Worst cycling injuries you've had so far ?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

I was out mountainbiking once just after clearing the track so i said id go test out one hill that we cleared while my friend stayed at the top to watch.
It was a wet day and the hill was pretty slippy, but not the worst ive been out on, so as i came down the hill, I felt the bike start to slide. I pulled the back brake and ever so lightly touched the front brake (in a moment of panic i guess) I came to the center of the hill where a log was laying half in the ground. I forgot to pop the front wheel, Went head first over the handlebars flipped twice in the air, landing on my shoulder with the bike on top of me. Had a pretty serious shoulder injury for 2-3 months after and nearly broke my collar bone.

Whats your worst cycling injury ?

Darkglasses

Never anything more serious than bruises, cuts and (eww) hemarrhoids.

Edit - actually when I was very young, about 7 or 8, I came off my bike on the bmx track in Marley park and slid on my neck on the gravel. Cut seemed to last for a year. Probably cried for that long too, twas awful sore. Looked cool though

Idleater

Bruises and some road rash from crashing at 55 kph in a race was the initial injuries, but the most annoying we're the damaged hip flexors that made footwork like driving a car, or transitioning from sitting to standing anything between problematic and painful.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Darkglasses wrote: »

Never anything more serious than bruises, cuts and (eww) hemarrhoids.

Ouch, cant image the pain ....

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Idleater wrote: »

Bruises and some road rash from crashing at 55 kph in a race was the initial injuries, but the most annoying we're the damaged hip flexors that made footwork like driving a car, or transitioning from sitting to standing anything between problematic and painful.

Racing crashes can be pretty serious from what ive heard

furiousox

2 separate incidents a few years apart.
The first one resulted in a broken shoulder, the second one in a broken wrist.
As my Mrs keeps reminding me, "three strikes and you're out".

sw33t_r3v3ng3

furiousox wrote: »

2 separate incidents a few years apart.
The first one resulted in a broken shoulder, the second one in a broken wrist.
As my Mrs keeps reminding me, "three strikes and you're out".

Haha probably sick of minding ya :P but hey tell her it makes ya more manly :P

Popoutman

Moderate concussion after slowing from about 35kph to zero against a tree rootball in BallyHoura about four years ago. I was hammering across the hillside on the way back to the trailhead along the open section with the tree stumps that need weaving around, then just after crossing the fireroad into what is now a long set of berms, I clipped a trail anchor with my left pedal putting me completely airborne into the outside of the bend and I came to a complete stop. Unconscious for a few moments, came to to see the wheel still spinning on the bike, helmet shattered and feeling a bit bruised. After a few moments to check myself for anything obviously broken or cut, I freewheeled the bike to the trailhead as the crank was bent inwards.
Results of the impact were bruises on my nose and temple from the glasses being hit on the side. A bruised arm, elbow and forearm, bruised hip, and bruised thigh. The helmet was in 6 pieces. The doc in the Galway Medical Centre suggested I take a few days off work as I was slurring my words and having some hand-eye coordination difficulties and this was 36 hours afterwards..
The overall lack of serious injury from this suggests that being of muscular build is a good thing for being able to withstand heavy impacts.

Other than that interesting crash, I've escaped with only shinrash from pedals, general road rash or gravel rash or SPD-related bruising. I've been somewhat lucky I think given the impacts I've had and the injuries received..

Zyzz

Cracked my head off a kerb, ruined my helmet but not my oakleys!




Wait until Beasty posts..

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Popoutman wrote: »

Moderate concussion after slowing from about 35kph to zero against a tree rootball in BallyHoura about four years ago. I was hammering across the hillside on the way back to the trailhead along the open section with the tree stumps that need weaving around, then just after crossing the fireroad into what is now a long set of berms, I clipped a trail anchor with my left pedal putting me completely airborne into the outside of the bend and I came to a complete stop. Unconscious for a few moments, came to to see the wheel still spinning on the bike, helmet shattered and feeling a bit bruised. After a few moments to check myself for anything obviously broken or cut, I freewheeled the bike to the trailhead as the crank was bent inwards.
Results of the impact were bruises on my nose and temple from the glasses being hit on the side. A bruised arm, elbow and forearm, bruised hip, and bruised thigh. The helmet was in 6 pieces. The doc in the Galway Medical Centre suggested I take a few days off work as I was slurring my words and having some hand-eye coordination difficulties and this was 36 hours afterwards..
The overall lack of serious injury from this suggests that being of muscular build is a good thing for being able to withstand heavy impacts.

Other than that interesting crash, I've escaped with only shinrash from pedals, general road rash or gravel rash or SPD-related bruising. I've been somewhat lucky I think given the impacts I've had and the injuries received..

