Has anyone else backed off from riding things they would have before due to an injury? Has age been a factor for you?
I have a plate on my collar bone now, and I'm pretty much permanently afraid of falling off now, as I don't want to go through that again...
On the road bike whenever I have a crash it sets my back massively in descending confidence and speed. Not so much on the mtb.
nope, i just heal and get back on it 
I've had 2 dislocated shoulders and two broken collar bones in 1 year. Partly due to being very unlucky and partly due to pushing myself too hard.
I now build up to things rather than going for them straight away and if something doesn't feel right (big drop, gap etc) then I won't do it.
I used to just say MTFU and go for it, which normally works (the times I have broken things and dislocated shoulders have been on small easy bits of the trail) but I hate time off and cant afford to be injured so have to take it a bit easier.
It takes me a while to get my confidence back with my riding, but I get there eventually
Getting worse (in my wife's eyes) better in mine 
@jedi I would have concurred a couple of years ago, but last year was so difficult, with two major hospital stays (the second not directly bike-related), I just can't get over not wanting to do something like it again.
That, turning 40 shortly, having kids, and not wanting to jeopardise my position at work all affect my fear of falling.
I still ride, mind you; just with greater trepidation.
I broke my collarbone in 2007 which had a serious impact on my confidence and relaxedness/flow on the bike. But it all went away eventually and all in all I think I'm a much smoother and more confident rider now:
A few things which helped:
1. Not giving myself a hard time for riding craply - just took it easy and rode as fast as I felt confident. Riding on my own helped a lot with this - no pressure
2. Brian Lopez' book (you can find it on Amazon). It's superb. I'd read it in the evening before a ride and then go out and practice what I'd read and then come back and read when I got home. Made a massive difference to flow and smoothness and general control
3. Skills course. I gave the the coach (Rich at CycleActive in the Lakes, very highly recommended) a brief to a) help me with drops and jumps, which was where the injury came from and b) help me with general confidence and control.
Take it easy and give yourself time would be my main recommendation. MTB is too much fun to ruin your enjoyment by negative self talk...
I properly broke my hand and fingers a few years ago, always wear armour gloves now, took a while to get useable grip strength 
but no, happily my riding has improved in recent years. If the plate doesnt give you physical pain its your head you need to fix.
saxonrider, i'm 43 with house child etc. its about riding with parameters. its an extreme sport riding mtb so offs happen.
I compressed 3 vertabrae in my spine 9 weeks ago whilst dirt jumping. I don't see myself having the balls to do that stuff again. As long as i'm able to hit the small jumps and tables at trail centres, i'll be happy. I'm only young, so have plenty of time to re-learn.
My big crash changed my riding and me (but then a big knock to the head would). We are always changing and my riding might have changed anyway.
I broke my hip trying to do jumps.
I'm 10 years older now and if I did it again I'd end up with an artifical hip and probably no riding.
I treat that knowledge with some respect so tend to be slightly more cautious.
I get knocked out...
Broken collar bone twice hasn't changed my riding or snowboarding. Nor did broken ribs x3. Crushed vertebra from hucking makes me think very carefully about drops now. I'm better over jumps now than i've ever been. 36 yrs old professional job for what thats worth. My employer is always nervous whenever i go on holiday!
Weirdly I only ride bikes because of a serious injury! Broken hip led me to drag my ancient XC bike out of the back of the garage, if it wasn't for that I guess I'd still be a big lazy couch potato
like northwind i took up cycling in place of skating street....too many big impacts have left the inner workings of my legs in tatters, not to mention missing teeth, broken ribs, clavical, toes, ACL, wrist etc... they seem to be getting better though and I actually went skating the other day first time in years, and was fine, i still skate ramp all the time though and ride at least twice a week.
gentle riding has got me better and now I'm trying bigger and more gnarly stuff which i was afraid of before.
As per above, Collarbone makes me look twice at things now, has made me move away from the hardtail, and I more often than not wear a 661 Subgear top (mainly to prevent a return of elbow bursitis). Also shy away from wearing a pack unless absolutely necessary ...
MInd you I broke mine doing in a very simple over the bars, so none of the above will make one iota of difference if the trail gods decide to lash out again.
What I have found is I concentrate on smoother riding now, rather than smashing and battling my way through things ... at least in my mind
ive had a bad year this year, bust my rotator cuff early spring, strangely that didnt hurt my confidence, but about three months later took a silly fall which resulted in me dislocating my knee and badly twisting my ankle, that shook me up a bit, totally caught me of guard, i was just starting to feel good on a bike again when i did this at the weekend,www.vimeo.com/28311263 a classic case of not knowing the trail, was my second run down, more annoyed with myself, because yet again it was a silly fall that has resulted in me seperated a couple of bones in my shoulder, first time ive had to take time out of work because of the bike... dont know if it as dented my confidence yet, but im guessing it will have... i know one thing though... im choking to get back out on my bike again
Ow! I was enjoying that movie right up until you went down. S'funny how the silly falls get you. Heal fast dude.
[s]Broken wrist 2 years ago got me some "advice" from my bosses when I couldn't work for several months ( I'm a police officer). Since then have definitely reined things in, whether consciously or sub-consciously to the extent that I am now massively overbiked 
My riding was permanently changed after injury, but not by lack of comitment or fear as you describe, I must have crashed litterally thousands of times so there's no point worrying about the times it's been more serious.
Age and laziness (fitness) has made more difference than injury IMO - I'm older and wiser and although what and how I ride hasn't really changed my riding has become more calculated than risky (as previously). when I can be bothered to concentrate I'm def a better rider than when I was younger but I'm also not as fast or competitive anymore.
