Broke my collar bone at BPW…oops!

So my week in Wales didn’t contain as much riding as I’d hoped, I managed to do a full day on the uplift at Cwmcarn on Saturday, then on Tuesday I made it as far as lunchtime at BPW before this happened…I think I was just pleased to have got through the big top section and ‘backed off’ during the forest, I then took a wrong line and ended up going far too slowly off a drop I wasn’t expecting. The result, spending the rest of the week in a sling and being booked in with my local trauma unit for an assessment regarding surgery on my broken collar bone first thing Monday morning.

This is just me ripping down Y Mynydd on Saturday, with only one minor mishap on a VERY tight hairpin.

Calm before the storm, sunset the evening before BPW…

And then here’s how I managed to put myself in hospital while riding Enter the Dragon at BPW, got cut out of my padded shirt in A&E, and also discovered afterwards that I both dented and cracked my helmet, so an expensive mistake! Luckily the bike came out without a scratch!

Body armour cut off…

Broken collar bone…

Dented helmet (dent is between two rear vents, above the middle ‘0’)…

Cracked helmet…

Healing vibes your way.

Looks like you did a proper job! GWS

Ouchy!

Mucking Fuppet.

Ouch.

The crunching noise as you land isn’t pleasant!

Glad to hear the helmet did its job bud. Could have been far worse.

Good luck with the operation mate. 🙂

Watching that made me wince. Get better soon.

I took shirt off when I did my collar bone, no way where they going to cut it. I did my ribs in as well and I sounded like a little girl on video lol

Healing vibes. Didn’t see the drop in the video either. Backing off after the “hard part” precceds many crashes as I busted my knee the same way skiing

I took shirt off when I did my collar bone, no way where they going to cut it. I did my ribs in as well and I sounded like a little girl on video lol

The doctor did say some riders (the ones who are prone to coming off perhaps), just rip their gear off as soon as they have a big off, so they can get it off before the pain kicks in. lol

Unfortunately with me they couldn’t wait for the painkillers to kick in as they were worried I had something pressing on my lung (I didn’t) so they wanted me in x-ray asap.

The front of my right shoulder is pretty much the same colour as your chest now. haha

What did you Do? Grab a handful of brake?.

It’s difficult to see what you did wrong there. You obviously weren’t going as quick through that part of the forest as the previous section, but it looks quick enough to be able to ride off a ledge without needing to throw your weight backwards.

I’d rather the video showed some obvious error that we could all learn from 😉

Hope you recover well.

Looks like weight miles forward for some reason, front seems to nose dive as soon as it goes over the drop.
Agree with @DiskJockey, doesn’t appear to be a lack of speed unless camera has flattened things and its a much bigger drop than it looks

Is that a bell helmet? They have a pretty painless crash replacement scheme. I got a super 3r for £120 and didn’t even need to send the broken helmet in.

I’m not entirely sure what happened if I’m honest! Well I know what happened, I didn’t pull up and went nose first off a drop, but I’m not sure why…

I think I caught sight of that big rock in the landing at the last minute, and got so distracted trying to work out where I wanted to land in relation to it that I just forgot to pull up in time. Just one of those things… 😆

Is that a bell helmet? They have a pretty painless crash replacement scheme. I got a super 3r for £120 and didn’t even need to send the broken helmet in.

It is indeed, it’s a Super 2R which I intend to upgrade to a 3R using the crash replacement scheme. I assume mine is still valid even though it’s the previous model because it was still bought in the last 3 years.

Ouch, hope you get better soon. If you were looking down at the rock on your landing it can quite easy for your feet to tilt forward on the pedals and subconsciously aim for it, with head / body moving forward, while in your head thinking you are trying to avoid it. I remember on the Jedi course he kept telling me to look beyond my landing point and much further down the trail to avoid going otb on jumps / drops.

That’s exactly what I done, super 2 to super 3. You just have to write a nice little story and send some pics to them. http://www.zyrofisher.co.uk/bell/content/bellreplacement

Collar bones are such fun to break too.

I am 8 weeks post break on mine – my chest looked like the one above for nearly 4 weeks – impressive for someone who never normally bruises. I broke mine down at the medial end, which is quite rare & it’s taken a lot longer to heal than I thought. I was meant to be signed off on Thursday, but they think it’s maybe 75% healed, which is annoying.

I broke 2 ribs and cracked 2 others in the same crash & due to some movement impingements I have there was a good chance I dislocated my shoulder in the crash too. Basically, an all round sh*t show.

I’ve been riding for about 6 weeks, just gently bridleway stuff, to save me from going mad, and I have an entry for a race today, which I am going along to, to see how I feel.

Good luck with the healing, and good luck with working out how to sleep comfortably for the next couple of weeks.

The doctor did say some riders (the ones who are prone to coming off perhaps), just rip their gear off as soon as they have a big off, so they can get it off before the pain kicks in. lol

TBF I still had a lot of movement as mine wasn’t broke like yours but it is dislocated at the sternoclavicular joint. was still bloody painful to remove my shirt then they didn’t know how to x ray it so had to consult a book ha ha ha ha

Nasty – commiserations! It looks like your front wheel just landed in a rut and stopped dead. How fast were you going?

I’m in and out of a sling at the moment because I partially separated my AC joint (collarbone to shoulder blade) a fortnight ago. Got caught by a hidden rut at 24mph and absolutely launched over the bars. Bike stopped up a tree! Most violent crash I’ve ever had.

Lucky it wasn’t worse because I was 40 minutes drive from the rest of the family, up a random hill in Brittany, without the right travel insurance, on my hardtail and wearing no more protection than an open face helmet.

