After a fun unplanned dismount yesterday after the winding and general stuff wore off the last issue was a wrist.

Given my sunglasses slipped just as I popped a lip I basically ended up in the air unable to see so not entirely certain how I landed (except the big scrape on my chin bar .. stomach/chest and back of my right hand/wrist)

Basically it looks like helmet, elbow and knee pads all worked as intended… and my right hand almost certainly slid back down… (so I didn’t reach out but presumably used the elbow pads to roll) .. landing on my chest/stomach somewhat winded me but in a “I’ll be OK when I can breath” way.  (Having had the air knocked out of me a few times this wasn’t too bad … and although I couldn’t speak for a few minutes I was able to give the kid thumbs up..)

5 minutes later, I thought I’d completely got away with it… barring loss of skin… but then my wrist got worse and worse and despite strapping up puffed up like an angry puffer fish.  Had I been alone I’d have come home but it was a weekend treat for Jnr so I tried to battle on and do some smooth flow trails or just small jumps where I could control the bike without having to wrench the bars… or need to grip too tight.

ANYWAY … got x-ray last night and apparently not broken .. then it’s still immobile today until I got really naffed off … strapped it to a chin-up bar and gave it a big wrench …. loud crunch and suddenly it feels 90% better and mobile enough to use lightly…. an hour later it still feels much better?  (OK probably not the best but it felt like it needed a click)

Had it not been xray’d I’d be thinking it had been partially dislocated but surely that can’t be missed on an Xray??

I’m rather happy the pain is almost gone and it’s mobile so question is really more about recovery…

Experiences?

Busted collarbone, very sore for weeks.

I’m not sure my response to a swollen and immobile wrist would be to wrench it with a bar but hey, sounds like it worked.

Doesn’t sound great. If relying on the nhs if you go back to see them you won’t get it scanned and looked at thoroughly anytime soon – but they’d probably get there eventually as they did with my shoulder and back in the last 5 years (mri scans / cotizone injection for aggregated nerve after bulged discs / op to reattach torn off tissue in my shoulder).

In the short term I’d ice and rest for a few days and see what happens. If the swelling goes down I’d just be careful with it and see if it feels normal. If it stays swollen / painful for more than a few days I’d start the process of getting it looked at by visiting your doctor for a referral.

Not a clue what you did by wrenching it on a chin up bar – I don’t think that would have been my course of action – but it sounds like it’s done something!!

Most of my OTB injuries tend to come from the bike rather than the ground, two in the Alps last week at relatively low speed so ended up landing on knees & hands (covered with pads & gloves), but took the brunt of the force of the bike though pedals hitting ankles and frame clattering my shins to end up with some lovely bruises!

I tend to crash little & often!

Grade 2 ACJ separation last September,   hurt like a b@$tard for weeks, had 6 weeks off the bike and still twinges now from time to time.

What could be missed on Xray is a meniscus tear in the wrist. Maybe the wrench with the bar moved a minor tear back into place to ease the pain. Very similar to what happens to my knee (meniscus goes out of place and is extremely painful, certain movement pops it back in and it’s like nothing is wrong). I should imagine the wrist has a similar set up.

My worst OTB injuries have come from my head colliding with something on the way over. Tree being the worse, metal fence a close second. Helmet helped with the first, but the whiplash action cracked a vertibra. The second left me with a large bump on my forehed.

Had a OTB moment at BPW a couple of weeks ago, my head hit first then landed heavily on my right wrist and as I was lying there assessing what hurt I saw my bike hurtling towards me as it landed on my head!!

Good news my Fox lid did an excellent job and on the day I thought I’d heavily sprained my wrist, no more riding for the day but somehow managed a 3hr drive home.

Next day wrist swollen significantly so went to A&E who confirmed fractured wrist and finger, lots of initial pain but after 2 weeks pain pretty much gone replaced with a dull ached and fingers etc. now working ok, 3 more weeks till I get the cast of so 6 weeks off the bike in total.

