drive along with one of the guys in college who could, he was the one injured. I believe someone had stopped for a blown tube and the other guy came down and crashed into them. Since we were all really just XC riders everyone had bar ends, will leave it at that.
I haven‘t been cycling that long, two major accidents. One with broken collarbone and one with broken finger and brunt skin at my knees (quite painfull).
All these injuries from the forum members makes me think about the risk of cycling. I had two very close passes with cars last summer (driver error) and it has started some processes in me. I‘m not even that old, but I train more and more inside on the trainer.
I am 54, I started riding in club at the age of 8.
Road, track, Cyclo-cross and after MTB.
I remember one cycle cross start where I felt and people rode over me, I remember ending in the hospital with nothing…
The only major accident was in MTB, left pedal hit an hidden root… I was catapulted and graciously landed on my right shoulder…
No bone broken but AC-joint out. That was my last MTB ride because I can handle shock and I have no more strength in my right shoulder, so I went back on my first love, road.
I guess I am lucky.
Stef
I ride mtb, gravel and I used to ride road. I was pretty lucky up until 5 years ago.
Fall of 2020 crashed in Enduro Race, broke the end of collarbone off and severely separated my shoulder. Required surgery to reattach ligaments, and plate the collarbone together. All of the metal had to be removed 6 months later as it was just there to put things back together and severely limited my range of motion to maybe 30% the normal range. Have pretty much all of the range back now but shoulder is never going to feel the same.
August of 2022 I snapped my femur like a twig overshooting a jump at a bike park. My lower femur was forming a right angle with my upper femur when I finally got my wits about me. I had to drag myself off the trail and watched my leg straighten itself out as I shuffled my butt backwards off the trail using my arms. I spent 5 days in hospital and had an intermedullary nail, not sure of spelling, inserted through my femur. It later turned out that the nail was a bit too short, I am fairly tall, 6’1". This put extra strain on the nail and the screws holding it in place above the knee broke. That required another surgery to remove the broken hardware and have a new nail installed. After that for some reason the doctors had a very hard time getting the bones close enough together to start healing. Almost 10 months later I had the bottom screws removed to see if that would let the bones come together and finally heal. I still haven’t mountain biked since but I am now really starting to feel a lot closer to being ready to ride mtb again. I was able to ride gravel on easy stuff last summer and I am training again on Trainerroad again now so I can start the spring out with a bit of fitness.
Cycling since 1985 (yes, I’m that old). Tri’s, some USCF back in the day (when it was USCF), a little cx, lot of gravel recently.
First bad crash was 1988. Out for a quick ride after coming home from college for Christmas break. Back then we usually only wore helmets when they were required in races. I’m doing 20+ in a residential area, dog blindsides my front wheel. I endo, break the fall with my face and don’t remember much more until someone took me back to my parents house. Trip to the ER to scrub out 17 sections of road rash (I must have tumbled/cartwheeled, cause it was head-to-toe). No recovery protocols back then. Nothing was broken, so I was back on the bike in a week (with a helmet ever since).
Had a nice long No Crash spell until last April, crashed on a high speed descent in a gravel race, controlled it til the last second, then front wheel went into a ditch and I tipped over still clipped in, stuck my hand out like a newbie. Distal radius fx. Plates and screws. Put tri bar skis on the trainer and was riding 10 days after (running sooner, but with my arm up in the air). 2 months before I could go back to work…treating patients in a PT clinic. Yes, the patients gave me a load of (well deserved) grief. Shifting small ring to big was the hardest part coming back, esp on an older cx/gravel bike.
Two broken ribs - one all the way clean through and a collapsed lung… 4 nights in the hospital as a result.
There was a technical downhill, nailed it, followed by a small wooden bridge at the bottom. Back tire slid out on the damp bridge, chest and ribs crashed directly into forearm/handlebars. I struggled finished the ride and couldn’t lift my bike back onto the roof rack when done. I wanted to “sleep it off” but my wife said we are going to the hospital. Good thing we did!
15 years riding
Road Bike
Collarbone fracture + Surgery, came back after a few weeks and then broke my hand on first ride back. Both accidents, both on descents and both my fault !
You can still be the faulty one to provoque a bunch fall on the road by for me I feel safer depending more on my own inspite my 4 ribs and broken elbow so far that are only me to blame.
I feel you mate. Im doing 80 to 90% of my ridding indoor because I feel more and more unsafe ridding outdoors on the roads. People are every day more crazy and dont respect each other a bike rider on the road is seen even less important than a dog or a cat. My outside rides are mainly on MTB but I love some group road rides and will keep on doing them from time to time but much less now than in the last years thats for sure.
Gosh thats all looks like very bad luck man. What a long period with all those accidents.
2023 for me was my darkest year ever on ridding bikes. Cant explain why but I crashed in almost every MTB race I did that year from january til juin when I got the broken elbow.
Nothing too severe before the elbow but had some weird and unusual crashes and in one even broke my helmet.
In total on those 6 months I think I must have crashed more than in all my mtb ridding carrear since 2005.
Ouch coming back that way is something to never forgett. I remember coming back from the broken elbow and beeing afraid to fall down again even at slow speed to that side.
