What's the best tactic after falling off at age 46?

I feel a bit ashamed about falling off yesterday at Laggan. I was behind my 6 year old son! I thought I would get some air on a table top but balls it up and came down on my shoulder. Now in pain and useless at home. Wife making me a cuppa now. Can’t drive so might not be able to go to work tomorrow.

Anyway, the point is what do I do now? I’ve been mountain-biking for years and when I used to fall off, it didn’t hurt too much. But boy it hurts now: I guess it will be a week off work and advice from a physic about my shoulder.

So should I:

a) give it up
b) get a full sus (currently on cotic soul with 100mm forks)
c) get some body armour (currently use long sleeves and trousers, which saved alot of grief)
d) keep at it but leave the table tops to the kids.
e) get some proper coaching and practice until I’m good at jumps.

Cheers

Just let it heal and carry one as before, If you arent buggering it every ride then dont worry about it, everyone has an occasional off. I’m 43 and knackered my shoulder last year, that was about a month off the bike. (I dont do things like table tops mind, I messed up a big drop-off)

Mix of D and E

oh and ice

e) get some proper coaching and practice until I’m good at jumps.

or just forget about the jumpy/getting air bit and realise that a split second of thrill seeking “air” time may lead to months of sitting on the sofa nursing broken bones and unable to ride.

And i dunno bout seeing a psychic?, do you see dead people?.

Your reactions aren’t getting any quicker & your body takes longer to heal. Ride within your limits.
I should know, I’m 56 & came off on Good Friday, landed on me nut & hurt my neck & I’m still not right. Body armour helps but won’t stop collarbones etc, getting broken.
Depends who you want to keep up with really.

Get back on the horse and go back to basics. 😀
Oh,and what are the trails like at Laggan,still look like they are being used/maintained?

d)

I am a year older and would say D

And FWIW I am selling my full susser and getting a Soul 🙂

I am the same age broke my ribs twice on the bike in 12 months.

Had a Hernia op.

2 weeks with back locked out and could not move.

I did not for a second think I would stop riding.

I am getting tired of building up my fitness and then having to do it all again a few months later, but hay ho.

I am lucky (unlike a few of my riding mates) that my wife, although she does not ride, supports me doing it, ( although there was a bit chat with my current injury)

But I would say. I do it because it’s fun if it ever stops being fun I will look for something else to do.

d)…

less airtime….
more slow-steep-technical-rocky-balance-stuff

Armour/pads, coaching & practise. No matter how old you are the ground will always win! Equip yourself to take the bail as it’s a matter of when, not if and get some proper advice on technique.

I’ve been mountain-biking for years

Probably some bad habits to iron out which is far easier with someone else to help.

Did your bar pull towards your stronger side as you tried to bunnyhop? It takes a while to get it, but quite a few coaches promote pushing the bike into the jump rather than hefting the whole thing up like a BMXer. Dirtschool and UKBikeskills are particularly good at this, choose the one you’re closest to. It’ll give your riding a boost as a whole too!

….however if you want B, my Glasgow based 5 will be on there classifieds in a week 🙂

Heal. D&E. Only a few years behind you and I want to keep progressive so don’t give up trying or riding!

E)

and

F) keep riding and practising, flat pedals for bailing

G) remember as you age it takes a little longer to heal so be patient

H) Enjoy

full suss if you want but if your techinque, karma, luck are out that day you will still hit the floor, and Mother Nature will win.

On another thread it was suggested about learning to fall does help, as an ex rugby player I seem to bounce fairly well, but mate who is all ex para martial arts rolls like a weeble, lots of scrapes but no major damage at 52.

Jeeez, you’re only 46, thats hardly old! Wait for it to heal, then get out and ride again. I’m 41, most of the people I ride with are older than me, and we don’t worry about a bit of air. Accidents happen, you could have been at home and fallen down the stairs, instead you were out with your son having fun.

Get back on. Resume normal routine. You had a bad day. You’re 46 not 64.

Thanks everyone for your helpful feedback.

I am lucky in that my wife hasn’t once said ‘you shouldn’t……etc’. instead she poured my a whisky mac, which I can recommend as better for you than Ibuprofen (unless you have alcohol issues of course).

Laggan good fun: some work has been down to tidy up the trails on the lower red. Although the bike shop and cafe are now gone, there is a really nice guy there called Davy ho is selling venison burgers etc from a trailer at weekends. Nice pancakes too. ‘The Billy Can’ its called. It was nice to see it so busy yesterday as its a great little centre – still has the rustic charm that Glentress used to have.

My inclination seems to be keep it light – thinking of getting rid of my rock shocks in favour of rigids and maybe go for 1*10 gears. Don’t think I’m fit enough for single speed unfortunately but I like the ideal of it.

I’m doing the Glentress 7 in a few weeks and I’m not sure suspension forks make much difference to me, but weight definitely does.