Woah !! Thought i was bad, I dont even come close to this

Beasty

Broken wrist falling in ice a few years ago, but I the worst was this:

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/BeastyofNCD/preop.jpg

That was before the skin graft ...

... this one was after:

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/BeastyofNCD/postop.jpg

I won't embed in case anyone's squeamish:pac:

Had concussion, lots more road rash and 4 days in hospital as a result

Carpenter

Broken pelvis,road rash, bruises,cuts and now held together with 2 big screws .

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Beasty wrote: »

Broken wrist falling in ice a few years ago, but I the worst was this:

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/BeastyofNCD/preop.jpg

That was before the skin graft ...

... this one was after:

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/BeastyofNCD/postop.jpg

I won't embed in case anyone's squeamish:pac:

Had concussion, lots more road rash and 4 days in hospital as a result

I thought things like that only happpened in extreme sports :O

Zyzz

Beasty wrote: »

Broken wrist falling in ice a few years ago, but I the worst was this:

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/BeastyofNCD/preop.jpg

That was before the skin graft ...

... this one was after:

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/BeastyofNCD/postop.jpg

I won't embed in case anyone's squeamish:pac:

Had concussion, lots more road rash and 4 days in hospital as a result

Beasty

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

I thought things like that only happpened in extreme sports :O

It was on a commute with no other vehicle involved, hence my contributions to this thread

eoghan84

Carpenter wrote: »

Broken pelvis,road rash, bruises,cuts and now held together with 2 big screws .

that was the same weekend in November I fractured the collarbone wasnt it, how is it now carpenter?

robertxxx

I know of a guy who was out on a spin with a few friends (luckily) and he hit gravel on a bend and tried to jump off his bike and over a roadside barrier all in one go only to catch his wrist/forearm in a piece of the metal barrier, sadly he lost his arm from below the elbow, it was ripped from him in the crash, his mates saved him from bleeding to death and they said he wasn't even speeding.

How sad.

Carpenter

eoghan84 wrote: »

that was the same weekend in November I fractured the collarbone wasnt it, how is it now carpenter?

Top class and thank you for asking they did a fine job and to tell the through I feel better on the bike than walking for a few miles hows the collarbone just in after 60k and its like I never went out fresh as can be .

RobFowl

Old one but was brought down in a bunch sprint. Had half my nose ripped off, lost 1/3 or my upper lip, a 2cm chunk out of my chin and similar at the bridge of my nose. Lost 5 teeth and cracked numerous others. Broke my left elbow and a finger as well as various bruises. Also concussed and was unconscious for 45 mins.
12 operations over the next 18 months using grafts from my thigh and a one graft and thanks to the excellent staff at St James hospital have no real residual effects apart from scarring and a few aches and pains.

Am not an advocate for compulsory helmet wearing but in this incidence am convinced it saved my life or at least prevented brain damage.

Broke a few spokes and rear mech , scuffed gear levels and tore off rear mech hanger too.

On the bright side did get a sympathy shag once I got home from hospital and have a 7 yr old as a result who was worth any amount of suffering....

OldBean

Fractured an elbow, lost a lot of skin, had about half a roads worth of gravel under the skin on my eg, ruined a brand new Barber jacket, shirt and trousers...

...Came off the bike on a dodgy speedbump at a hefty 8kph....

Wishbone Ash

2 broken ribs and a broken collarbone caused by t-boning a car at 40km/h in October 2012.

(Sneezing with broken ribs has to be one of the worst pains possible!)

pelevin

Cold hands.

billyhead

Broken Pelvis in once incident. Burst nose in another crash along with road rash, cuts, scrapes etc . Faired a lot better then some of you guys

whupdedo

A car pulled out of a stop sign just as I was coming down a hill ,i went straight into the side of it over the top and down hard against the road, i came away with a broken ankle, wrist,7 stitches and severe road burns up to my elbows and some mild concussion, that wasn't too bad but the place where I got the stitches became infected with a thing called cellulitis ,which is not a pleasant experience I can tell you

billyhead

whupdedo wrote: »

A car pulled out of a stop sign just as I was coming down a hill ,i went straight into the side of it over the top and down hard against the road, i came away with a broken ankle, wrist,7 stitches and severe road burns up to my elbows and some mild concussion, that wasn't too bad but the place where I got the stitches became infected with a thing called cellulitis ,which is not a pleasant experience I can tell you

Thats exactly what happened to me on one of my crashes. i flew over the front bonnet. Luckily nothing was broken just a burst nose, cuts, scrapes etc and a buckled front wheel

Unknown Soldier

Note to self: Don't come back to this thread.

Jawgap

Simultaneous broken collar bones! Came off on some ice and broke the left collar bone. Then got back on the bike a few days later got back on to go for an easy spin and came off on some diesel and broke the right one - spent 3 weeks sleeping on my back which was even worse than the breaks!

