Motorcycle injuries

[CheesyRider]

How long were you physically unable to ride due to a motorcycle accident related injury?

[sammyseaman]

I voted 2 weeks.
Back in my dirtbike days I jacked up my back pretty good trying a double that a buddy made without his dad's permission. Overshot it  . Luckily it was a small double so I didn't have a ton of air under me but it still feckin' hurt like hell. If I did that now I'd be bed ridden for a month  

[CheesyRider]

I was rear ended on the freeway several years back.  My neck was screwed up for about a year, but I could have still gone riding had my motorcycle not been totaled.  Unfortunately, my wife will probably be unable to ride until at least August.  She broke her ankle in two places when she dropped her bike on an angled road surface.  She had been planning on upgrading her boots, but decided to get one of those neck braces first.

[RRdvark]

Got run over by a car many years ago (I was on the bike waiting to turn left).  Spent a month in the hospital but a friend brought his brand new RZ350 to the hospital to show me.  Wheeled me in my wheelchair (with a leg imobilizor) out to the parking lot to see.  I convinced him to help me on the saddle and kick start it so I could ride it around the parking lot in first gear.  That will really piss a nurse off, let me tell you.  I would have been 1 month + off a bike if not for that little joy ride.

[et]

Back in '88 on Christmas morning I crashed on icy roads while trying to avoid a deer.
I swerved too hard on the icy road, the bike did a 180, and I got thrown off the back.
I separated the AC joint in my right shoulder. And the bike slid engine first into a tree and got bent into a "V".

I learned several valuable lessons that morning.

• RC Cola is just as bad as booze. Caffeine screws up your judgement just as bad as alcohol.
• Although it may be raining and above freezing when you leave your house. It can easily drop below freezing in a shade covered turn.
• Black ice may be bad in a car. But it sucks on a bike.
• After you've crashed; count to 10 after you've stopped sliding. Because you probably haven't really stopped sliding.
  And standing up while you're still moving may hurt even more than the original crash.
• After you total your motorcycle; don't try to drive your Suzuki Samurai which has a manual transmission while your arm is in a sling.
  It really really sucks totaling your motorcycle one Sunday and then totaling your car then very next Sunday.
• We are all stupid during our college years.

--ET

[jay547]

i raced motocross for 22 years. i've broken about ten bones riding motorcycles. one of those kept me off bikes for about two years.

[squeezer]

Well, I've told this story before, but the worst injury laid me up in bed for about a week with a wrenched back.

I was late for work and hustling down one of Seattle's hills. A tow truck pulled out from the left, crossing the street right in front of me. I caught the driver's eye as I hammered the brakes, saw him mouth "Oh shit," and he punched it to get across the road. My rear wheel started to skid, turning me a bit left. I got off the rear brake, which popped me up straight again, and I ended up going around his rear bumper so close that I couldn't see any space.

Once I realized that, somehow, I was upright and traveling straight again, I stood up on the footpegs, swung around, and flipped him off.

That's when I hurt my back.

The moral is obvious.

[sammyseaman]

Well, I've told this story before, but the worst injury laid me up in bed for about a week with a wrenched back.

I was late for work and hustling down one of Seattle's hills. A tow truck pulled out from the left, crossing the street right in front of me. I caught the driver's eye as I hammered the brakes, saw him mouth "Oh shit," and he punched it to get across the road. My rear wheel started to skid, turning me a bit left. I got off the rear brake, which popped me up straight again, and I ended up going around his rear bumper so close that I couldn't see any space.

Once I realized that, somehow, I was upright and traveling straight again, I stood up on the footpegs, swung around, and flipped him off.

That's when I hurt my back.

The moral is obvious.

 

[Strog]

I sprained my ankle while riding offroad when a prairie dog hole kicked my front wheel out in a turn. I was wearing hightops (I was 16 and "full gear" was full faced helmet, gloves, denim jacket and jeans) and my left foot was caught between the ground and peg. It hurt but I still managed to shift to drive home.

I went skating with some friends the next day on that ankle. I just tightened that foot up as tight as I could and kept my weight on the other leg.  

Oh to be in high school again...no way.  

[Papa Lazarou]

I knelt on the road doing 75mph in 1980. Ground away sections of both kneecaps, dug a hole in my right leg. Medics told me I would never walk again. I did, about 4 months later took about 7 months before I could ride again.

I have lasting nerve damage in my right leg though.

[stratus17]

Two months in hospital for a broken pelvis.
Still have a metal plate inside. Doctors suggest I should keep it forever.

[black hills]

Streetbike injuries have been limited to dislocated hips and torn up knee, back on the bike in about a week.

Dirtbike injuries have been a little more serious. Broken hand had me off the bike for a month or so. 14 rib fractures took a month and a half to recover from.

The longest period off the bike was due to a skiing accident though, broken shoulder takes quite a while to recover from

[garry]

Lost most of a month due to a broken collarbone once. Skiing injuries are a whole nothing thing...

[Poweranger]

I had to have my spleen and a kidney removed due to a ATV accident when I was younger. But no street riding injuries.

[squeezer]

I knelt on the road doing 75mph in 1980. Ground away sections of both kneecaps, dug a hole in my right leg. Medics told me I would never walk again. I did, about 4 months later took about 7 months before I could ride again.

I have lasting nerve damage in my right leg though.

Wow. That "never walk again" comment must have been at least as frightening than anything else. Good on you for making it back and riding again.

[Papa Lazarou]

Wow. That "never walk again" comment must have been at least as frightening than anything else. Good on you for making it back and riding again.

Actually not frightening (although they didn't actually tell me-they spoke to each other about it in front of me), but it made me very angry. So   to them, I thought.

[Sparkey]

I hit a pot hole in the dark and flipped a KZ. Broken collar-bone and 3 days in Hospital from kidney bruising. Scars faded away from the road rash.

[dm_gsxr]

I could only estimate.

In 1990, someone in a pickup pulled out in front of me and I could see he wasn't looking at me. I tried to go around behind and ended up hitting the back left side near the wheel and flying over the truck. I spent a week in the hospital.

Don't know how long it would have taken to get back on as I made a decision to not get back on a bike until I could afford a Harley. At the time, it was the bike I really wanted (the Springer Softail).

It wasn't until 2001 that finally the stars aligned and I got a Softail. Three years later I got the Hayabusa and I was much happier.

Carl

[James]

11 years ago I cut a deer in half in New Mexico, came off the bike & broke my left scapula & clavicle. Was off the bike for a month and a half. Tuesday a car turned left in front of me & I hit sand in my avoidance, coming down on the right side & breaking my right scapula and 2 ribs. I expect I'm off for a month, month and a half again. Damn it.

[bluepoof]

Ironically, I had to vote "never been injured long enough not to ride" despite coming up on 10 months now of being too injured to ride.