On the plus side, it’s been two years since my last trip to A&E, so I can convince myself that I’m doing something different now and I may not have another bad crash again. But I could just be deluding myself!

I could have said that up till Sunday…. 😳

4 hrs in Minor Injuries to be sent Monday morning to GRI Plastics for clean out stitch up and skin graft – 12 hr wait and 45 min surgery. Sitting here working at home with arm in a sling – definitely re-evaluation time – 51 in February and I have to stop breaking myself…

I don’t need therapy, I just need to ride within my limits and stop being a fanny ! 🙂 (i had to say that before scotroutes and nobeer did 🙂 )

Yeah, thanks for that 🙂

You are right, it should be possible to ride within ones limits and at least bring the risk of injury down to an acceptable level. Not so easy to do in practice though.

Hope you feel better soon.

cheers 🙂 we need to get an stw ride up your way soon….

Now all I’m hearing is a list of injuries! 😉

Yep, do wear a degree of protection when riding – gloves, Bell Super 2R helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and some flimsy padded under-shorts. I wear all of that for general riding/trail centres. Of course none of that mitigates the chances of a broken collarbone or neck. But hopefully it staves off a fair bit.

Roverpig – yes, I know what you mean. Some people probably relish the little slips etc. I’m firmly in the other camp, like it sounds you are too!

I’m a bit ambivalent about body armour to be honest. I’ll wear a helmet. If nothing else it gives me somewhere to mount a light at this time of year 🙂 But dressing up like a stormtrooper just seemed to be another sign that I was expecting to crash. As you say, it wont stop a lot of injuries. In fact elbow and knee pads probably wouldn’t have helped with any of my trips to A&E and would just have been something else for the nurses to cut off.

I did go though a spell of wearing pads on every ride after those crashes and would still consider knee pads for a trail centre visit. But in general, donning the kit just made me feel as though I was about to do something dangerous, which made me question whether I wanted to do it at all. Now my mindset is that I’m just going for a ride, to enjoy the fresh air, scenery etc. It may happen that during the ride I decide to launch myself off some obstacle or see how fast I can go round a loose rocky corner. Maybe I’ll even get injured trying that. But that’s not my intention when I set out, so dressing as though it is doesn’t really make sense.

Not having the pads also gives me an excuse for not trying stuff. You know, I’m not being a wuss, I would try it if I had some pads on, but not today 🙂

You seem fixated on the risk of mountain biking. It can be risky, but there are factors that increase the risk, both likelihood and severity. Conversely you can mitigate some of these factors.

If you ‘push your boundries’ – you increase the liklihood of having to bail.
If you ride fast trails, you increase the severity of an incident.

Try find some trails that you can have fun on whilst riding slowly. Steep technical trails, like some in Leigh Woods and Blaise Castle feel scary, but if you are riding at walking pace, you’re have a much higher chance of being able to get off the bike in a safe way.

You going to start chanting, mattyfez? 😉

I was reflecting on the comments from the OP about “near misses” last night, just after my front wheel had slipped and nearly dumped me on my arse!

I seem to remember an interview with Missy Giove many years ago where she talked about her somewhat aggressive style on a bike. She was saying that quite often she’ll go through a run, and it’s only when she reached the bottom she’d start to realise the potential consequences of her 10m nose wheelie after dead-sailoring a jump at 30mph – at the time she just got through it and carried on.

I think this goes back to the mindgame of ‘what if’ – if you’re thinking of failing, you probably will. If you’re aware of the potential for misadventure but are confident in your abilities, that will carry you an awfully long way. It’s just getting back into the correct mindset.

Just. 😉

Couldn’t be bothered to read all the responses so apologies if this has been said..

Go for a load of nice scenic rides. And ride to get fitter for progression rather than faster on technical descents. Different take on the same sport for a while.

Try this: https://www.headspace.com

If you complete the 10 day trial I have a one month free trial voucher code you can have. The sport packs on focus and competition (basically flow) are really good for biking. Paraphrasing from the last session I did:

…”the idea of moving beyond thinking, moving beyond self-talk. The problem with thinking is that we never know what mindset we’re going to be in, or what kind of thoughts are going to excite us or bother us. Yet always, without fail there is this inner sense of stillness, of presence. When we let go of thinking it is always there. The body never performs well when it is under a lot of tension, a lot of stress, and that is governed by the mind. If the mind is in the right place, the body is in the right place. And if the body is operating at its best there will be a sense of ease, of flow.”