The only other injury of note was extensive road rash when I came off on some gravel coming down through Rathfarnham when I used my left arse cheek as a brake.

zing

This last Feb. 4 fractures to ball of humerus. Some minor scarring to face as well for good measure.

Wrecked front wheel and left shifter too.

Still no idea exactly what happened - reckon I'm probably better off not knowing..

Skrynesaver

Broken wrist, I got my hand down before my head hit the ground when T-Boned (car didn't see cycle lane and turned right as soon as there were no traffic.)

fractured eye socket and stitches to the head (cycle lane was not gritted when road was)

Not a fan of using "cycling infrastructure" sanymore

eeeee

Ouch some of the injuries above had me reading thins thread with a grimace and my hand over my mouth :eek:

I dislocated my shoulder coming off the bike on a patch of oil back in October, and put it back in myself and continued on for a swim and flicked it up royally!

About 7 years ago I got hit by a car 7 years ago, lost my memory for 2 weeks. Woke up in Vincents like why happened to me? How is it 10 o clock? !

Wishbone Ash

Jawgap wrote: »

Simultaneous broken collar bones! Came off on some ice and broke the left collar bone. Then got back on the bike a few days later got back on to go for an easy spin and came off on some diesel and broke the right one - spent 3 weeks sleeping on my back which was even worse than the breaks!

Didn't you break a pedal or crank or something a while back? Any injuries?

Jawgap wrote:

The only other injury of note was extensive road rash ....

Just thinking there that I have had about four spills in the past four years (disregarding 2 clipless incidents ) but all have been in winter when I've been wrapped up fairly well so no real road rash. I've never come down in shorts/short sleeves (well not since I was a child/teenager!)

daragh_

Collar bone, finger and epic road rash last September. Compared to some of the posts in this thread I've had it easy.

n-dawg

Last year... Broken Collar bone and 2 broken ribs (Came down hard in a race, 60 to 0 in less then a second according to the garmin). Ended up with quite a few nasty cuts too.

Other one also a racing crash 12 years ago, fractured my skull/eyesocket while using my face as a brake. Knocked out two teeth too. Luckily the first guy on the scene was a dentist and put my teeth back in (they survived amazingly). Needed surgery to get a bit of bone out from behind my eye and to reconstruct my eyelid. Had to spend a few days in hospital...

I had a few other knocks with a car turning right across a bus lane and a pedestrian walking out from behind a van but they were just a bit of road rash.

Cycling is a great sport altogether...

ustazjoseph

clipped the kerb on the Fossa straight - the flattest road in Kerry , came off , brought my mate down. I had a broken collar bone, it still hurts especially in the cold.

eeeee

As a matter of interest, how long did it take people who have broken ribs to sneeze/laugh without a care again? Currently nursing a couple of broken ribs from a non-cycling related accident. I am so lucky this year already!

outfox

Chr1st, half of you guys are lucky to be still alive.
Those of you who have had to get operations eg. Robfowl, did you have health insurance, or did you go through the public system? Does Cycling Ireland insurance have any relevance to medical cover?

Beasty

outfox wrote: »

Chr1st, half of you guys are lucky to be still alive.
Those of you who have had to get operations eg. Robfowl, did you have health insurance, or did you go through the public system? Does Cycling Ireland insurance have any relevance to medical cover?

Emergency admission for me although as soon as they got hold of my health insurance details they made sure it was charged over, despite the fact I received absolutely none of the usual "benefits" associated with private insurance. I was not a member of CI or the IVCA at the time, but they are not "health insurance" schemes as such - I'm pretty sure this sort of thing would require specific health cover (IVCA offers some compensation for personal injury, but I'm not so sure about CI - the main purpose of these insurances is, I think, to cover 3rd party claims)

This thread has reminded me - must update my will....

Jawgap

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Didn't you break a pedal or crank or something a while back? Any injuries?

Minor stuff - gashed and grazed knee and thigh - plus a perfect Garmin shaped bruise on my abdomen!! My wife reckoned I can't have it that hard as you couldn't see any numbers

Ripping my favourite shorts was the true tragedy.....

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Just thinking there that I have had about four spills in the past four years (disregarding 2 clipless incidents ) but all have been in winter when I've been wrapped up fairly well so no real road rash. I've never come down in shorts/short sleeves (well not since I was a child/teenager!)

The arse cheek versus gravel incident led to several tear filled sessions in a shower!! It also blew my confidence on descents for about a year.

Amprodude

I was clipped by a car mirror in 2012 and as a result went sideways and hit kerb before falling off. I came away with a few cuts but nothing serious.

