The theme this time is a lovely sounding 'Your worst injury' ... I've no idea what to expect.

Post your pictures here and we'll see how we get on. Thanks to Bigface for choosing

not massively exciting but here's a shot of my metal shoulder pins:

Very nice Gairy.

I'm trying to work out how to photograph the mental scars I carry

I don't have anything I can contribute to this one (which is A Good Thing, imo), but browsing through Brothersmith's flickr site yesterday revealed photos of a very serious injury sustained while out on the bike

Ian - I did the same and saw the same as you I think. Ticks all the right 'niche' boxes as it's lightweight and titanium too!

Brothersmith for the win if he enters :)

Link please.

I think I've done worse than this but I like that I did it within 2 hours of arriving in chamonix to ride the tour do mont blanc.
Went and got it stitched then was taxied / chairlifted back to catch up my friends.

by flatfishy on Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:50 pm

Link please.

I hope Brothersmith won't mind :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/malc/sets/ ... 125488935/
Didn't look like much fun and not a good way to get a chopper ride!

I reckon hes got it in the bag for this months comp.

I'm cheating as this isn't my injury but here we go anyway...

This is my brothers' arm after the surgeon at Addenbrookes reconstructed his elbow, which he managed to disintegrate on a Welsh hillside about half an hours ride out from the trail centre at Nant-yr-Arian. Such an innocuous accident after a day of rocky riding - he simply lost the front wheel on the wet grass down the middle of a landrover track and was straight over.



The horizontal bit is where (apparently) the broken humerus popped out of the skin and then back in again; the rest is what they had to cut to sort it out.

In the pissing rain, with a non existant mobile signal and a paper trail map that was rapidly disintegrating in the downpour, it was an interesting phone call with the Ambulance folk (on one of about three calls that died part way through):

"Whats your post code?"
"Errr. I'm on a mountain bike trail."
[repeated a couple of times]
"Right. Can you tell me where are you?"
"Errr. Somewhere nearish to... Ummm. I might have to spell it"

Not too long after this I bought a SPOT.

Ok here you are by popular request

Being airlifted out Nant yr Arian

IMG_1241 by Brother Smith, on Flickr

The before photo - The top of the femur has sheered as pushing up and behind the neck of femour. No one in A&E could believe I managed to do it on a bike, they all thought that due to severity it was a motorbike injury

The damage by Brother Smith, on Flickr

After surgery - Thats a Ti dynamic hip screw holding the neck of the femur together and an 8 pin plate down the top of the femur

DHS and plate by Brother Smith, on Flickr

InspiredRamblings wrote:I'm cheating as this isn't my injury but here we go anyway...

This is my brothers' arm after the surgeon at Addenbrookes reconstructed his elbow, which he managed to disintegrate on a Welsh hillside about half an hours ride out from the trail centre at Nant-yr-Arian. Such an innocuous accident after a day of rocky riding - he simply lost the front wheel on the wet grass down the middle of a landrover track and was straight over.

Sounds exactly the same spot i did my leg! I wish I could boast I was doing somthig "rad" but it wasnt even singletrack

Brothersmith wrote:
Sounds exactly the same spot i did my leg! I wish I could boast I was doing somthig "rad" but it wasnt even singletrack

It was near some lakes... I think somewhere between markers 55 and 56 on the trail map. Wasn't my favourite moment. My brother stayed on his hands and knees for a good 20 minutes (he'd started to get up and then realised there was something quite badly wrong with his arm and refused to move any further). After aborted attempts to speak to the 999 folk, we had to leave the bikes and walk out from where we were as we couldn't finish a call with them and weren't exactly sure where we were. We strapped his arm to him, walked slowly back up the trail over a hill and saw the ambulance disappearing off into the distance (amazed that they found us given my poor welsh pronounciation). We found refuge in the pick-up of a guy fishing (poaching) in one of the lakes, he drove us to somewhere with phone reception, we rang 999 back again and they directed the ambulance back to us.

Turned out his humerus had severed the bottom of his tricep on its way out. He was pretty lucky it didn't sever the artery and/or nerve apparently. The base of the humerus was in a few bits I think. I don't know whether he's ever got hold of the before and after xrays - will remind him to chase it up!

Makes you realise how quickly something fairly innocuous can turn bad - especially made me think as I often ride on my own (hence the Spot).

I know what you mean, this was me (in yellow gillet) literally 5 min before I hit the deck!


Ian_and_Malc_at_Nanty by Brother Smith, on Flickr

Not quite sure where I came off, just know it was about 30-45min out from trail-head. I was lucky and had some good friends with me who realised something was wrong straight a way, wrapped me up in a space blanket and cycled off to get help. Initially they sent an ambulance out but it couldn't get up the land rover track, so they sent out the air ambulance, for which I am eternally grateful. It meant I got the help and treatment I needed within an hour of the accident. If I had to wait for mountain rescue, it would have been significantly longer and a more painful journey!

Right then ... I've taken the executive decision to award Brothersmith with the honour of winning the 'Show us your worst injury' photo comp.

Apologies to everyone else who showed their scars and wounds but I think a ride in a 'copter wins hands down

So over to you Brothersmith ... pick us a new (possibly less gory) theme for the next one.

Thanks - although I am not sure if I should be proud of the best crash :?

Anyway title for next comp is "back in the day" and should be something that sums up your early days MTBing