Mine was head shoulder and punched myself in the ribs not a great combo. Though previous ones have resulted in breaks in the hand

Collarbone for me. Two weeks before surgery, then six healing, followed immediately by a lower back injury (which may or may not have been exacerbated by the bad form I had with the broken collarbone) that kept me off the bike for more than a year.

OTB to face plant following a weird landing from a drop and a blown out rear tyre.

Really badly winded and blood pissing out of my face. Managed to walk back to my car, wasn’t far away as I’d only just started my ride, but can’t remember how, lost about 20 minutes of memory. Fortunately no broken bones though.

I OTB’d on Saturday when a branch flicked up on the Verderers descent and stopped my front wheel dead. Resulted in the spoke tearing out of my carbon rim and writing off the wheel.

As for me, I landed predominantly on my left wrist and shoulder with a few other grazes from contact with the trail. My helmet made contact with the ground but I think my arms took the brunt of it. I got an x-ray on the wrist yesterday but it showed no bone damage and it’s already feeling better, if a little purple. Good job as I’ve got BPW and Ardrock coming up on the calendar. I thought the worst when it happened but, expensive wheel and some skin aside, I seem to have escaped reasonably unscathed.

OTB at BPW a few years ago, clipped in. Hurt like a mother ****. Tried to stand up lower leg went one way upper leg the other…carried out 🙁

Week later knee still wouldnt bend, surgery for torn cartilage, they also found my acl was nut snapped but actually intact it just was attatched at one end to a bit of bone that wasnt attached to the rest of my leg…surgery again a few months later 🙁

OTB caused by a big rock on the landing about 7 years ago.  Blew my right shoulder out of the socket, hairline fracture in my jaw, broken right wrist, broken nose (as in exploding blood everywhere), put a tooth through my lower lip, hairline fracture to my left eye socket, compressed my lower back significantly and knocked myself out for a good 30 mins  ( only found out when looking at my GPS trace 3 weeks later!!).  Still managed to get back to the car, which was 4 miles away, get changed, load the bike in the roof somehow and drive nearly all the way home before having a panic attack on the motorway when nearly home.  Got home and unloaded the car somehow before a mate took me to hospital where I went into shock in the waiting room.  Off work for 3 months and off the bike for 5 months.  The bike had a few scratches and the front tyre was a bit torn.

I don’t know if I remember it or I made it up but my abiding memory is not of the hospital but of getting back to the car at Glyncorrwg and the old guy who looks after the place staring at me as I walked into the car park and saying “Bloody he’ll, you alright!!??!” and me just saying “Yep, just a few cuts and bruises.” 😲

I’m not sure my response to a swollen and immobile wrist would be to wrench it with a bar but hey, sounds like it worked.

Yeah it just felt like it needed a good crack… (my shoulders do this all the time and I fierce them back and they pop and feel better) but it felt like cracking your knuckles type … ???

What could be missed on Xray is a meniscus tear in the wrist. Maybe the wrench with the bar moved a minor tear back into place to ease the pain. Very similar to what happens to my knee (meniscus goes out of place and is extremely painful, certain movement pops it back in and it’s like nothing is wrong). I should imagine the wrist has a similar set up.

That sounds very plausible …. (and having a torn meniscus in one knee I know that feeling… quite possibly what caused me to do the pull it hard… )

With my knee its usually extension screws it up… (just going downstairs) then it just needs stretching and it seems to line up again…

Good news my Fox lid did an excellent job and on the day I thought I’d heavily sprained my wrist, no more riding for the day but somehow managed a 3hr drive home.

My not that expensive FF did a great job… TBH I’m a bit fuzzy on the actual crash so I might have briefly blacked out (or not??) .. probably new helmet time but since most of the teeth on that side are reconstructed following a previous crash not wearing a FF it did a fantastic job where I’d have otherwise landed on my jaw… hard to say if I blacked out really as the initial shock was the getting hit in the stomach and ribs… I guess since I woke up this morning the immediate danger has gone.

Having broken my arm last year (then waited 2 days after driving home) … I’m firmly in the get the bikes home first school… got an immediate driving ban last year for breaking my arm (overturned after a week by the specialist at the fracture clinic) and really really don’t want to leave 2 bikes in the car in a hospital dark park overnight!

