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Vintage Veloce

Splat. Now Crutches.

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Four weeks ago I found a muddle section of trail in the AB desert, got wiggly and caught toe on the edge of the trail. Ouch, that hurt! Broke the bottom of my fibula and a piece off of the tibia. The Dr. put a plate and 7 screws in the fibula 2 weeks ago. The largest screw goes all the way through the fibula to hold it tightly to the tibula. 

My thanks again to Erik_26 and his son Preston who came and helped unload my bike the day after the crash.

The short story? Basically, I'm not very familiar with mud, and I should have been more cautious. And I was unlucky.

Tips?

  • Ride with a buddy. (I was alone and got myself out, luckily it wasn't far. I know, I know... buddy system!)
  • Wear great gear. I think my EVS Web Pro knee braces saved my knee. And my Sidi Crossfire boots may have prevented more damage to my foot and certainly supported my foot and akle so I could ride out.
  • Carefully check your map and look for the easiest way out... which may not be the way you rode in.  I found a shortcut, but later realized I could have taken an even shorter one.
  • Dr John Austin. Highly recommended.

Well, this is probably my worst body damage in 40 years of riding... hopefully I'll make it another 40 years without any more trouble!

Carl

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You’re part robot now, so you should be stronger than ever!  Heal up, ride again.

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Tip Four -  

Don't stab your foot down! Hard to fight the reflex.  

Can we all blame the boots?

Good luck with rehab

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I would blame the boots and the bike. After that happened to me I sold a perfectly good bike and gave away the boots. Now I have a better bike and boots.

I wish I had bought a knee scooter and not used crutches.

That screw work looks like some of my honeydo work, anyway heal up, it won't hurt for long..... OK that's a lie.

:(

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As it happened, I was certain my toe caught on the edge of the trail when things got wiggly. I was standing, so the feet were on the pegs. It did all happen very quickly and I have considered that maybe my toe caught the mud as I went down. But I remember being upright and the stabbing pain as my toe rotated outward! That memory is fairly embedded in my brain. Perhaps I should have been with my toes on the pegs, but I don't do that much as I like access to the brake and shifter. Does anyone pull their feet back and ride on their toes?

Actually, I'm certain my gear saved my knee! I was wearing my Sidi Crossfire boots, EVS Web Pro knee braces, Alpinestars Bionic protection jacket and my new Bell Moto-9 helmet.

I figure the boots saved my foot and the knee braces saved my knee ligaments. But something had to give... so it was the bone between the knee and foot. My hip was sore for about two weeks, but is fine. I know some guys with Asterisks tie the boot to the knee brace... I think if I had done that I might have wrecked my hip instead.

 

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Compliments to you for getting yourself out. I once rode 20 miles with two broken collar bones. It wasn't any fun at all.

Having my share of hardware, I can say your doctor did a nice job. I'm guessing you'll heal up just fine to ride another day.

 

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Oracle, that sound MUCH tougher than my ride!  I can't imagine manipulating the bars with broken collarbones.

For me the hardest parts involved stopping howling in my helmet, recovering and then getting the bike up and getting on the bike. I had to do all that hopping and standing on just one leg. And I couldn't even use my right foot my foot to push the side stand up because it hurt too much. I remember standing there next to the bike, on one foot, wondering if I could get the side stand up without falling over!

Once I was on the bike, it was very delicate, but I was relatively OK. I just held my right foot up and prayed there wasn't much sand. Almost lost it once... that would have been bad!

Dr Austin plans to remove all the hardware in 3 months, so it doesn't bother me in a boot or otherwise.

 

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25 minutes ago, Vintage Veloce said:

Sadly, It wasn't available... I'll have to add some stickers!

Kug stickers!!!

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11 hours ago, Vintage Veloce said:

Perhaps I should have been with my toes on the pegs, but I don't do that much as I like access to the brake and shifter. Does anyone pull their feet back and ride on their toes?

  Yes! Riding standing in the attack position is the proper default dirt riding position. Trust that you will find the shifter and the brake when you need them! Riding on the balls of the feet gives you one more flexible joint to allow for increased balance. Sitting and being flat footed just makes us a heavy bag of weight glued to the seat. I frequently look at the soles of my boots to see where I predominately place my feet and adjust my riding style as necessary. 

  I sure hope that you have a positive recovery! May you heal well my friend.

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20 hours ago, SoCalMule said:

  Riding on the balls of the feet gives you one more flexible joint to allow for increased balance.

Did some reading, and I guess a lot of guys do recommend getting up on the balls of your feet while standing, at least when you won't be needing to brake or shift. Of course they warn about moving your feet forward over jumps and guys talk about breaking ankles on landings. I might need to buy some ankle saver pegs... Like I said earlier, I am considering it, but it does seem like an awkward position.

