[Closed] Returning to riding after collarbone break

Not my collar bone, but I snapped my humurous 4 months ago. Despite a lot of bravado along the lines of 'I'll be back on my bike in no time', I started riding my bike outside last week. I could ride a static trainer in January, but I couldn't hold on with my bad arm. Even now my arm is incredibly weak and I can't bunny hop or lift the front wheel properly.

After my second break on my left collar bone (10year gap)I was back on my bike in 5 weeks

I was riding on road after 10 days - gently resting my hand on the bar and with the sling hanging round my neck for when I stopped. Wouldn't recommend this though...

Gentle off-road riding at 4 weeks and by 6 weeks was doing the Beinn A'ghlo circuit etc without any problems. Had discomfort for about 6 months on big hits but new forks solved that.

Was off bike for 7 weeks and very nervous when I got back on. Unfortunately a good 5 years down the line I am still in pain despite not needing any pinning. Can't manage tight turns on one side.

Would suggest getting a physio to look at it.

Crikey. I have turned into a right wuss by the sound of things. Though actually looks like three and a half weeks. I think.

Going to Taiwan the week after was quite good fun. I can drive (sort of), but still getting quite a lot of trapped nerve twinges.

Can't imagine swimming, well, not with two hands.

a mate did his last year, took him about 6 weeks to get back on the bike, however his confidence took a battering.

" I can drive (sort of), but still getting quite a lot of trapped nerve twinges."
Further to CG's post - get yourself to a sports physio.

You'll have lost all the local muscle control. You need to do exercises to correct this and then you build up the muscle strength.

Got an ace physio on tap and just starting to look into that. Confidence wise, I'm glad I can't remember a single thing about the crash - was out cold for about 15mins. I think I killed Pagey's Socom 🙁

Rehabilitation, I guess, is going to be kind of like how it was when I dislocated the same shoulder about three years ago?

I had a pretty 'good' break just before xmas. Off the bike for about 5 weeks. By this time it no-longer hurt, and not too weak either really.

Then it's a question of how strong the part-healed bone is. My consultant was good and kept me informed with "you're at about 70% of full strength" type advice, which helped me to judge how much risk to take.

After about 10 weeks I wasn't worrying about it any more.

APF

6 weeks IIRC for me. No point in rushing it.

I drove 2 days after doing mine and 'forgot' while turning to park and heard a crack followed by serious pain and the most sweat I have ever produced !

I was riding off road 6 weeks to the day after breaking mine into 3 pieces. It healed without any operation needed. Took another 12 months to smooth of all the spikes left so the skin (or whatever) stopped catching on the inside.

It may be a bit late but it might be worth talking to a guy called Brian Simpson in Ipswich, he helped my mate recently and he was back off road in 3 weeks gently.
http://www.physioclinic.net/

What physio are you getting / doing?.
I went to my sports physio who keeps my back in trim and she both gave me exercises and a massage. I had broken my collar bone and severely bruised my shoulder and neck where I had hit the granite. This worked a treat. I was playing squash(in agony)and riding my bike again in 8wks. Like C-G I to still get a bit of pain when riding and driving. Camelback strap and seat belts hit the knot that has formed on my bone and can cause a dead arm sometimes.
The best exercise I got was to lie face down on the bed with the injured arm hanging over the edge and lifting light wieghts. Told to move arm as much and as far as was possible rather than kept in sling.
All this meant that within 3mths I had full movement of my shoulder compared to the previous time when I could barely lift arm higher than my shoulder 😐

I don't think your are necessarily being a wuss brant!
Recovery time rather depends on how much separation you get between the ends of the bone, amongst other things.

Did mine last year and was back on the road after 8 weeks, but 12 weeks before I could ride (tentatively) off road.

The break is still very obvious to look at, and pointy / lumpy 9 months later, which means it gets sore easily with ruksac straps etc, but I've no problems with movement or riding now.

p.s. an xray at 8 weeks (when I first started riding the road bike) still showed a massive gap between the two ends of my break (although some low density cartilagy/spongy bone stuff will have been in there apparently)!

bumped into a friend of a friend last week riding fire roads at 6 weeks ( i think he said ). he's 63.
i was riding gently at 6 weeks i think - @ 8 weeks on the ss riding 'proper' ( or as proper as i get! ).
fine now. shoulder a bit clicky, but no pain or owt. hope it goes back together well for you.

