Two weeks ago I had my worst unicycle injury - well my worst injury ever.
I had just started a ride on my KH29 and had some problems adjusting the feet. So I jumped off the uni and landed nicely on my feet but unfortunately the saddle hit my right heel. At first I barely noticed this but as I turned around to collect the uni, I could feel that something was seriously wrong.
I friendly bike rider helped me the few hundred meters home and my wife drove me to the hospital. It turned out that the saddle had fractured my calcaneus (heel bone) into eight pieces and surgery was needed.
The operation took place a week ago and this is the result seen from the side and below the foot:
So now I have what looks like a bicycle chain with nine screws in my foot!
I am not allowed to support on the foot for another seven weeks and then rehabilitation can begin - nice summer…
Ouch! Wonder if this has happened to anyone else. My unicycle frequently hit the back of my foot and leg the first few weeks while learning to ride until I figured out how to catch it. I developed quite a few bruises but fortunately nothing like your injury happened. Your injury scares me because you were not doing any crazy stunts.
I wish you a speedy recovery. Hope you’ll be able to ride again.
Whoah that really sucks. A few years ago I had an extremely painful bruise from the saddle hitting my heel in the exact same situation. I guess I was luckier than you since it didn’t actually break anything.
Exactly how I feel. I also had several bruises when I learned to ride mainly because the pedal hit my leg, but now I usually make controlled dismounts with the uni in front of me - and occasionally bail out and land on my feet without any problems.
No, just a standard Nimbus saddle. But with the foot firmly on the ground it can obviously do some serious damage…
I probably ‘just’ was really unlucky.
Takker, ja det er surt show!
Thanks, I will try to make the best of it.
Thanks for the link, it looks like a more typical calcaneus fracture (high speed impact). I had tried a search but didn’t find anything.
I was wearing Five Ten Baron. Nice shoes but no heel protection.
So sorry to hear about your injury. I’m also 2 weeks into a broken foot from a unicycle UPD gone really bad. Broke it in 3 places, but I think I came out much better than you. No surgery. I hope you have a speedy recovery. We’ll be back out there!
This seems like a bit of a freak accident. How could the saddle of a unicycle that has not been dropped on you from the roof of a building cause such a horrendous injury???
Oh well, thanks for posting, Klaus! It’s good that you were close to home when this happened, and in a country where a trip to the hospital does not carry a risk of bankruptcy, and it’s good for all of us on the forum to know the dangers of unicycling. In my three years of riding, I have apparently been lucky, as I have only had a few scrapes and pedal bites. I don’t wear safety gear, but I have otherwise been very cautious.
Most of the injuries reported on this forum seem to be from larger unicycles. I mostly ride a 20. My 29 is lots of fun, too, but I only ride it on relatively smooth pavement.
Yesterday when trying to free-mount in the forest, I was making a mess of it and my saddle also hit my heal one of the times. I get too warm from unicycling to be thinking of safer thicker shoes, but otherwise an injury like this could be remedied by some extra bandage or extra socks maybe. Still the chance of the saddle hitting the heel seems like very small when you’re just cruising around, which I like best.
I’m fairly sure I remember somebody posting about a very similar injury cause with a 36er a few years ago. It’s clearly not a very common thing though.
Yeah, UnderTheLake posted a link (above) to that thread. It is quite informative for learning a little about calcaneus fractures, though the one in that thread has what I would guess is a more common cause: a rider coming off a 36 and making a hard landing on his heel. He recovered fully, and I believe one or two others posted on that thread that they had as well, but it’s definitely a nasty injury.
In a local bicycle graveyard, I just found some barefoot pedals for my 20, which I want to use for practicing various aerial tricks (and perhaps seat dragging?) with less risk to my shins. I was also thinking I would use these pedals for just riding around barefoot, but now that I have read a little about calcaneus fractures, I will be extra careful if I do that.
