Luckily I managed to walk away from my worst off ever last week – with a relatively minor range of injuries including fracturing 5 vertebrae. I am so aware that it could have been so much worse. Plus it’s my first bad off for a number of years.

The physical injuries will clear up soon but I think the biggest problem is going to be getting back on the bike and dealing with the mental scars it’s left. It’s still early but while trying to decide what to do as my bike is ruined – buy a replacement frame or get a whole new bike – I’m wondering if I hang things up and take up golf or another relatively boring sport.

I know this is a knee jerk reaction but I have been really scared by this and is something which I don’t want to repeat.

Have anyone else gone through a similar experience and decided to change things after such an experience??

Yup. Broke 5 bones in my wrist last Oct time and had 10 weeks with my right wrist in a cast. Buggered up my ability to work, ride, drive, swim or do anything I normally do.

Touched my mountain bike far less this year and used the road bike more. Tend to run in the hills more than ride trails these days…

Broken bones as a yoof are fun. As an adult they are a proper hinderance and no fun!

pretty natural to be concerned and it may well impact on your riding long term.

what/where/how often did/do you ride, how did you crash.

there might be ways to reduce the risk so that you are happy with it, that might impact on the type of bike you buy. end of the day people can suffer pretty devastating injuries hill running or road riding.

(i did google life changing golf injuries, but from p.1 you are probably ok unless its a VW Golf)

Ive heard golf is bad for your back.. 😆

Theres possibility of injury in any sport. Analyse what went wrong.. learn from mistake.. carry on as you were…. Oh and MTFU

I had some decent offs when I was younger and have broken collarbones 3 times, wrists twice and my leg. Don’t think I’ve come close to a serious back injury so not sure how I’d feel at that point. After the crashes I’ve had I can’t say I was overly mentally affected, it did take me a while each time to get back up to the sort of speeds I was achieving pre accident.

I have slowed down as I get older but it’s more down to a feeling of responsibility towards my GF and son more than worrying about physical damage itself.

Nowadays I generally ride within myself, which doesn’t always mean slowly and whenever I’m riding blind I go steady until I know the place. I think you should just sit on any insurance payout and leave any decision until you are much further into recovery, no point making rash decisions. If you really love the sport you won’t give it up, you can just engage with it in a less risky way. And the longer you wait to buy the more mooching time you have and the better deal you’ll get.

I feel for you.
After 2 years of misery, 2 breaks (not from mtbiking though) and a tumble 11 days ago, where I had to carried off the hill side and am now once again on crutches. I really think it’s time to hang up my 5.10s.
Even after a skills course a few weeks ago (the chap was amazing) my head is in such a bad place. Also it’s really rocky where we ride and a big off for me will more or less result in some sort of hospital visit and time off work.

Maybe for you it will be different and you’ll be getting back into the saddle in a few months.

Hope your recovery runs smoothly.

Natural reaction. My response depends on how serious your injury was. When I learnt how serious my wife’s neck injury was I told her not to take up riding, not work the risk of an otb putting her I a wheel chair. That being said on the basis a normal off won’t be serious just take it easy and work your way back into it, perhaps a bit more xc. I’d say just replace the frame/broken bits, again perhaps something a bit more xc. If it makes you feel better buy a back protector. Lastly, epreally work on the physio/rehab as more confidence will flow from knowing your body has recovered.

think about what caused the crash, was it something that you could do differently now you have the experience, or was it just complete random bad luck.

ie now you know what caused the crash, could you prevent it if the circumstances happened again in the future, if so, just ride on and dont do what caused this crash, if it was just random bad luck then MTFU or take up road biking.

Different sport but I went for a really straightforward scuba dive then woke up on the surface surrounded by a rescue team. I’d been given cpr and oxygen and owe my life to my dive buddy who saw what happened and got me to the surface. Plus I was at a site where another group had been practicing rescue drills all day and had all the kit at the water’s edge.

I had no lasting physical problems but the mental side was a different story and for me it turned out to be the triggerthat pushed a lot of other mental health problems to the fore.

I eventually walked away from diving and sold my kit. My biggest obstacle wasn’t losing the activity itself, it was losing my place in a close group of people. Tbh I think I made that decision in the back of the ambulance but it took another 6 months to accept it.