One thing that made a huge difference for me was ditching the Camelbak and replacing with a Wingnut. Load is better distributed and hence no pulling on shoulders.

Back to work and back commuting after 6 weeks, offroad, pulling up on the bars felt a bit wierd but do-able. My shoulder, which (only) had a soft tissue injury, was dodgy for two years. Still got the mental scars! Joking slightly, but I'm still nervous around parked cars (someone opened their door on me), and I know I don't ride as fast unless I am on the road by myself.

First time i was 5 weeks, just done the other one skiing and about to start riding again after 6 weeks

It all depends where and how bad you broke it really ?

I hate the way mine catches on seatbelts when driving (or sitting passenger side in Taiwan). Ick.

Mine took forever to heal. I think it was about 10 weeks before I could get back on the road bike, and another few weeks before I got over the psychological trauma enough to do anything more adventurous than fireroads off road. I clearly needed to MTFU from the sound of things. It took about 6 months of physio to get full movement back without a lot of pain. And about 18 months to ride steps...

I guess it's the luck of the draw really.

4 weeks but then only on the towpath 🙂

First time I did it I think I was off the bike for 8 weeks or more. The second time the fracture was less bad and I was off for maybe a month. I agree that it depends a lot on what you've done to your collarbone. The first time I broke mine it was a bit messy, with fragments. The second time it fractured down the main break from the first time but there weren't any fragments.

6months for me. But then I needed a steel plate and 6 screws and months of physio.

Don't bother until it is fully healed is my advice.

did mine 4 weeks before a dh trip to morzine/les gets about 6 years ago. was pretty gutted but still went and took it a bit steady, no offs for the whole trip which was pretty good for me at the time lol, hurt like **** going down the braking bumps on morzine tho!!! looking back i dont think i'd do it again mind, my bro broke his, it healed in the wrong place and needed surgery to sort out, took about 2 or 3 months before he could ride... 😯

I was back on a friend's motorike after 8 days and felt good as new after 3 weeks, but I was seventeen when I broke it.

I broke both mine in m/cycle crash and now have no shoulders to speak of! I was never Charles Atlas before but now I have to buy packs with chest straps because they simply slide off without.

After collarbone and ribs break I was back on the road bike at 2 months but it was another month before I felt the bones were strong enough to withstand another fall on the MTB.

Here's the latest pics from last week - http://twitpic.com/1e2lzi/full

The two ends weren't touching much before, but seem to be knitting together a bit now.

brant, get physio to make sure the surrounding muscles are not in protective spasm still

8 weeks after mashing the end of my collarbone into 4-5 peices and having it plated I was on the start line for Dusk til Dawn. Took me a long time to get back into shape - try to get physio (I didn't) and you will need to do upper body excercised / streching.

I broke mine, and I would have been good to ride within around 6 weeks. Unfortunately I broke my scaphoid on the other arm and had to have that bolted together which put me off the bike for considerably longer.

Here's the latest pics from last week - http://twitpic.com/1e2lzi/full

Looks like you don't have too much displacement and have a decent surface area to knit. You'll be back in no time!

You killed a Socom . . . fair play 😉 . Hope they give it a decent burial. Heal soon!

The wife did her's falling off a horse. Still had to walk 2 miles back to the stable as the bloody thing did a runner. She then drove (luckily auto) home, as she'd our boy with her. On getting home as she struggled out of the car a neighbour asked if she was ok? He then took her to hospital.

She was driving and at work within the week, and on her horse in 3 weeks.

Yes, you are a wuss!

Whereas my riding buddy was still struggling to put a t-shirt on 6 weeks after.

That twitpic shows the break is almost identical to mine. Lovely lump still there 14 years on 😐

don't rush getting back out, let it heal properly.
Get physio(with a sports physio if poss), do the exercises to prevent long term muscle issues
If you're head's out of sorts, take it easy while you get back into it.
I knackered my collarbone right up and was 18 months off the bike. But with decent physio and being really disciplined about doing the exercises all is ok now. just some occasional pain from the surgeon's scar