I have had to adjust my bars so they don't point quite straight forwards as my shoulders have been dislocated different numbers of times and my arms are now different lengths.
That is the main adjustment I have made
after a big off and surgery / recovery etc I did a load easy flat xc type riding to get back into the saddle as soon as i could. At first even the smallest roots concerned me. Then i relaized how damn good biking is and how i had taken my stength and fitness forgranted before, which had all been gained from mtbing. It took a bit to get physical and mental strength back. Then i started riding other stuff too.
(Mr MC posting)
Snapping the end off my tibia in morzine when my spds failed to unclip meant a change to flats and a total re visit of basic riding skills and technique (a visit to jedi confirmed I was a riding god 
Had an innocuous crash in coedy this spring with a hard landing snapping off the end of my elbow and taking the tricep tendons with it. Still recovering from surgery and only just got back into riding. Lost a massive amount of upper body strength which is crucial so I'll be taking it easier as I get stronger and the last thing I need is to re snap a healing tendon. Time will tell how much confidence or aggression I've lost but non riding colleagues are genuinely surprised I'm not giving up riding, and I'm lucky my employer (police) has not cottoned on to the same cause of extended bouts of sickness effectively being down to my own recklessness.
Broken my wrist, elbow and shoulder in my right (dominant) arm.
Neither of them are completely perfect now but they do the job.
I'm really good at doing most things with my left now!!
I definately take it alot easier than I used to. Its just not worth it anymore.
Personally I think that if I'm pushing myself to the point where I'm actually afraid of falling, then I'm no longer enjoying myself and thats why I go out there.
Have a pair of bad knees (combination of genetics and a big fall off my bmx as a child) so always wear knee pads, also seperated my shoulder (american football) twice so I tend to overcompensate and wear more armour than probably needed. Must admit as i've got older they hurt more and I have backed off stuff because of it.
I twisted my knee in a non bike-related incident at xmas.. this has resulted in me riding very defensively all spring and a lot of the summer.. definitely lost some fitness and strength too due to having to seriously reduce the amount of riding..
It took me a while to realise that I would have to slow down a fair bit over the tech stuff for a while until I rebuild that strength and I gave myself quite a few scares before I adjusted..
I lost all will to ride after going over a car bonnet, hurting my back, smashing a knee, breaking my nose and knocking out 2 teeth.
Now, years later on, I've got an operation on Monday due to a dislocated shoulder / broken bone (on a sodding ride along a log at Cannock of all things) and I'm hoping to get out and about again without losing all my mojo.
Been building up my strength, nerve and stamina over the last year after a heart attack, guess that counts as an injury !
No where near as strong as I was and will never ride the way I could, charging an uphill or sustained effort is right out as it pushes my heart rate too high.
I'm up to 30 miles mixed riding and can now ride my favourite single track again, somethig I thought I would never do again 6 months ago.
Oddly I am not cautious on downhills as I try to make the most of every ride, live for the day and all that !
Not really, even after 1 x Serno Clavicular injury, 1 x dislocated collar bone(left), 1 x broken collarbone (Right) and 1 x dislocated knee cap (Right). I don't use body armour and ride like my hair is on fire (when fit!). After all that I do now know my limits though.
Some how I think my trip to Morzine next week will put an end to that!
Ruptured my Patella Tendon in '97 when I hit the side of a SMIDSY , it went went my knee impacted on their rear passenger window and shattered it. In some ways it was a good thing as I probably wouldn't have ever got into MTB otherwise.
I tend to put knee pads on when visiting somewhere new for the first time.Also don't really like riding on the road any more than I have to when linking up sections of rides.
Bad luck on the crash craig1975 , I'm not a fan of the red run at fort bill it just doesn't seem to flow very well .The WC DH is a much better track IMO.
last years injuries: broken wrist,cracked ribs ,haematoma on right knee,fractured left arm, dislocated right elbow with multiple fratures requiring metal pins and detachted ligerments.this as left me with limited movement of my elbow.
i now just try to be more consistant with my riding with just going balls out and taking so many risks.
i still ride hard and fast but i don't push myself above my limits like i used to. i concentrate on my skills more and feel more in control.
ive only just started hitting decent sized jumps again on the DH,but i won't be doing the really big gap jumps anymore.
Going silly fast on Cannocks Monkey Trail, washed out on an off-camber bit on the last downhill bit. Was first decent ride of the summer, back around Easter. Was revelling in how much faster my FS was...bang. Really hurt. Thought I'd broken my leg. Have ridden it again since, but not on the FS. Only ever ride my 29er now. The thought of coming off again has really put an end to my daft days. Not really ridden FS since, so selling it.
I was cringing watching that video up there...^^^
I was (and still am) a relative beginner when I broke my ankle badly just after Christmas last year. Since I got back on the bike I've really focused on riding well, using good technique, being positive and being in control. I'm now riding scarier stuff than before the break. I am however even less keen on falling off than before!
Theres a hole in my shin that still hasn't healed properly after a couple of years and yeah, I thought I'd eased off, but I have recently taken up skating again, and I reckon that's actually more dangerous, especially when you don't heal so fast and you live next door to a concrete downhill skatepark... so to get over that I've built the death barge (tm) up again. And I'm shopping for bigger, faster, more launchable skis for this winter.
Counting the scars, the fear seems to go in 5 year cycles for me. Coming out of an episode right about now.
Basically, ease off all you want, but if you're the sort of person that enjoys hurting yourself at speed, eventually your unconscious mind will get it's way.
No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.
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