Much as the title. Stuck on the sofa with a broken middle toe and crutches to get about.

How long before riding again. Do I really need to wait the 6 weeks the nurse suggested ?

You’re on crutches because of a broken middle toe……….

Was this some kind of a major break, compound fracture or something ?

For a normal broken toe I’d buddy tape it and be back on the bike but I’d be more careful than usual not to hit it off something as no one likes see a grown man cry 🙂

I was surprised to be given crutches but I can’t put weight on that foot because of the bruising

I was hoping they were being over cautious. But apart from a couple of ribs I’ve not broken anything else before.

I was running again after 4 weeks, but I guess all tor’s are different

Broken big toe after I smashed it along with my pedal into a tree stump hiding in the grass.  I was back on the bike in 4-5 weeks. I was taking it easy though and stuck to simpler/smoother trails.

Also switched from flats to SPD because the shoes were much stiffer it also prevented the possibility of my foot coming off and catching something.

PS. I had to buy some crutches, I was just told to “walk on the heel” never mind not being able to get a bloomin’ shoe on.  God bless the NHS.

I have broken three toes.  One of them never mended and can still bend it backwards further than should be possible.  Worst was wheeling a trolley full of boxes of paper over the toe next to big toe but carried on working until the end of my shift.  That toe doesn’t bend any more and has a lump in it.

Other than hurting a bit they didn’t stop me doing anything.  If yours hurts a lot and hurts to put shoe on, pressure on foot to cycle etc,. then it just depends on how could you are with pain.  Would have though it would be okay in a week or so but must be worse than I can imagine if crutches are involved.

That must be one hell of a peripheral bruising!

Last time I broke my 2nd (ie: one in from big) toe it was on a practice lap for an XC race when I clipped a treestump with an optimistic line through a corner, and I was on the bike for the start about 30mins later and rode fine, albeit in pain.

Had a couple of days ‘off’ the bike in terms of training but still commuted by bike and just took it a bit easy for a couple of weeks on the weekend rides.

Have you done other damage as well or is it literally just a broken toe?

I’ve broken my middle one a few times, always kept riding. Walking was really sore but biking was fine. I was just careful to tape it up well and not hit it again.

Thanks all. Sounds much more encouraging than the nurse.

Only one broken toe and the other 3 are just bruised. Big one escaped.

Hoping once the bruising goes down in a day or so I can put my weight on it and get back to normal

Another one here for pedal/tree stump interaction. In my case it was about 10mins of rolling about swearing before I was back on the bike. Just taped it to the toe next to it.

Was a few weeks after that before getting on again though.

The only real answer is when it stops hurting enough to ride. As from the examples above this will vary from person to person.

A big advantage of SPD/stiff soles – sometimes you can cycle easier than walk.

Cut it off and cauterize it.

I dislocated a little toe once (mine). Not a great injury in terms of the respect/pain ratio (zero of one, fair bit of the other).

Hth

Another tree stump/toe interface victim here. Otb and lying there thinking “wtf happened??” Then the pain kicked in. Rode to bottom of Whinlatter South – albeit gingerly – to find toenail had lifted and lots of blood in shoe. Got infected and ended up on antibiotics. X-ray showed crushed, shattered and double fractured big toe. Was off bike for 5 weeks but only because of the infection really. Sweaty feet + cuts = germ incubation