@Stevet1 sorry should have put some more context into it. We generally ride a lot of natural stuff which, by virtue of being natural is very changeable. So, one day to the next the difficulty level can vary massively – it’s Scotland.

The advice was given in the context of “I’m riding crap today, I can ride this stuff any other day, keep making stupid mistakes etc”. Point made was around giving yourself a break rather than beating yourself up all the time. Some days you’ll ride brilliantly, other days will be different. Maybe they’re the days to back off a wee bit. Actually the day I broke my leg was some of my best riding ever. I broke my leg on a bike path on the way back…. the guy who gave me the advice is a really ace trail builder, and great rider, who has also had some nasty injuries in recent years.

Backing off a wee bit will be different for different people. For some it’s not riding a particular bit that day, for other it’s go ride totally different trails, or just ride the same trails but concentrate on flow and technique rather than speed. The latter is generally what I do on an off day, strangely slow generally ends up being faster IME.

Thanks again for the interesting and useful responses. I suppose one thing that seems apparent though,is that even for those of you who take it relatively easy, or are in the right mindset of relaxing and enjoying it…still report a catalogue of severe injuries in recent years (I.e. more than cuts and bruises). Which makes me even more wary, especially as I’ve not had a crash in say the last 20 rides, which I’ve had since May 2015. Makes me think “OK even if I get my head right, and relax,I will crash at some point, and there’s a high chance I’ll end up at A&E with a broken bone”.

I think that there is a propensity for the people who have had crashes (me included) and got over at least some of their fears/issues/whatever to post in threads like this. The people who just ride, hit whatever features they want to hit and never have a knock are less likely to post in a thread like this.

If you get your head right and understand your skills then you are less likely to have a big crash. It could still happen, but then you could get run over crossing a road or you could have a car accident.

It sounds like a broken record on this forum, but a 1 to 1 session with Jedi would go some way to assist you, I’m sure.

I’m probably going to jinx myself here, but I’ve been steadily progressing my riding over the last couple of years – including an Alps trip, and recently moving from tabletops to 6′ gaps/doubles, and 3-4′ drop-offs – yet the last (and only) big crash I’ve ever had was over 2 1/2 years ago, and it only resulted in bruised ribs and gravel rash. Even that wasn’t due to attempting anything outside my comfort zone; freehub slipped during a full-bore sprint down a trail and pitched me over the bars.

I’m an extremely cautious rider and have worked my way up to my current level very slowly, by analysing every new thing I try in terms of how to ride it correctly in order to maximise my chances of success, and a bail-out plan for if it goes wrong. I accept that by upping my game I will probably have an off at some point, but I’m satisfied that by not blindly going gung-ho at stuff I’m unsure of, I can at least mitigate it somewhat.

If you think crashing is inevitable on bikes (it really isn’t!), you should try riding horses… 😉

. I suppose one thing that seems apparent though,is that even for those of you who take it relatively easy, or are in the right mindset of relaxing and enjoying it…still report a catalogue of severe injuries in recent years (I.e. more than cuts and bruises

I ride pretty hard, and do all the things you are worried about basically. I haven’t broken anything in 8 years. No bumps to the head either. Probably 10-20 ‘crashes’ in that time, but none that resulted in anything worse that a bruised knees, scraped arm etc.
I think if you’re new to the sport there may be an initial period where you are learning what is possible, and what you are capable of. Together with the fact that your probably not used to crashing meaning that you land badly resulting in greater chance of injury. After that, you learn to judge better what you are capable of, and also how to bail if it goes wrong.

I certainly have no intention of crashing..sod that. I’ve taken ages to get to the fitness level I have and I’m not gonna lose it all because I wanna go faster downhill than I’m capable if. I’m often the slowest downhill – doesn’t bother me. I’m still having a laugh and enjoying being pain free and healthy.

Not to sound all stalker-ish, but I’ve just had a trawl through your post history, and almost every thread you’ve started (whether about a new bike, riding, whatever) has something about crashing in the opening post – almost to the point where you seem obsessed with it, and it is your overwhelming view of mtb-ing.