Doesn’t sound great. If relying on the nhs if you go back to see them you won’t get it scanned and looked at thoroughly anytime soon – but they’d probably get there eventually as they did with my shoulder and back in the last 5 years (mri scans / cotizone injection for aggregated nerve after bulged discs / op to reattach torn off tissue in my shoulder).

Yeah… I kinds used up my one shot with the NHS… I guess Gloucester or Bristol might have more experience with bike injuries but I didn’t want to get trapped there overnight…

In the short term I’d ice and rest for a few days and see what happens. If the swelling goes down I’d just be careful with it and see if it feels normal. If it stays swollen / painful for more than a few days I’d start the process of getting it looked at by visiting your doctor for a referral.

Amazingly its got better and better in the last 2 hours… the swelling has hugely gone down since giving it a good wrench… it looks more or less normal… last night it looked like a balloon….

Last night I struggled with my elbow pad on the opposite arm and ended up using a belt round my foot to get it off… and this morning felt no better … right now I’d be able to do that no problem.

Somehow I hit or otherwise hurt my throat as well…?  Not sure how…. and the bad wrist is on my otherwise unmarked left hand… whereas my right hand is a mass of lost skin… but otherwise fine.  Still don’t remember what happened to the bike though at least it seems not to have hit me…

Not a clue what you did by wrenching it on a chin up bar – I don’t think that would have been my course of action

The meniscus theory sounds good… I guess I was also inspired by watching Rachel A at FW and ‘just pull the f***ing shoulder’ when she dislocated it… I’ll never ride anywhere even close to her riding but I can take inspiration all the same!

Surely if you hung from a bar your wrist is actually in compression as all the muscles gripping the bar are running though your wrist?

Just as an experiment at my desk I can pull my fingers with the other hand and feel the joint open up and click back again when I release, but if I make a hook with my fingers on each hand together like i was holding a bar and pull nothing happens.

I suppose what might have happened (sticking with the cartilage theory)  is hanging would encourage the muscles, bones, tendons and cartilage to all pull into the most neutral position, which is hopefully the right one if evolution has done its thing, so some soft tissue might have popped back into place.

Nothing like the OP, but my last OTB resulted in a bruised knee as I landed on the bank of the canal…just before I slid into said canal. Body undamaged, pride destroyed.

My last OTB was on a completely innocuous bit of trail at Gisburn; bunny hopped a puddle, wheel ended up just off the trail in a little depression, I ended up bouncing off a tree.

I gingerly rode the trails to the next bit of fireroad, then took fireroad back to the car.  I felt OK but my knee was hurting.  I got home, washed the bike, put my clothes in the washer and got in the shower (about 2 hours after the crash).  My knee then suddenly started hurting a lot and I fell over in the shower.

Only soft tissue but hurt like hell for two days, then was perfectly fine.  Odd.

Last OTB was on the road last summer, resulting in superficial cuts to the back of my hands, arms and face because I landed still holding the bars. More to the point that meant I took almost all of the impact on my chin resulting in a severe concussion, chipped teeth and a slow brain bleed that was only discovered a couple of months later when I thought I was having a stroke, ended up needing emergency holes drilled in my head to sort that out.

I’m a sucker for a comedy OTB, and this week is no exception. Riding in sintra, Portugal (cool and overcast would you believe): front wheel stopped dead on a big rock over I plop, whacking the side of my left knee on a boulder, and bashing my head of a tree. Helmet and pads did their stuff, or so I thought. Rode on til the end of the day, with the knee gradually stiffening. Three days later I can barely walk. Better get it looked at when we get back!

OTB yesterday after hitting sand flat out, landed into patch of nettles side on, go over being winded quite quick so carried on riding but had to give up after another 10miles as any bumps were hurting, currently nursing bruised ribs(i don’t think they are cracked) and a nice swollen thumb that I appear to have bent back.