So in summary I think you may already know which way you’re going on this, and will do it once it feels right. Paradoxically for me it was the extra time from not diving that got me into riding bikes, so there is a positive outcome.

Insurance??? I wasn’t even thinking of that sort of thing – would I be covered in any way?

I ride probably 2-4 times a week round Cheltenham / Forest of Dean and it is something I love but now I’m sat here on the sofa contemplating the future and the risks of continuing.

The off was basically going over a small drop (tiny) I caught the chainring on the lip and I end up rolling down a steep chute on my front wheel. Ended up going over the bars and hitting the tree. So basic but such a stupid mistake and I’ve hit bigger stuff no problem and normally ride much faster/harder. I think that makes it worse in that it was some unlucky off which came close to life changing.

What I’d do differently would be to fall off earlier next time rather than trying to ride it out and be more careful on lips like this

💡 Sports psychologist ❓

I had a big off 4 weeks ago, no major injuries, bruised rib is still not healed fully yet.

The biggest problem was the concussion, I can’t remember it, was confused afterwards (my brother in law had to argue with me to get to a&e) I thought I was fine apparently, but every couple of minutes I wanted to stop and fix the wheel, then ask what had happened. I can laugh about it now but will be more cautious next time.

I’ve decided to change the type of riding I do. I had been pushing myself to do more and more technical stuff, trying jumps etc. I’ll be going back to doing longer rides in the Cotswolds rather than trail centre type stuff. I used to enjoy the adventure of getting out there so I’ll get my confidence back with that type of riding.

Broke my wrist last year put me out for a few weeks and another off at race put me out for about 2 months with a knee injury. Neither of these really dented my confidence, however this year I’ve had quite a few minor crashes and I completely lost my mojo which I’m only just starting to get back after changing bikes.

The off was basically going over a small drop (tiny) I caught the chainring on the lip and I end up rolling down a steep chute on my front wheel. Ended up going over the bars and hitting the tree. So basic but such a stupid mistake and I’ve hit bigger stuff no problem and normally ride much faster/harder. I think that makes it worse in that it was some unlucky off which came close to life changing

I was in a similar position 18mths ago. My bar caught on an unseen rope swing on a downslope, which catapulted me off the bike, landing flat on my back from about 8 feet up. The fact it resulted from a silly/freak accident actually made it worse in some ways, as if I had been going for it on something a bit more extreme I could have rationalised the accident as par for the course.

I ‘only’ fractured my coccyx, and had to take a couple of months off riding.
I took me a good few months to regain full confidence, and the loss of fitness was depressing in itself.
However, you need to take a look at yourself and decide….. Am I someone who happens to ride a mountain bike, and any other sport will do? Or am I a mountain biker? Sounds cheesy as anything, but I’ve been riding MTBs since I was 14 – 26 years in all – so it’s just ingrained in my psyche! If you love the sport you’ll come back to it….wiser, maybe more cautious, potentially a better rider, and definitely more aware of small drop-offs (b*stard rope-swings in my case!)

Get well soon

Went OTB and concussed myself at one of the inaugural UKGE rounds in 2011, my fault as I was new to the sport, had no idea what I was getting into and took a short travel XC type hardtail to ride….with no dropper post to boot.

Made me think about my choice of bike and the events I wanted to enter.

Replaced with slacker angled full suspension bike and started brushing up on skills with YouTube vids, gradually pushing myself at ‘safe’ venues like BPW, FoD etc until I started to feel confident with steep stuff, drops, jumps etc….

Still far from polished with my riding but happy to try most stuff now, it’s been a four year process…..these things can’t be rushed!
Loads of things I still won’t ride but with breaking the theory down in my head and starting small I get there in the end.

+1 for thepurist if you’re not feeling it anymore move on to something different, there’s loads of cool outdoorsy stuff to try and life’s to short to worry about how to have fun!

No question, a lot of us go through some significant shit which can stay with us for much longer than it takes for the wounds to heal and the scars fade.

For years after certain events one can suffer flash backs and random episodes of complete disorientation where one might not know who or where they are.

In your case (OP) I’d suggest the following.
If you still feel the irrepressible need to ride, then do so, any way you want.

