Category: Cycling

February 8, 2015
Max Cycling, fitness, Life ,

Crash Recovery: The Big update

Before

The plate and my collarbone

A week ago I marked off six months since the somewhat life changing crash that broke my collarbone.

A lot has happened in that week, so this post is something of an attempt to catch up and bring everyone up-to-date.

I went back to see Mr. Packer, the surgeon that previously replaced the over-long screws that had been used when fixing my collarbone. My shoulder had been getting gradually worse, with a fairly poor range of motion and spikes of pain being fairly normal.

We agreed that the best course of action would be to remove the plate. It is somewhat early to do this as as under normal circumstances the plate should remain there close to a year and it has not been there for a full six months yet. However, the position of the plate and the still somewhat long screws that remain are more than likely responsible for the pain I am in.

Having agreed that the plate needed to come out, I was booked in for Friday February 6th 2015.

Since the last update, Mr Harar, the driver that knocked me off my bicycle has appeared in court. Privately I was expecting him to be difficult and to deny that he was to blame, I expected that I would have to appear in court and testify against him. Amazingly, he pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving. He was fined and given five penalty points.

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February 1, 2015
Max Cycling, Driving, fitness, Life

Guilty (Of Careless Driving)

I’ve been waiting a long time to post this and finally I can……

Max vs Aygo

Max vs Aygo

The ‘Driver’ that hit me on August 1st, causing the crash that left me with a broken collarbone, multiple cuts and bruises, a broken bicycle and a destroyed helmet pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving and was fined and given five penalty points on his licence.

Justice, as they say, has been served.

So, here are a few more details…..

The car that hit me is shown on the left in its final position after the driver stopped, as you can see in the photo, I was obviously in the middle of the road on the roundabout, not, as was postulated riding around the far left lane. If you look carefully you can see that there is some glass on the floor behind the rear wheel – that it from the impact. The door glass shattered when I hit it.

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January 21, 2015
Max Cycling, fitness, Life

Crash Recovery, continued…..

As I have posted elsewhere on this blog, I was knocked off my bike on August 1st.

Since then, I have gone through two surgeries to repair my collarbone.

My recovery is progressing slowly, some days I think that I am not getting any better, other days I realise that it is less painful nowadays than it was, say, a month ago.

Then I move awkwardly, my muscles spasm and I have pain tearing up my upper arm and my shoulder and tears in my eyes.

The current status is that I have seriously restricted movement in my left shoulder.

Standing straight up, I can raise my arm forwards to about 80*, I can get to about 60* sideways and maybe 10* backwards. When I reach those limits, I get significant muscle spasms in my upper arm and a  sharp pain that stretches from my left ear to my elbow.

Obviously I try not to move my arm too far.

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November 3, 2014
Max Cycling, fitness, Life ,

Crash – Recovery Month FOUR

I almost went out on my bicycle yesterday. It would have been very appropriate, three months and a day since my crash. 2014-10-26 08.33.50

I got a new helmet on Saturday (November 1st) to replace the one that took the brunt of the impact last time out. I decided to get the exact same helmet as before. I reasoned that as the previous one did such a good job, why change ?

I did not go out as it was very wet and incredibly windy. Not ideal cycling conditions really and certainly not good conditions to take the first steps after a major crash.

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October 1, 2014
Max Cycling, Driving, fitness, Life , , , , , , ,

Crash – Recovery Month Three

Today is the start of month three of my recovery.

As you will have read in previous posts, I was knocked off my bike on August the 1st 2104.

One plate and six screws

One plate and six screws

While I had several other, relatively minor injuries, the major one was to my left collarbone. which was broken fairly badly.

I underwent surgery on August the 14th to stabilise it. They inserted a titanium plate and six screws into the bone. For the last few weeks I have been recovering slowly from the procedure.

Unfortunately I am not recovering very quickly, I am struggling with quite badly reduced mobility in my shoulder and severe stabbing pains and muscular spasms when I move the wrong way – or indeed too far. I also have significant pins and needles that stretch from my shoulder to my little finger on my left hand.

I have an appointment with an orthopaedic specialist next week to discuss further options which looks to include additional surgery.

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September 1, 2014
Max Cycling, Driving, fitness , ,

Crash – Recovery Month Two

Note: This is part 2 of my recovery, for the first part, read this post first.

Monday September 1st 2014
(feeling very sorry for myself)
A full month has now gone by, it feels a lot longer. The first few days after the crash were miserable beyond belief, I could barely do anything at all, any movement sent shocks of pain through my body, As the bone was broken and separated it was especially painful when movement would cause the ends to touch.