Go see Jedi, get your base skills sorted/reset, and go get some proper professional sports psychology advice. Seriously. I don’t think you’ll move past this until you do.

I suppose one thing that seems apparent though,is that even for those of you who take it relatively easy, or are in the right mindset of relaxing and enjoying it…still report a catalogue of severe injuries in recent years (I.e. more than cuts and bruises).

I think I mentioned riding for fun, views etc and also reported three trips to A&E, but just to be clear, that was before I changed my mindset. I’ve admitted that I might be deluding myself, but I do think I’ve made a mental change that has significantly reduced my chance of injury.

Also, I hesitate to bring this up again, as suggesting a new bike as a cure for a mental problem is clearly ridiculous, but the fatbike thing is worth considering.

When I was posting very similar threads a few years back, somebody suggested that I get a fatbike. It was just a throw away line, half in jest, but it nagged away at me until I eventually cracked earlier this year and bought a fully rigid 5″ fatbike.

Now, to be clear, the fatbike was really a consequence of a mental shift that I’d already made, rather than a cause, but it does have a number of interesting advantages.

First, those huge tyres encourage you to explore different areas. Whether that be beaches or bogs, the point is you are riding to explore not to endlessly test your skill or nerve. That may only work in Scotland though, where you can pretty much ride anywhere that isn’t somebody’s garden.

Second, those huge tyres also give you a lot of confidence. Combined with modern trail geometry you suddenly find that you can ride (and more importantly enjoy) stuff that used to scare you.

Also, most people assume a rigid fatbike will be crap as a mountain bike, so you’ve got an instant excuse if you don’t want to ride something.

Finally, if you keep it rigid, the one thing it really is crap at is going fast over rough ground, so you have to slow down. That might annoy you eventually and either have you looking at suspension forks or send you back to your “proper” mountain bike, but it does mean that you are less likely to seriously injure yourself.

Just a thought.

For my headspace, what has helped is recognising that I don’t do a “sport,” I enjoy a “pastime” since I don’t race, and probably never will.

From that starting point, I don’t need to worry about whether I’m getting faster, better or gnarlier, or how much faster my mates might be (if I had any). Just whether it’s enjoyable – if something’s to gnarly for me to enjoy, I’ll ride something easier. There’s no rules, when I first got back in the saddle after many years away, most of my riding was towpaths and sustrans-type old railway trails. And you know what? They can be an enjoyable day out on the bike too (apart from all the bloody dog walkers).

Idiotdogbrain…yes fair point, I think I am a bit obsessed! I shall book a session with Jedi.

Roverpig- thanks for the recommendation. Would love to try a fat bike, although don’t really have the cash for one currently. Definitely want to test ride one to see what the fuss is about.

So not been out on the bike for two months. Am going to go for a nice ride tomorrow and enjoy it.

Not to sound all stalker-ish, but I’ve just had a trawl through your post history, and almost every thread you’ve started (whether about a new bike, riding, whatever) has something about crashing in the opening post – almost to the point where you seem obsessed with it, and it is your overwhelming view of mtb-ing.

Go see Jedi, get your base skills sorted/reset, and go get some proper professional sports psychology advice. Seriously. I don’t think you’ll move past this until you do.

I haven’t been stalking, I just have a habit of remembering far too much of what people post (the rubbish I fill my brain with…) Crashing and breaking bones is not that common in mountain biking and life changing injuries are far far far far less common. But you’re suffering from observer bias and seeing what you want to see.

Jedi is awesome but he can’t work miracles, so you may need to start working on your headspace beforehand.

Maybe step away from the pure mtb for a bit. See if you can borrow a cross bike off someone which gives you the freedom to explore offroad, but because of what it is, you cant ride the really technical stuff. Enjoy riding and take the pressure off yourself. As a women, I often take the cross bike (well until it got nicked a couple of months ago) if I was going out on my own, as the risk felt much less due to the type of riding it promotes.

most of my riding was towpaths and sustrans-type old railway trails. And you know what? They can be an enjoyable day out on the bike too

Yes, it’s worth bearing in mind that some (strange) folk only ever seem to ride on roads. Some of them even call themselves cyclists and don’t seem embarrassed 🙂