However, if you’re unsure or feel some degree of reluctant to swing your leg over a bike. Then don’t.

There are alternatives and thankfully for you theres always tomorrow and you never know. Your experience may lead you in another direction entirely, or to return to cycling, at any, yet to be defined date in the future.

Lets face it, cycling ain’t going away, so we’ll see you on two wheels again, when you’re ready.

🙂

I had a horrible crash two years ago at FoD. You may have seen the video, (it was in Singletrack’s midweek movies!) which makes me look like someone who really can’t ride a bike (suffice to say that I can!) Miraculously I didn’t break anything but I had a scary six hours immobilised with a suspected broken neck. The accident was a result of a series of very poor decisions when sleep deprived and physically and mentally tired on the first day of long weekend away from my wife and few month old baby.

My fear of “bad luck” accidents hasn’t been helped by a colleague being brain damaged a year ago when he fell out of a tree. It’s very scary how fast life can change…

Anyway, here’s how I’ve dealt with it:

1. A longer slacker lower full-sus that is less tiring on big/gnarly rides, more confidence inspiring and looks after me better in those more challenging moments (previously I was riding everything on my hardtail).
2. Armour – knee pads always, pack with back protector always, elbow pads and fullface sometimes.
3. Practice – working on the things that I ride badly or scare me.
4. Coaching – I went to see Jedi a few months, had a lot of minor issues sorted out and my practise is now better.
5. Stretching, yoga, foam roller etc. Anything to help my body move better as I head towards 40.
6. Strength training – some bodyweight stuff, some weights (deadlifts are great if you had the space for a bar and big pile of weights!)
7. Better self-awareness – knowing the difference between being scared but still 100% committed and being so scared that there is a loss of commitment/confidence/concentration. Currently I have issues with certain drops and most gaps – I want to do them but I’m not just going to hurtle and hope because I want to ride them well rather than get lucky and survive. Do it well or leave it for another day. If I don’t feel I’m going to ride it well I don’t try it.

So I guess I’ve tried to reduce the probability of crashing, reduce the chance of it being a bad one and make me better able to survive it (armour, flexibility, strength).

In your case the accident being so serious was indeed bad luck but the accident wasn’t – as you said you went off a small drop wrong (fix the technique!) and caught a chainring (add a bash ring/guard!), went over the bars (longer/slacker bike and more upper body strength!) and smacked your back into a tree (armour!)

I’m not sure I’ll ever get my pre-crash confidence back but I’m still managing to ride quicker and hit gnarlier stuff (for me!) And definitely enjoying it as much as ever. But it isn’t compulsory, there are many other ways to pass the time if you find it can’t be fun again.

Good luck!

Massive crash 2 yrs ago, unconscious, ambulance, few days in hospital, plastic surgery, still got some problems, then 8 weeks to the day later got taken out in the velodrome, unconscious again and another ambulance, whiplash. Getting back on MTB after a month was OK but lots of demons and eventually after 3 or 4 months went on a skills session on same trails as crash, which sorted me. Still not been back to velodrome and not sure I want to….

The accident was a result of a series of very poor decisions when sleep deprived and physically and mentally tired on the first day of long weekend away from my wife and few month old baby.

I had 6 week old twins at home when I had my off so I’m sure my concentration wasn’t what it would have been normally.

Part of me wants to ride as soon as possible but another part is scared of random stuff happening which is out of my control – I’ll see how I feel once I get back on it but may need some help.

Ajantom – I can relate to your comments – mtb is such a part of my life but the randomness of it is the freaky bit

Sorry to hear your crocked…….me too from a relatively innocuous but high speed off at Antur back in March resulting in an unknown tear to my rotator cuff that over the next three months got worse (aided by two more minor stacks landing on the same elbow pad) 😆
I’m still having to have physio to now free up the joint capsule (frozen shoulder as a direct result of the initial injury).
Had many bad injuries playing rugby over the years and the best thing that I always found was to forget about the injury, go back into it full bore ie make that first big hit (ideally in training rather than first match back) and play like you mean to win…..I’ve seen too many people cause themselves more injuries going into a game from a previous injury because they were playing scared!
I use the same approach with the MTB, I have my limits of skill when it comes to riding so try not to attempt and massive jumps or huge drops, ie DH black runs at upliit centres as I know I may kill myself trying but I am perfectly at home honing down the Reds and Blues (with armour for when I do crash to minimise hopefully any injury). Once my shoulders strong enough and mobile enough I’ll be doing some more uplift days and back on the tetchy XC trails.
You can’t stop random events causing you injury…….control what you can control, don’t worry about the rest.