Jawgap

outfox wrote: »

Chr1st, half of you guys are lucky to be still alive.
Those of you who have had to get operations eg. Robfowl, did you have health insurance, or did you go through the public system? Does Cycling Ireland insurance have any relevance to medical cover?

Doesn't matter what health insurance you have - if you come off in a serious way you're going to have to go through A&E.

The benefit of health insurance probably doesn't kick in until a bit later in the treatment / rehab process.

Re broken ribs: I broke a couple a few years while coaching rugby - took about 6 weeks to be properly right again - it might have been shorter if my kids didn't get such a sadistic thrill from making me laugh!

n-dawg

gadetra wrote: »

As a matter of interest, how long did it take people who have broken ribs to sneeze/laugh without a care again? Currently nursing a couple of broken ribs from a non-cycling related accident. I am so lucky this year already!

Mine weren't to bad... they weren't displaced but it was about 4 weeks before the pain started to subside.

outfox wrote: »

Chr1st, half of you guys are lucky to be still alive.
Those of you who have had to get operations eg. Robfowl, did you have health insurance, or did you go through the public system? Does Cycling Ireland insurance have any relevance to medical cover?

My skull fracture was an A&E admission. But health insurance covered some of the eye consultations after.

Broken collar bone was in the UK so NHS covered everything... although they didn't actually do anything.

wirelessdude01

So essentially the CI insurance is worthless for yourself if you require hospital visit?

Dancor

Turning left one day and didn't notice a pothole. Front wheel went side ways and I went over the bars.

Right wrist broken and still sore now and again almost 3 years later. Right elbow broken and left wrist sprained, both fully healed thankfully. I'm convinced that without my helmet I would be dead or cabbaged as it was cracked where my head landed.

Had such a psychological effect that I only start cycling again over a month ago and thankfully I'm loving it.

Beasty

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

So essentially the CI insurance is worthless for yourself if you require hospital visit?

Policy is here

It does cover medical expenses, but it's not going to be to "private" standard, and is unlikely to improve on what you would get under the State system (but that's not much different from the situaltion you would find with private health insurance if you find yourself in an A&E situation)

It also gives some compensation for specified injuries (similar to IVCA)

However it only applies when racing and training - so falling off your rollers may be covered, but falling off nipping down to the shops is unlikely to be

As I understand it though the main benefits are it gives worldwide cover (ie you should get treated in Health systems outside the State), and 3rd party cover, reducing your exposure to claims if you are at fault (and is required if you need a licence to race under the auspices of CI )

YellowFeather

Broken arm when a lovely driver came at me going the wrong way on the backroads. I had to swerve into the side, towards a wall, and that's all I remember. Left me with a nice scar where the bone had to be screwed back together and I'm lucky that was the worst of it.

Wishbone Ash

gadetra wrote: »

As a matter of interest, how long did it take people who have broken ribs to sneeze/laugh without a care again? Currently nursing a couple of broken ribs from a non-cycling related accident. I am so lucky this year already!

For me the worst was over after a week. I went back to driving after 2 days and recall getting in and out of the car and putting on seat belt being painful for a few days. Having to sleep on my back was also tough. I'd automatically turn over after falling asleep only to get a painful reminder again. I was back on the bike within three weeks with no real problems.

happytramp

Cause: Slipped on a wet twig while going 5kph

Result: Fell and cracked my hip on a rock. Broke my leg just below the hip bone.

-K2-

Broken collar bone after an almost head-on crash with a car which came around a bend on the wrong side of the road. This was several orders of magnitude less severe than my worst injury which was caused by a slow-speed skiing crash.

crosstownk

A fair few years ago I was heading down Rathgar Road for town on my way to work on my then prized road bike. I was in the bus lane approaching the Esso station at Rathmines. The traffic was heavy and a car going in my direction flashed to allow a car in the opposite direction enter the Esso station. This car crossed my path and I t-boned it smashing the windscreen with my head (no helmet) and badly grazing my left arm. I sat at the kerb for a few minutes and then carried onto work. No damage to the bike.

Lucky.

These days I wear a helmet.

calistro

Separated shoulder & broken ribs after tackling a steep descent of a hill in a Cyclocross race without the bike under me!!

Nice lump that still sticks out from the top of the shoulder, although usually gets me my own lane in a swimming pool when I exaggerate the lump by dropping the shoulder!!

eeeee

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

For me the worst was over after a week. I went back to driving after 2 days and recall getting in and out of the car and putting on seat belt being painful for a few days. Having to sleep on my back was also tough. I'd automatically turn over after falling asleep only to get a painful reminder again. I was back on the bike within three weeks with no real problems.

That's good to hear. Yeah the sleeping on the back is currently a massive pain in the ass! I got pneumonia from not breathing into the bottom of the lungs for a couple of weeks. Turning a corner now, hoping to be back on the bike this week. Or I will go mental!