Dealing with injury risk

Haakon

Keeps on digging
I bought knee pads after riding Thredbo once without them - lots of scary granite!

Never got used to riding with them though. Should probably put more of an effort in.
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
You can try/buy a bunch of different elbow and knee pads and find what works. Waaay better than surgery and rehab :)
I have some that are good, its just getting used to having them on at all. Will just have to suck it up for a while until I get used to the whole idea.
 

Plankosaurus

Spongeplank Dalepantski
I dont know why, but I consider knees more important than elbows. I guess the thought of not being able to walk, and that if you do land on them its usually heavy impact.

Had a little indescression this morning, upper shin took full brunt of my fall straight onto a log running down the side of the trail. Pretty sore as is, cant imagine what the outcome of no pad would have been.
I get that, knees are an always for spirited rides, elbows and chest I go on feel for the day.

I've landed hard on my knees a bunch of times, I don't doubt for a second that wearing knee pads has increased my ride time substantially. I reckon elbows have saved me a little grief, but nowhere near the same.

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HamboCairns

Thanks for all the bananas
I get that, knees are an always for spirited rides, elbows and chest I go on feel for the day.

I've landed hard on my knees a bunch of times, I don't doubt for a second that wearing knee pads has increased my ride time substantially. I reckon elbows have saved me a little grief, but nowhere near the same.

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Good advice, I'll add them to ever growing list of things I have to have!
 

Plankosaurus

Spongeplank Dalepantski
Good advice, I'll add them to ever growing list of things I have to have!
Definitely.

There will be a world of advice on what ones are best, so I'll get in early - zip sides are the best. Straps annoy your legs, sock types are a pain because you have to take your shoes off, zippy sides takes the best of both worlds

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The Reverend

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Knees and elbows. I've hit the dirt more than I'd like to and I am grateful for a selection of decent knee pads.

Elbow pads need to be good too. I had a set of Fox Launch Pro D3O with the hard caps on when I last crashed. Might as well have been wearing tissue paper.

The wound after that impact was like it had been hit with an axe. Split to the bone and needed plastic surgery.

Make sure they stay put and don't slide up OR down.
Mine slid up, exposed my elbow to the hit, then slid back down like a good little pad.
 

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
Do you stop the plaster? I can hang it no sweat, but get a mate to stop it. Looks ace after he's done.
 

slowmick

38-39"
Do you stop the plaster? I can hang it no sweat, but get a mate to stop it. Looks ace after he's done.
I usually have a go at the stopping as the house is nothing special but I got a professional to stop out our kitchen. He did an amazing job and far quicker than I could.
 
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OffRoadDave

Cannon Fodder
Hey folks, not sure if this the right place or it warrants a new thread but I'll give it a go anyway.

Any tradies here with income protection insurance? So far I've been declined insurance by Noble Oak and AAMI because I ride an MTB, can get hit by a truck on a roadie and be covered just fine, but if you want to chuck a bike down a hill, they just decline to offer insurance entirely. Any ideas on who else to ring?
 

Elbo

pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
Hey folks, not sure if this the right place or it warrants a new thread but I'll give it a go anyway.

Any tradies here with income protection insurance? So far I've been declined insurance by Noble Oak and AAMI because I ride an MTB, can get hit by a truck on a roadie and be covered just fine, but if you want to chuck a bike down a hill, they just decline to offer insurance entirely. Any ideas on who else to ring?
Look into income protection insurance through your super fund. I'm with hostplus, they wouldn't automatically cover me when I said i rode MTB, but they really just wanted to know I didn't race DH and I wore a helmet all the time. Not sure if this means they don't cover you if you compete.
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
I’ve got some Dainise Trailskins on the basis they’re a softer shell and less intrusive feeling.

It’s the sweaty back of the knee that put me off….
 

Kerplunk

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Hey folks, not sure if this the right place or it warrants a new thread but I'll give it a go anyway.