C

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On 2/22/2019 at 7:18 AM, Bagstr said:

Can we all blame the boots?

 

 

On 2/22/2019 at 8:03 AM, Uncle Champ said:

I would blame the boots and the bike. After that happened to me I sold a perfectly good bike and gave away the boots. Now I have a better bike and boots.:(

Nope, we can't always blame the boots.  I fractured the fibula and tore up my right foot pretty good , having my very light 125 fall on it, bending and twisting it way in the wrong direction. This was back  on Memorial day, and I was wearing SIDI Crossfire boots.  The good news is that they are just like a cast , once you have to ride back in them.  In fact, I rode the rest of the trail ride with my friends, and they helped assist me in walking and starting my bike.  When we got back to the vehicles and I took the boot off, that's when the foot was able to swell up....and turn black by the next morning all the way to my toes.  Took about 6 months to really heal up.

Anyway, I hope you have a quicker recovery than I did.

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34 minutes ago, dirt dame said:

 

Nope, we can't always blame the boots.  I fractured the fibula and tore up my right foot pretty good , having my very light 125 fall on it, bending and twisting it way in the wrong direction. This was back  on Memorial day, and I was wearing SIDI Crossfire boots.  The good news is that they are just like a cast , once you have to ride back in them.  In fact, I rode

Same boots! Regardless, boots don't do anything to prevent the rotation of your toe outward or inward, rotating the lower leg axially. As I mentioned above, Asterix makes a tether to prevent rotation like this... but in my opinion that just pushes the rotation up your leg and puts your hip at real risk. 

The tether:

https://www.asterisk.com/products/anti-rotation-tethers

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9 hours ago, Vintage Veloce said:

Same boots! Regardless, boots don't do anything to prevent the rotation of your toe outward or inward, rotating the lower leg axially. As I mentioned above, Asterix makes a tether to prevent rotation like this... but in my opinion that just pushes the rotation up your leg and puts your hip at real risk. 

 

Yup, my body went in one direction...the boot and my foot went in the other, and I was glad it was my ankle and not my knee, because my knee did take a little of the twist and was slightly tender from the crash, but not seriously so.

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Heal up soon Carl and listen to the doc regarding proper rehab........hope to see ya back out on the trail once you're ready to rip.....

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I couldn't believe how long the butterfly bandages lasted, I finally pulled the remnants off this morning and cleaned things up a bit. And the wound looks great.

Slowly healing. Still not weight bearing... sigh.

But, I got some new stickers for the knee scooter!

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Doc went in and got the hardware out a couple weeks ago and the stitches came out last week. Finally walking again and start rehab tomorrow!

You can actually see the screw holes in the latest x-ray, pretty neat.

Buddy asked me to go riding this week... sadly, I need a bit longer. But I'm getting there.

 

 

IMG_20190506_212346.jpg

2019-05-20  (15 wks post surgery) ankle xray0.jpg

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Cool x-ray hopefully all healed by fall for next season for a redemption

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15 hours ago, Vintage Veloce said:

Doc went in and got the hardware out a couple weeks ago and the stitches came out last week. Finally walking again and start rehab tomorrow!

You can actually see the screw holes in the latest x-ray, pretty neat.

Buddy asked me to go riding this week... sadly, I need a bit longer. But I'm getting there.

 

 

IMG_20190506_212346.jpg

 

Now you perform your own "reconstruction" on the trail! :crying_anim02:

Balls of your feet on the pegs at all times...:good:

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Figured I've give a follow up! It's almost a year since my break, and I'm doing great. I can jog and jump on the injured foor, and doo calf raises, etc. Ankle is pretty strong and I've been out to the desert a couple times in the last two months. I'll be out there again next week! I suffer from a bit of "spookyness", meaning, I'm not completely comfortable all the time, mentally. But I'm riding OK and having fun. I think I just need a couple hundred dirt mikes without any problems to "clear my head"! I had q first real tumble on the second day of my first trip back, and it felt good to get up without any problems!

On the "toes in" stuff we talked about earlier in the thread: that isn't working very well for me. Interestingly, that is how I ride a street bike, but it seems a lot harder to shuffle my feet around on the dirt bike, especially while standing on the pegs. I stand most of the time, and if I'm on the balls of my feet it takes a funny weight shift to the other foot to move the foot forward to the brake/shifter and back. Also, with the boots and knee braces and tank getting the balls of my feet on the pegs isn't the easiest thing.

But don't worry, I'm motivated to figure it out. 😉

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