I did a lot of ww kayaking until a few years ago when I lost 2 friends in 2 days and had just had my little lad. Head wasnt in the right place and my heart went out of it.

Haven’t been in a ww boat since then and I’m only just starting to get the urge back. Done loads of biking since then though.

Don’t be afraid to walk away, there will be something else and you can always come back when you’re ready to.

Just thought I would share my similar experience.

I’ve just started riding again after a big off left me with concussion, a broken arm and collarbone.

I went through exactly the same as you and decided to ride more xc stuff and in a much more conservative way.

I’ve just started trail centre and natural dh riding again but mentally I put it down to the same as any other sport- knowing when to attack (familiar rides, with other riders) and when to back off ( blind or new trails or solo riding).

Confidence coming back slowly but still have the odd squeaky bum moment where the fear gets the better of the bravery- just walk away and wait for the right time to go for it. It does come back!

Having a similar debate myself…
I’ve done loads of risky sports over the years: skydiving, rock climbing, mountaineering, MTB, road cycling and the only one I’ve seriously hurt myself is the MTB – 1x broken collar bone 2007, 1x broken scapula 2008, and hoping the doc signs off my broken wrist in 2 days time. I had the collarbone plated and then the plate removed, and I now have a plate in my wrist.

I’m pretty conservative as a rider when it comes to risk and after the 2007/8 breaks I took some skills training which definitely helped my flow and reduced the number of potential incidents, but the wrist was just a small slip – wasn’t riding particularly risky at all. As I write, 2 friends in the Lakes who are superb riders are recovering from offs – one with a broken ankle, the other with multiple breaks. I conclude from this that neither skill nor training nor riding conservatively can eliminate serious crashes…

I do note that I do many more miles on a road bike these days in a given week than I did even at my peak of MTB and a fall is very rare indeed, whereas MTB, crashes are pretty regular, just part of the sport. Most of time there’s no major injury, but sometimes there is.

For me the crux of it is what the impact of a crash is one the rest of your life re your family, job and overall health. I’m a contractor and I’ve been unpaid for the last month as I couldn’t fulfil my contract and now have to find more work. I can’t afford to do this regularly or get a reputation for being a contractor who invalids himself on a regular basis. At 42 the chances of a less than perfect recovery are also higher than they used to be. Broken bones aren’t necessarily 100% recoverable either – my left shoulder is still slightly limited in movement and right shoulder, the scar catches on the bone or the bone is a little sore on wet days. I’m praying the wrist has no long term issues.

It’s a balance though, 30,000 people a year in UK die of obesity-related conditions, a lady I was working with got a stress fracture from running a half-marathon so nothing’s entirely risk-free.

I think I’m bailing from MTB for now to see how much I miss it, and stick to road for the time being.

All the people who have had a few big crashes, what type of pedals do you use? Spds or flats?

Dude, come down asap. Or get on the 20 with me and Atkins. Sometimes if you push your limits, the limits push back

My crashes weren’t as big as some of yours, but I’m a bigger coward so the mental effect was probably similar 🙂

Last September I had my third trip to A&E in just over a year (two with fractured arms) and decided to re-evaluate my approach to the sport. If nothing else, the fact that injuries take so much longer to recover from at 50 meant I was spending more time recovering than riding.

I decided that I wasn’t ready (yet) to return to the road, but I would focus more on getting out into the mountains and less on the technical stuff. It’s been nearly a year now without a visit to A&E so either it’s working or I’ve just been lucky.

A couple of things that I found to be adding to the risk were:

Trail centres. If you drive for a while in order to ride a loop that has been graded at a level that you think you should be able to cope with then you (or at least I) pretty much feel compelled to ride the whole thing whether I actually want to when I see it or not. I’m not anti-trail centre but I’ve had a few trail centre descents where I’ve reached the bottom and realised that I didn’t actually enjoy the ride and in all honesty I only did it to prove to myself that I could.