Lost count of OTBs, but last was on commute. Hit car turning right as I sped up bus lane. Flew over boot of car and did an invert, landing on back of head and then rucksack and feet slammed down. Lying on back on tarmac thinking “I’m basically unhurt”. And I wasn’t hurt.

Friend reminded me of one a few years ago on section around Edale loop to Jacobs. He calls it Innocuous Ben as it is just a transition to the next descent (albeit quite quick and rocky). Lost front wheel and slalomed around before being pitched over bars. Made a sound akin to a pregnant cow whilst in the superman before sliding along rocks on right side with right arm extended above my head. Ended up with skinned forearm, cracked ribs, big bruise on right abdomen, huge bruise on right thigh, skinned right shin. Left side untouched. Probably as much pain as I’ve ever been in, didn’t know which bit to rub first! Completed ride down Jacobs (albeit gingerly). Psychological wounds took longest to heal!

Currently in plaster…

Go OTB, ouch I think thats my wrist busted.
Go to hospital – ‘We don’t think its broken as nothing is showing on the x-ray’
Me – ‘Are you sure? I am pretty sure its bust and I am sure thats a crack you can see on this shot on the x-ray’ (to be fair to them it was fairly feint and only visible on 1 of the 5 angles)
Them – ‘Well here’s a splint for now just in case, come back in a couple of weeks and we’ll check again.’

2 weeks later …

Doctor – ‘So your Scaphoid is broken just here….’
Me – ‘yes, I know’

The point here being that X-Rays are not all that reliable at the best of times.

I have just had an experience I have been to the Forest of Dean riding the trails above Canop ponds 4 different runs without incident, I was going down the dirt double track just about to join the fire road to climb up and head back to the cycle centre when I was catapulted over the bars a real what the **** moment got a bruised right hip and grazes on right forearm then the bike joined in got four scores down the arm from pedal pins bruised shoulder and cuts and bruises just above knee pads which earlier had done their job  perfectly . Somehow managed to flick a stick up and through the front wheel . Definitely now have a better side !

Having gone 60 years without ever breaking / cracking a bone .my worst otb was last year while out in the Eastern Cheviots ..not going particularly fast my forward momentum was stopped by a rather large rock hiding in the heather ..I landed on the left side of my back and either broke or cracked some ribs ..I was dying to know what the damage actually was but they don’t x-ray for damaged ribs as there is bugger all they can do other than prescribe pain-killers ..

Anyone who has done some damage in that area will know all about how much fun it is to cough , sneeze or have someone make you laugh !

Riding again ( gently ) in six weeks ..but it was fully six months before they were completely pain free ..

Touch wood ..but I’ve been really lucky compared to some poor buggers…

Hmm, most recent,  a five inch cut on my thigh has just healed, caused by the bike landing on me. A few years ago, I broke a few ribs when I landed on a log. Many years ago, when I was a lot younger and bendier, I had an otb at speed, managed to go full scorpion and kick myself in the back of my head.

My last OTB should of been on Seldom Seen, it felt like I was on the front wheel for an age then it just dropped back down again. It was a proper am I going over or not moment!

I started MTB’ing in the late 1980’s in the days of rigid bikes and super long stems.  I can’t ever recall having an OTB back then except when practicing endos.

Today, on a hardtail with suspension forks I have had many OTBs, despite riding not nearly as hard as I did in my younger days.  Am I the only one who thinks suspension forks are linked to OTBs being more common?

 Am I the only one who thinks suspension forks are linked to OTBs being more common?

Nah I have LLS and it’s saved me loads, maybe you need to adapt your technique a little

Grade 2 seperated shoulder. Was going fast, busted a couple of ribs too. Back on the bike a few weeks later sending it because I’m a legend

My worst OTB incidents resulting in injury have been in urban areas. The most unpleasant was on way back from DIY store with 6ft of dowel strapped to frame. Decided to take shortcut down small flight of concrete steps. While trying to get SPDs to clip in. Couldn’t manage it so decided to brake (WTF!?!?). Broke a tooth. Pretty sure I had flashbacks of the concrete rushing towards my head for a few months. Was the first breakage I ever suffered.

