just had mine done after breaking it in summer. not really been on the bike since the break (shops and back once or twice maybe) and have lost all fitness and bottle.
im not exactly a downhiller but the thought of riding country lanes and canal towpaths to avoid breaking it again is making me think i might as well just pack it all in.

i know this is a common injury for MTBrs but i dont know anybody whos actually done it that i can speak to

any horror/happy ever after stories out there ?

If you did it in the summer it will be pretty strong by now.

Didn’t have mine plated btw, and it gives me no end of problems now.

Once plated that bit can’t break again.. ride your bike til your bottle runs out

my gfs is plated, I’m sorry to say it’s not good, she can’t raise the plated arm much above her shoulder level, some neck pain and she can’t lift her bike over stiles, I’d also say that even 6 years on it’s still a confidence limiter (*but she is 58 so I think some of that comes with age as well, and she only started biking at 54), hope you’re more lucky.

mine is unplated (about 35 years ago) and was fine after a few months…..

Did mine 5 months ago. Back riding, but taking it easy (no big jumps)

It did knock my confidence, but I fell off the other day and it was good to go.

i broke it in summer but the doc has left it until now to see if it would calcify,,,, it did not.
had the op on thurs morning and have been told by a non-riding doctor to lay off the bike for another 6 mnths just incase, heres me thinking i would be able to just get straight back into it,,,, silly i know.

what worries me is, will i ever be able to take a knock again and get away with it (i fall off a lot) or will i be on egg shells for the rest of my riding days

im presuming that those who have replied have healed then had a fall and everything was ok.

just thought to search for other collar bone stories and it seems that every case is different,,, guess its just luck.

cheers.

I had mine plated just over 2 years ago and it hardly gives me any bother even though it was a complex facture of the end of the collarbone. I still have only a little movement restriction (swimming front crawl isn’t very smooth) but I never notice it now MTBing. Since I bust my ligaments too, I spent the first 18months after with a throw only a weedy teenage girl could have been proud of, which my 8 yr old found very funny last winter when throwing snowballs at me.

after some months it will be as strong as ever generally speaking

Just a few thoughts… Not a plated shoulder but did have part of my elbow plated. What I found interesting was the advice from the specialists: 1, my arm would never go straight again. 2, there would be no point in having the plate removed… 1, I made sure my arm went staright again. 2, I chose to have it removed! 8 years on and its never given me any jipp on those counts or any other. Plenty of physio and make your own judgements about having it removed once mended upon how you feel. Good luck with the recovery!

thanks for the replies,

the last 5 months has been pretty siht and to be told to stay off the bike for another 6 has not done me any good either, i feel a bit more positive about all this now.

😀

Broke mine a week ago &, so I’m really interested in peoples experiences. Mine broke in 3 places & am worried about in healing properly to avoid long term problems. Should I push to get it plated sooner rather than later?
By the way, by doctor told me that bones normally end up being stronger at the break points than the rest of the bone and he’s never seen a bone break in the same place twice! He also told me that plates are often removed once the bone has healed as they can cause more damage to bones & tissue if you impact that bone again. Makes sense to me I guess, but I’m finding it hard to separate good advice from bad right now. What do you think?

did mine years ago(FH 12 years ago now i think about it!), never got it plated though, just healed naturally. think it really took me about a year before i felt confindent of that shoulder taking a full on dunt again..mines was a clean snap in the middle of the righthand side. I actually think that side has probably healed stronger now tbh.

Don’t worry about it. I have a plate and 5 screws after mine ended up in 3 pieces, plus broken elbow and thumb on the other arm last September (2010). So both sides incapacitated.

Calcified bone is stronger than the original, and then the plate more so. I was on the bike in Jan ’11 (probably a bit too early TBH) gingerly and was riding (and racing) full flow by march. I’ve been nervous of it, deliberatly favoring falling on the other side until about July.

I’ve had one large fall on it in August, no problems.

I have only 2 remaining issues – the middle bit floated about in the accident and severed some nerves that flow down towards your pecs, so I have a small numb spot, and I have a pointy bit of collar bone which seems to be very sensitive and painful if Jnr leans on it.