Strava. Realising that over half of the people who rode a section did it faster than you can make you (OK, just me again) want to ride it faster just for the sake of it. Telling myself that it’s not 50% of people at all (most folk probably wouldn’t ride it at all and I’m only looking at the percentage of people keen enough to post their times on Strava) doesn’t help. Nor does the obvious fact that riding it faster won’t necessarily make it any more fun but just increase the risk of crashing. It really is quite corrosive, but something I still find hard to ditch.

I’m glad chiefgrooveguru mentioned the bike. Obviously crashes have more to do with your skill and sense than what you ride, but the bike still has a part to play and some bikes give you more of a margin to play with than others. Long, low, slack, big wheels should all help. Maybe a bit shorter at the back if you care about speed on the ups (although I’m not so sure on that).

Anyway, hope you feel better soon.

Pedals are flats but I don’t think it made any difference

Tony – will take you up on that once I’m on the move again

julians – Member
All the people who have had a few big crashes, what type of pedals do you use? Spds or flats?

POSTED 19 MINUTES

SPD’s, why ?

As an impartial observer I can tell you what doesn’t work

Go OTB and break some bones
Come back after a few months off a stone heavier and covered in plastic
Crash first time out and rupture your spleen
Never ride again
Just saying like

GWS and good luck

Dude you love riding. It won’t leave you

I had a bad accident on the road with a car and was lucky to only miss a month of work, I’ve not been very comfortable riding on road in traffic since and tend to avoid it where possible. I feel things are much more in my control off-road though, without the traffic, so it hasn’t affected mtbing significantly, though maybe I do ride a bit more sensibly perhaps as I really don’t want to break a bone again.

You’ll get confidence back with time though.

Tony – I know. Just having a conversation about new frame. Its the balance of buzz v risk I need to work out

Strava. Realising that over half of the people who rode a section did it faster than you can make you (OK, just me again) want to ride it faster just for the sake of it. Telling myself that it’s not 50% of people at all (most folk probably wouldn’t ride it at all and I’m only looking at the percentage of people keen enough to post their times on Strava) doesn’t help. Nor does the obvious fact that riding it faster won’t necessarily make it any more fun but just increase the risk of crashing. It really is quite corrosive, but something I still find hard to ditch.

This. I’ve had two high-speed offs in the last two months, nothing like as serious as some of those reported here – just some nasty lacerations, bruised ribs etc. One my fault, one probably not so much. I’ve just got no confidence leaning the bike over now, I’m grabbing brakes when I shouldn’t, so I’ve had to make a conscious effort to back right off until I can ride smoothly, then riding at that pace.

So perhaps use this time of shattered confidence to practice riding stuff smoothly and technically correctly rather than at the ragged edge.

SPD’s, why ?

just interested really, i found when I switched to spds i went from not particularly accident prone to massively accident prone overnight, so much so that I went from never wearing pads to having to wear pads on every ride for fear of injury, it stayed that way until I switched back to flats 6 months later.

for me spds massivly increased my incidence of injury, was just idly wondering if spds were a common factor amongst people of here who were accident prone.

id say everything chiefgrooveguru has said there makes sense (which is surely a first 😉 )

2 offs in a couple of months left me with a broken hand and messed up head, in several ways, did think about jacking it all in, but now like to think im taking control a bit more

backpack with spine armour, proper bike setup, appropriate tyres etc all adds up to safer and more fun riding

for me spds massivly increased my incidence of injury, was just idly wondering if spds were a common factor amongst people of here who were accident prone.

. I think it may be a factor for folk who switch between flats and SPD’s, or those who have recently gone from flats. In my case I have used SPD’s for 20 yrs, so not sure its a factor. And flats and armour not allowed on the track 😀

Strava is something I’ve been thinking about being the root of some issues along with competitive nature of those I ride with. Pleased I get down most descents in the top 10-20% of riders but it pushes me to the edge too often and I think riding it smoother might be better in the long run especially on trails where there is higher risk or ones I dont know as well ( which is where I came off)

What spine protection backpacks is everyone wearing?