Broken fingers, bust ribs, fractured vertebra (OTB landing on head). All different incidents. Though two of them involving OTB down a drop.

The worst ones at least. Been many other OTBs with a few scrapes, cuts, sprains and numerous bruised ribs (a couple though from skiing).

I started MTB’ing in the late 1980’s in the days of rigid bikes and super long stems.  I can’t ever recall having an OTB back then except when practicing endos.

Today, on a hardtail with suspension forks I have had many OTBs, despite riding not nearly as hard as I did in my younger days.  Am I the only one who thinks suspension forks are linked to OTBs being more common?

Now you mention it ….. honestly hadn’t thought about it in those terms but

I guess part of this is relying on the bike to get you out of trouble?

I’m not sure I’m riding not nearly as hard as in my younger days but I am riding differently…. but also different places.

I remember an OTB near Olso around the millennium… I was riding a ski trail in summer .. went over a bridge and the other side of the bridge was just big (1-2′) angular granite blocks..(presumably in winter these were packed with snow)). somehow I managed to land without a severe injury (broken arm) but death or paralysis were probably very close…  (they were really big and sharp rocks – I guess I must have mostly landed on a flat part but hitting me head or spine on the sharp pointy bit that snapped my arm would have been very nasty)

I had another OTB on Saturday … just came off a drop off and ended up in a non-finished rock garden of 6″ loose stones… failed to make the turn on the berm and went over the berm… other than nettle stings nothing bad at all..(well landed in those sticky seeds which was the worst bit – ended up pulling them out of clothing for ages 😀 ) . but I doubt I’d have ever been riding that run on a rigid …

That said my last rigids and CrMo bikes (excepting the current jump bike) didn’t have such short stems and seat stays so I’d have landed differently … but not necessarily unhurt????

Considering all of the riding we do, myself and my son have done pretty well…until Saturday. He came off his road bike when the rider next to him had his hands slip on the bars and lost control taking both of them to the floor. He got to his feet, but my son didn’t…

After checking him out, only his shoulder was in serious pain so an ambulance was called and he was ferried off for inspection. Fortunately, x-ray revealed no bone damage and by the end of the day, he was back playing with his friends.

We completed the weekend by undertaking a carefully designed sports injury recovery program** and it’s all forgotten again. Kids bounce really well 🙂

(** Red loop at Dalby)

Worst was broken finger after going over bars when car hit me from side road.  Stubbed my middle finger into ground and bent sideways by 45 degrees.  3 operations later and finger still doesn’t bend so I have a finger sticking out from bars when riding and the chords shapes I use on guitar are interesting!

In contrast last year rode across a 5 inch drop onto sticky mud – bike stopped dead but I carried on.  Straight over bars and landed flat on back after a straight somersault.  Got up and rode off with not a single pain due to the soft landing.

I’d like to think that one day in the future some archaeologists are going to start digging up mountain bikers and start some crazy theory about a hardy if somewhat overweight warrior race from the North… 😂😂😂

I know my rib cage, collar bone and right ankle and toes will make comedy viewing ! (Plus my skull but those are none bike related childhood crunches…)

Back OT, for some reason it’s almost always the rhs of my rib cage that gets it. Must be something I unconsciously do on my way over the front…  Collarbone has been the victim of body slamming a tree and also discovering how badly CX bikes work in ice without studs.  Ankle was a bizarre car park injury that had nothing to do with bikes other than resulting in the most time off the bike of any of my injuries.  Toes/foot – well … there was a horse that stood on my foot while I was wearing Converse…

Many OTB’s but 3 of any note.

1. Resulted in a dislocated & broken thumb. That hurt, and it still hurts now after big days on the bike.

2. A broken scaphoid, another broken bone in wrist & a load of knackered tendons. Still have limited movement & it hurts now, even 3 years later.

3. Big OTB in a race, from hitting another rider. Broken collar bone, fractured shoulder, 3 broken ribs & a sternoclavicular dislocation. Just over 12 months ago. Have basically carried on riding, albeit in limited capacity. Can just about manage one press up. Awaiting further surgery.