Bradley’s was plated for the Vuelta – didn’t seem to hold him back. I’d get back to road riding for a while whilst it strengthens. Mine was unplated and I waited three months to ride the road and four for MTB. Haven’t fallen off in the past three visits to Swinley. I’m a little more cautious and did have a nondetachable pedal-foot interface sideways incident onto the offending shoulder without incident.

I posted this in yesterday’s collar bone thread as well. Headpotdog it’s probably mainly for you but I’d massively reccomend going to see the guys below. Email in profile if you have any questions.

I’ve broken mine 3 times all in. The first time was 9ish years ago, I came off the MTB and broke the right one in to 3 pieces. It looked pretty bad on the xray but they suggested to leave it and it healed fine. 6 weeks to the day I was back on the mtb.

Then last year I broke my left one in to 4 pieces in another mtb crash. It was a bad break with 4 bits of bone in total, they offered me the choice of operation or letting it heal. I asked some questions and they took another xray to compare the length to my other one and based on the good results from the last natural healing that I decided to leave it. A few friends of mine had used this place http://www.physioclinic.net so I gave them a call and went to see them a week after I broke it. I had treatment with magnets and lasers and while I was very sceptical before I went the effects were immediate. I had much more movement and less pain when I left the place and didn’t need a sling after the day. It was swapped for a figure 8 brace which allows use of both arms and puts them in a much better place for them to heal. I was riding 2 weeks after the treatment and another 2 weeks on I was on a 5 day trip to scottish trail centres riding like it had never happened.

Broke mine last year in a few places, and had it plated 10 days after. It has healed perfectly as a result, and I have chosen to leave the plate in (for now) as I don’t fancy losing all the sensation in my muscle and skin for another ten months.

Having said that, I commute on my bike every day, though when I do hit the trails, it tends to be quite tenderly.

I am happy enough with that.

I’ve broken my left one twice (MTB) and right one once (road bike/car interface).

The first time I broke the left, it ‘healed’ naturally and I was biking again within a couple of months. It hurt like holy **** and I really enjoyed finishing the ride and driving the 100 miles home from the Peak…

The same bone snapped again almost a year to the day with very little provocation. It looked OK on the Xray and was declared ‘fixed’ I had it plated (by choice) and was back on the road within 10 days.

There could be complications, I had a DVT and if you go for the plate, make sure you elect for ‘donated bone’ rather than harvested bone. It’s not an option they offer but it’s better to use someone elses cast off rather than a painfull self supplied bone graft. Taking the graft is supposed to be the most painful bit…

Had mine plated in June after breaking in May, was back riding road, canals after 5 weeks and light weights. Riding downhill by the 3rd week july (if cautiously). After 6 to 8 weeks a plated bone should be fine to ride on but the problem with plating is that the tendons/nerves can catch and you get a sharp pain in certain situations. My movement is not 100% but certain backward movements catch the nerve and hurt a lot. This goes if the plate is removed (normally after 6 or so months). My main problem from the brake is the time I spent in a sling has seriously weakened my left arm/shoulder.

You should be riding by now, Wiggins was back on a bike after 5 days after the op and Danny Pedrosa was winning moto GPs 6 weeks after a double one. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to get going again.

I broke mine in December last year… Actually broke is not really the word, I hit hard pack rocky track so hard (over the bars, flat out on my SOCOM) that it basically exploded. There was no question of it healing naturally, so they operated immediately by wiring as many pieces together as they could and then a plate with 7 screws across the top. Happy tp say it all healed back together within 3 months, and I got full movement back in about the same time (by using it as much as possible from day 1)

My surgeon has advised against removing the plate, as he feels it will take many months for the bone to grow in the holes and he is worried about it fracturing again in the meantime. So looks like I am stuck with it for now, I like to flex my shoulder and freak the wife out as you can very clearly see all the screw heads!

Riding wise, I would say I am about 90% back in mental terms, although for sure I take things easier these days – mainly because I don’t really want to go through the pain again, and honestly last Christmas was a bit crap with two young daughters and me not even been able to hold them or open presents etc… Calmed me down a bit as this memory really stuck with me.