I was somewhat happy to be considered for surgery, but frankly I totally underestimated just how huge an impact it would have on me. I assumed I would be in and out of the hospital and that I would be back to normal in a few days.

Healing really nicely

Healing really nicely

I am now over two weeks into my post-surgery recovery and I am still not back to normal, not by a very long way.

I almost cannot imagine riding again this year. Maybe in a couple of months I will be fine, but by then the weather will be crappy and it will not really be the time to go out.

I just made a physiotherapy appointment, it is not for three week, so even if PT is a miracle cure, I have another three weeks of limited mobility and a doubt about how it will heal and if it will ever return to normal.

All in all, it could be a lot worse, I am sore and in pain a lot and I have limited mobility. I am looking forwards to fixing my bike and I am looking forwards to getting out there again in the future.I just wish it was sooner rather than later…

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August 20, 2014
Max Cycling, Driving, fitness, Life , , , ,

Crash !

[Warning – this is a bit graphic]

Over the years I have been incredibly fortunate to have been able to cycle many thousands of miles and stay pretty much on my bicycle. Sure over the years I have fallen off a mountain bike, but it has always been my fault, often a combination of too much speed and not quite enough talent in the dirt.

On the road though I have been either very lucky, or very observant, managing to avoid a road-crash for at least the last thirty years. I think that the last time I fell off my road bike was back when I taking my O-Levels.

Now I have a Titanium plate holding my collarbone together.

This is the story the crash and of my recovery so far…

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August 31, 2013
Max Cycling, fitness, Life ,

Stuck in one gear….

Some time ago I bought a single-speed bike.

I love the idea of a simple, honest bike that needs little maintenance and is easy and simple to ride.

[EMAREN] the bicycle

[EMAREN] the bicycle

So I bought a nice, SE Racing, Draft. It was pretty nice, a steel frame, coaster brake (no hand brakes), nice, simple, easy.

Except that I realized that I did not really like the coaster brake, several very near misses later I added decent brakes to it. which lead to lighter wheels.

This changed the dynamics of the bike.

Some Aero Bull-horn bars with a double layer of cork tape, a carbon seat post with a decent seat made it ever lighter and faster…

The latest changes have seen the crappy original bottom bracket replaced with a nice Shimano unit and the steel crankset replaced with a polished alloy FSA unit.

I added some nice custom graphics as the bike is no longer an SE Draft, it is an [EMAREN] branded bike now 🙂

So, how does it ride now ?

It is fast, but I spin-out at 26mph now. I might have to change the gearing to 44T/15T vs the current 44T/16T. The 16T is pretty much a standard though, so 15T cogs tend to be a special order. Perhaps I will see how it goes on longer rides.

I am pretty happy with it….

April 1, 2013
Max Cycling, fitness, Life , , ,

29.5 Miles later….

A tale of three bicycles……

Kestrel

On Friday night I made a late decision that I would go for a ride with a local cycling club on Saturday morning. My intention was also to go out on my Mountain bike on Sunday – which meant a quick change of wheels and a tune-up.

I started with the Mountain bike, the front dirt tire was flat, at some point it looks like I had managed to run over a drawing pin. This was an easy fix. Ten minutes, no tools, job done. I also lubed the chain, checked what few bolts there are and declared it ‘fit for purpose’. The front brake pads are a little worn and it really needs a wash, but it was functional.

Then I moved on to my road bike – actually it is a Triathlon Kestrel bicycle that has a serious personality disorder due to the chaotic way that I mixed and matched parts – thinking that it would be a good idea to check it for issues – simple things can slow you down, make sure that there is air in the tires, lube on the chain and things were generally in good shape. The first issue was a show-stopping one, the front tire was flat. Undeterred I pulled the wheel, removed the tire and examined the tube. There was a huge hole in it. The Stan’s ‘no tubes’ limit was well and truly exceeded, there was no way that this huge hole could be sealed. So I patched it with a ‘scab’, checked the inside of the tube and found a thorn and pulled it out. I then put it all together, inflated it to 120psi (yes, really), then lubed the chain, adjusted the cables and called it a good job.

On Saturday morning, I woke early as usual and pulled on my cycling gear, hoping to head to the 8AM meeting point and join the ride. The first thing I noticed on reaching the garage was the stupid front tire. Sadly it was flat, again. I did not have time to change the tube once more and as I suspected that the issue was probably not as simple as adding another patch I realized I would need so much time that the ride would probably be long over by the time I was finally ready, so I left it alone and grabbed my trusty mountain bike.

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