So I broke my leg/ankle on the bike about a fortnight ago and the madness is setting in. I was just wondering who’s been through the same thing and how long it took you to be A, back on the bike in any way and B, back to 100%.

Got some good news for me?

I broke my ankle last April/May and I ride trials which gives your ankles a pretty good hammering and I was back doing a comp in the October.
Depends on your personal situation I’d say, I got an aircast after about a month I think which speeded up my recovery time as I could start slowly putting weight on my foot and building the muscles up early on. I started just using my crutches and doing the school run (only about 700m round trip) and slowly built up to put more weight on my foot. After a few weeks in the aircast and some longer trips to the supermarket which was just down the road I started walking with just my cast and no crutches and towards my 3 month review I started walking on the lawn without my cast on. When I went for my review at 3 months the doctor was very impressed with my progression and had no problem taking the cast away as my muscles had developed well with the exercise.
One thing I would suggest is when you start riding get an aircast ankle support, the kind Andy Murray wears are the best and really help hold your ankle straight.

Just a thought, whereabouts and how bad is the break?
I fractured my fibula, right foot at the bottom of the pedal stroke and front wheel washed out to the left so I just went sideways straight onto my foot.
In the middle of a blizzard.
At 7am on a Sunday morning.
On a closed road with no phone signal…..

I did my ankle on Feb 7th, a few chips to the bone floating round and a lot of soft tissue damage with some ligament shredding. It still swells up like a mother f_cker, it sits off to one side as the ligaments on the left side of my ankle are really thin. I reckon it’ll be 6 months before it’s back to full stability and I doubt I’ll ever recover the full range of motion i had before.

Welcome to being old……

was 14 years ago so was a lot younger and fitter when I did this- was 6 months till back doing light runs and on the bike and about 9 till I was properly fit again. Then three months after that did something similar to my left ankle..

Depends what you did, the missus did hers (just in the ankle) and was pinned/plated and in a cast for 6 weeks. Back on the bike in 3 months with some discomfort around the metal work.

Depends what you did.

+1.

Too many variables to be able to offer any real insight.

There are ‘broken ankles’ and there are ‘broken ankles’. Some are a brief hiccup, others are life changing.

Pretty much what isitafox did, a lot of metalwork but I’m hopeful. I ride trials alongside xc/trail/road stuff but I think that’s it for trials for me now, it’s a shame but I just can’t chance it for my secondary sport. Thanks for the air cast advice will look into that right now.

This is the one I bought Aircast Airsport, used it for a few months then dropped it so my ankle didn’t become dependant but I still have it just in case

I broke my hip on Feb 16th this year. Was back at work in 8 weeks, and back road riding at ten weeks.
Now 3 months after and still limping and in some pain but i managed a 50 mile ride this weekend @16.4 ave.I am struggling with the hills as i am way down on power on my bad leg…….the Doc said that it will take up to a year to be back to how i was.

Broke my tibia at Brechfa in 2009. 3 months non weight bearing then physio for another 3. Back on the bike (very gently) after about 5 months. The main problem was muscle wasting after being on crutches but that comes back quite quickly. Walked with a limp for about another 2 months, but that eventually went.
My only advice is do everything, and I mean everything the physio tells you to do to the letter. It can seem like a pain doing all the exercises but they really do work. I guess it was a year before I felt I was back to how I was before the accident. Oh and go back to where it happened and ride it again – helped me get my confidence back, however It’s not something I would ever want to go through again, so a lot more careful these days.

Thanks argonaut, sound advice. Definitely agree with feeling more nervous, unfortunately I was racing on a circuit which is a not normally there and b not open to the public. I’m just going to do everything I can to get the strength back and just go steady on the bike.

Oh and I think I’ll sell my trials bike, that idea just scares me now.