Having taken a couple of tumbles since and landed on the shoulder, I can say with the plate it feels a damn sight more stiff, the shock now goes directly through to me neck which I can really feel… Which is a bit worrying. Of course the collarbone is supposed to act like our natural crumple zone, so not sure it’s the best idea to have a mega strong plate there…

Had mine plated in 2006. Was scared shite-less of doing anything b.a.d. to it for about 2 years afterward. e.g. I used to yelp out BEFORE hitting the ground during 2 mph tumbles.

After a few knocks to the shoulder I began to get my confidence back and realise that it’s a pretty tough thing really. I am still a total mincer, but I think I probably always was TBH.. 😆

Still feels ‘weird’ though. It always will. But you get used to that.. 😉

I took an impact to my collar bone in 2006 that smashed it up, it was bad enough to fracture my shoulder blade.
I had a plate put in within a week (along with other procedures needed).
Other problems held me off riding for about 6 months but the collar bone was never a worry.
I was knocked off my bike in 2009 (I think) and landed hard on that shoulder, got away with some grazes and a bit of swelling/stiffness,
however it was the perfect confidence builder as now I know it can take a knock.

Did mine 4 years ago at afan.

5 months of it not healing normally, followed by a hook plate (very painful, as it reduces movement). I now have no feeling in my shoulder as they went through a couple of nerves during the first op. I got on a bike riding to the shops/around town about 6 weeks after the first op, and it was agony. Stopped. Started riding mtb about 3 months later but only short rides as it was very painful and had to walk pretty much any DH, but climbing and smooth xc was do able for short rides.

Had the plate removed 9 months after insertion, and, I can’t tell you the relief I felt when I woke up after that op. It’s weird but you become accustomed to not sleeping due to the pain, of everything involving shoulder/arm movement hurting, and then waking up to it being completely gone (admittedly on painkillers and a massive big cut in your shoulder again.

Nearly three years now since that op, and it still aches a bit when I’m 1)riding in the very cold and 2)when I’m really exerting myself – it’s sort of a litmus test of whether I’m working hard enough! Bottle-wise, I’m slowly getting it back, but generally I’ll weigh up the risk/benefit a lot more than I used to. I love riding my bike, first and foremost, so I generally avoid doing anything that’s pushing my ability, as the year of the shoulder pain/not riding my bike was a terrible time I don’t wish to repeat. So, my riding has changed – my mates get airbourne, I generally don’t. I do however, hurt them on the climbs ?, so that’s where I get my kicks from!

So, generally, I’d say chin up – mine was probably leaning towards the worst case scenario for a collar bone in terms of time it takes to heal etc, and I’m now riding more than ever, it’ll get better, just head out for little short rides and don’t get out of your comfort zone until you feel ready – it’s all bikes, it’s all good.

I’ve also got a kick arse scar to show off too. 🙂

I broke mine 11 1/2 years ago at the BUSA champs on the IoW.

It set badly (not plated), so had it “chamferred” a few years later as I couldn’t carry a rucsac, swing my arm when running, lie on my right side etc.
More comfortable now, although one arm hangs lower than the other. And it still hurts like a hurty thing from time to time. Ah well…

Hooked plate for me – a couple of weeks after I broke it.

Plate came out 6 months later, then had to wait a couple more months before riding.

I wear one of those 661 subgear vests to give me some reassurance.

I had good movements whilst the plate was in and movement is fine now.

Can ache a little if I don’t do any exercise with it.

As TurnerGuy, plate and hook fitted on day two due to fracture almost being compound. You can feel the hook catching on the tendon and nerves, but once it’s out after 6 months you’ll be back to normal in no time. Go private if you can afford it or have work policy, AXA were ace, no quibbles, no waiting for xrays or pyshio.

I have just bought some of those pushup plates – the ones that rotate as you do the pushup – and they are really smooth.

If my shoulder starts aching (not that it does much) I go and do a few reps on these.

The other top-tip I have concerns the sore points I got in my back muscles due to lack of exercise.

Previously when I have had these I went to the local osteo who percussion massaged them into submission (painful).

With my dodgy collarbone I didn’t want to risk anybody putting pressure on my shoulder, so I leant against the corner of a square bit of the banister and performed my own form of percussion massage by moving up and down and side to side.

Similairly painful to the osteo but it worked 🙂