I’ll save the full sus for the occasion hire day to give it a blast and save myself £3000.

Make sense?

Yeah, crack on. When your better, go back & nail the jump & tick it off the fear list. I’m 55 and while my skills are getting better recovery times don’t. Some crashes are inevitable but the 661 body padded top & Deviant FF helps,

D. E might stop you crashing a bit, but won’t make it hurt any less when you do.

That makes sense, although you might find a lighter suspension fork a lot kinder than rigid. Also, watch the climbs if going 1 x 10 – don’t mess up your knees.

(Oh, and my 5 will be about a third of that 🙂 )

Hopefully by now you’ve worked out that its going to be best to get back on your bike and minimise the amount of air to suit?

Ice and heat are your friends and so long as you’re sure it’s not broken, use your arm as much as possible. Avoid strapping it.

My exact same experience of injured shoulder (no air induced fall) occurred about 4 weeks ago, since then I’ve continued to work in my chosen trade and spent a fantastic week skiing. I’m off out for a ride in a couple of hours. Yes, I’m something of a hero! 😉 I turned 50 in the meantime…

MTFU?

E

And possibly D

My wife always used to ask me why I like MTB. “Each time you go out, you either break yourself or the bike. What’s the point?” She had a point, but then helped by buying me some skils coaching! Lots of washing up in return from my end!!!

Dignitas

@dashcroft it is a sad reality that the older you get the longer is the recovery time from “incidents” the answer to your question lies in E together with taking things a little more progressively. Falls are inevitable and IMO part of the fun

FYI I am posting this with an ice pack on my knee will,be doing the physio “reps” next, haven’t ridden bike or done much of anything else for 4 months since busting my knee skiing. It’s an inconvenience but I’ll take the risk of injury and rehab over sitting and doing nothing.

Im nearly 55 and I still come off. It happens. Dust youself off rest recover, takes a bit more now, go and repeat. Lifes too short to give up.

Dislocated my sholder at 6000′ in Spain Sierra Nevada in a OTHB moment at the snow line alone and hour half away from road. Not good. Thankfully bike was ok, I slapped hand on bar and rode down and back to hotel and A&E 🙂 Ok that hurt but you get over it.

A full sus is a lot more capable bike but isnt a skill repaclement. Just ride more 🙂

F use public transport?

Get a road bike. I’m considerably fitter now at 56 than I was before I took up road riding and in 5500 miles I haven’t fallen off…. yet….. maybe 20 years of mountain biking have given me good handling skills.

Sunday morning and you’ve already decided that you’re taking a week off work due to sore shoulder (“guess its a week off work = i will be off work, and im assuming you work mon-fri) ………you work in the public sector, dont you??

SiB…bit of a negative view on public sector workers there? Have a look at their revised sickness management instructions certainly in Local Gov, very very different from the preconceptions.

D&E

Your never too old to learn, but if you can’t do something then giving in is sometimes the better option.

Its all about confidence. Hesitancy will now be in the back of your mind if you are worried about stacking it. Hesitance will lead to you mincing and no doubt there will be another off. Commitment and confidence with hitting jumps (and reasonable technique) is where you need to be.. but then theres the running out of talent bit too. Skills course to learn good technique and take your lad to a pump / bmx track… good work out and good to work on building confidence and technique. Maybe take up judo with your lad as its good for learning how to fall properly for the next time.. as you will fall off again at some point.

F) Get back on sharpish and do it again.

Learn how to jump properly and you probably won’t fall off as much.

vondally…….I am a public sector servant, I would be looking at weeks off!

😆

I realised i wasnt a stuntman when i landed on my head at the Glentress skills park. Now realise, as previous poster says, a split second of air aint worth a month off the bike. Horses for courses i suppose, so i leave the extreme stuff to those that want to do it and enjoy riding me bike my way.

“The ground will always win..” +1

The force of Earth’s gravity on (= the weight of) a human being with a mass of 70 kg is approximately 686 N.

BTW, that 661 body armour is Subgear:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=72484

As commented, it won’t help your ribs unless there is something to stick into you (rock, phone, hand, bars etc), but that is common. Good for compression too and not too warm.

Getting air looks good and feels good, but there’s probablities involved.

One of those probablilities is paraplegia.

No matter how much better those odds can be mitigated by skills courses etc, it’s unappealing to me, so I keep my wheels on the ground.

If you want to be still riding in 20 years it might be a policy worth adopting and leave the flying to the young immortals who believe it will never happen to them.

Getting air riding bikes looks good and feels good, but there’s probablities involved.
One of those probablilities is paraplegia.

There is a world of difference between a small drop or table and sending it big.

If you want to give it a go do some get some skills. Sometimes getting a bit of air is the way out of the nasty crash not the cause

D and/or E. 45 and broke my collarbone in a similar situation. I leave it to my sons, and never had a mtb background