That’s actually a fairly tricky drop, for such a small one!

iirc, it actually has a false lip, which if you don’t perfectly time your unweight, can cause the front to drop, which if you are too far back and stiff armed, then starts the rider being pulled forwards, and that only ends one way when the front wheel comes back down to earth…..

(your speed off it looks fine i’ve definitely done it a lot slower than that in the wet (when the slabs are slippy) so it’s gotta be a miss timing issue)

Get well soon btw!

Addendum: Not wanting to criticise, but it looks like some of your other landings were a bit “squiffy” off the jumps prior to that drop in the woods. if you’re pulling up, rather than pumping the bike into the air, it’s real easy to end up with a bit of a sideways flight, the bars turned a bit, and then an exciting landing! (watch your landing off the step down on entry to the woods section for example)

That drop is certainly large enough that you need the front wheel to land completely cleanly and roll out and away to prevent further rotation and an OTB, so perhaps you did land a bit squiffy ?

Good luck with the collarbone. Broke mine on Good Friday and still not likely to be back on the bike properly for another 4 months.

The plate caused an infection which has gone to the bone, so it had to come out after only 8 weeks, before the bone had healed properly. Broke it again putting my t-shirt on in the recovery ward after the removal op. Bone won’t start healing properly until the infection’s cleared.

8 weeks and counting of antibiotics so far……

maxtorque: Yep that gap/step down into the woods was a bit wonky, as you said I pulled instead of compressed on that one and landed off centre.

Funnily enough I’ve actually found some older footage of me doing this exact same drop (the one I went OTB on) and I did it slower, on my first time ever at BPW, in the wet, on the same line…and there was absolutely nothing notable about it!

I just roll towards it, pop off, and land level with the front wheel roughly in-line with the middle of the same rock I nosed into this time. 🙄

The plate caused an infection which has gone to the bone, so it had to come out after only 8 weeks, before the bone had healed properly.

This is my only concern with going down the surgery route, but for me the potential benefits far outway the risk.

‘Maybe’ get an infection or ‘definitely’ spend 8 weeks in a sling and have a piece of bone sticking out of my shoulder the rest of my life! No brainer for me.

We’ve all had one of those I’m sure. Hoping you heal quickly.

Ouch, get well soon.

I’m not a radiographer, but I can confirm that that is definitely broken.
I’m currently 8 weeks into my healing after a car left be with broken: collar bone, 2 neck vertebrae, and skull. I recommend codeine and paracetamol at night and just paracetamol during the day. I’d avoid surgery as (as others have experienced) it can get messy.
Yours is broken pretty much the same place as Geraint Thomas’s, but remember – he gets paid to ride his bike.
Get well soon.

Saw the doctors at the trauma unit yesterday, on closer inspection it’s actually worse than indicated by the first x-ray.

When viewed from above, the new x-ray showed that the bones aren’t actually touching anymore. They are displaced by roughly 200%, meaning the gap between the remaining bone is double the width of the bone itself, not conducive to healing on it’s own!

So I’m on the list for surgery and should hopefully be called in within the next week or two, just got to play the waiting game now…

Healing vibes to you matey.

Heal quick!

Then learn to tuck n roll! My shoulders are shagged, but never broken anything cos breakages always caused by the FOOSH! Not that I’ve ever ridden that fast 😀

Unfortunately my surgery was delayed 2 days, but I had the operation this morning at 10am as they squeezed me in out of hours. Which meant I spent my birthday yesterday in a hospital bed, but hey, these things happen!

Surgery completed with no issues and I was in the recovery ward by 12pm, had a 20 minute sleep apparently and then within 5 minutes of waking up I was more than coherent enough to be taken back to the trauma ward, where I will remain until tomorrow morning as they are insisting I keep it still after they discovered I had it out of the sling for the last week. Evidently ‘but it didn’t hurt’ wasn’t a valid excuse… oops!

???????Anyway, follow up assessment booked for the 17th, during which time I am NOT to keep the arm out of the sling except for the light physio that have given me.

I just had the sling for pain relief thankfully but getting to sleep was a mare. The least painful position was on my back and I didn’t move so go pins and needles. Best bit was my daughter was only 4 weeks old lol

Do you have the horrid collarbone bump? Mine looks ugly as heck 🙂 Sadly I broke my elbow at the same time so my collarbone didn’t heal in the most ideal position. It was bloody painful at the same, especially the nice grinding sound it makes in the early on stages 😉

It did at first yes, there was quite a noticeable lump as I have rather prominent collar bones anyway.

But as of 9 hours ago there is now a titanium plate across the top holding it all back in place.

My intention is that as soon as I’m able I will be hitting the gym hard for several months, firstly to strengthen/reinforce the area but also to reduce the prominence of my collar bones and therefore also the plate.

You should have called in for a brew. I live literally two minutes from there.

But as of 9 hours ago there is now a titanium plate across the top holding it all back in place

There is always a silver lining: chicks love exotic elements as well as scars. 🙂

My intention is that as soon as I’m able I will be hitting the gym hard for several months, firstly to strengthen/reinforce the area but also to reduce the prominence of my collar bones and therefore also the plate.

Good luck with that; I have a screw in my shoulder from an AC seperation surgery which has become more prominent over time as the new bone forms around it.

Mine sticks out because it’s dislocated

That a nasty crash – get well soon!

When you heal up I’d have a look at improving your skills on jumps. You cased every one of the top set, some quite badly. Hitting those without enough speed or lift is only going to put you in hospital again very soon 😥

Other than that, good effort 8)