Any tradies here with income protection insurance? So far I've been declined insurance by Noble Oak and AAMI because I ride an MTB, can get hit by a truck on a roadie and be covered just fine, but if you want to chuck a bike down a hill, they just decline to offer insurance entirely. Any ideas on who else to ring?
There is a longish wait after you make a claim on income insurance before they pay out, my bro law had 6 - 8 weeks wait before getting a portion of his wage.. It’s a good thing to have if you can afford it and/or your the sole earner, but unless it’s a very serious injury after a couple of months you would be close to starting work again. I read somewhere keeping 3 months pay aside rather than paying income protection premiums isn’t a bad way to do it. Mind you they probably weren’t mtbers..
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
My income insurance via my super basically says i need to exhaust my sick leave entitlements first... Even with the 3 months off following the crash last year i didn't come near claiming the cover. Its one of those things you need if you semi-permanently/permanently fuck yourself up, but "just" for major injuries you'll recover from your normal sick leave shoudl cover it.

* assuming youre a wage slave that is - self employed is a whole different ball game..
 

OffRoadDave

Cannon Fodder
Look into income protection insurance through your super fund. I'm with hostplus, they wouldn't automatically cover me when I said i rode MTB, but they really just wanted to know I didn't race DH and I wore a helmet all the time. Not sure if this means they don't cover you if you compete.
Thanks for the tip, will check out my super fund.

There is a longish wait after you make a claim on income insurance before they pay out, my bro law had 6 - 8 weeks wait before getting a portion of his wage.. It’s a good thing to have if you can afford it and/or your the sole earner, but unless it’s a very serious injury after a couple of months you would be close to starting work again. I read somewhere keeping 3 months pay aside rather than paying income protection premiums isn’t a bad way to do it. Mind you they probably weren’t mtbers..
Ooof 6-8 wks sucks, maybe I should look at putting the money away like you say, so far the couple of quotes I've had that declined to offer cover were in the $3-4k a year range, I like riding my MTB but I'm not sure I like that much.

My income insurance via my super basically says i need to exhaust my sick leave entitlements first... Even with the 3 months off following the crash last year i didn't come near claiming the cover. Its one of those things you need if you semi-permanently/permanently fuck yourself up, but "just" for major injuries you'll recover from your normal sick leave shoudl cover it.

* assuming youre a wage slave that is - self employed is a whole different ball game..
Thanks for the reply, will check out the super side of things as Elbo mentioned, not a wage slave myself, but still feels like one, I just dont get paid more for overtime. I think as self employed, you could reduce your premium by extending the time it would take before cover would kick in, but I think the minimum was 4 weeks. All food for thought, cheers.
 

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
I've had at least two OTB stacks where I've literally leapfrogged off the bike and hit the ground running! ... ... ... ... completely on reflex I've unclipped (I'm XC remember, cleats all the way!)
Yep, back in the 71HA daze, one evening I had stayed out way too late at Lysty, and had decided to bail out of Middle, as it was just too dark and it was only going to get worse. So, I was belting down East West absolutely flat out, and there was a massive branch down and my front wheel dragged the thin end of it in. The bike pretty much stopped dead, and I was clipped in, but when I went over the bars, I magically unclipped, cleared the bars and landed running. I fell over because I couldn't run as fast as I was going, but it was a small potatoes outcome compared to what it could have been.

8 out of 32 spokes gone, which made the fireroad ride back to the carpark, very interesting. Lean back, lean back.

375364
 

big dan

Likes Dirt
I don’t get on rotorburn much these days but found this thread which was pretty relevant to my current situation. Spent an arvo pushing things pretty hard on some steeps and then on the way out on an Xc trail I clipped a small tree which launched me into a big one. 9 broken ribs- some displaced, heomothorax, badly separated ac joint , 3 transverse process fractures etc. messed up.
just had surgery on the shoulder and still in quite a bit of rib pain 7 weeks out from the fall.

Having similar thoughts about riding future, I’ve raced DH since the mid 90s and enduro since 2011 so it’s hard to get it out of the system. Might have to rethink things.
 
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