On my 29er, I took a hard fall on a fast turn on pavement. I broke my hip (femoral head fracture plus additional damage to pelvis). After three days/two long nights in hospital I have four 100 mm screws holding it together. Now I’m shuffling around with a walker like an old lady, since my leg can’t bear any weight at all for the next 12 weeks, minimum. Then comes many months of physical therapy and strength re-training.
Yes, I am 52 years old, but as a lifelong runner and weightlifter, I’m in better shape than most (or at least many) guys half my age. Skill-wise, I’m certainly no Unigeezer, but I’m also no beginner: I was doing 10 and 15 mile road rides and some uni.
Needless to say, I wasn’t wearing any hip protection when I fell.
Get well soon! Falling on pavement hurts. I bruised my coccyx a couple of years ago and now I don’t dare ride my geared 36er without wearing Dianese MTB Impact Shorts over top of my Louis Garneau Bib Shorts.
Just avoid fast turns until you’re more confident. I would guess that the OP was leaning into the turn and hit a bump, or a kerb, or a slippery patch (perhaps a metal drain cover) and the wheel slipped out from under him.
Yes, joggerdude, Danny is right: “just avoid fast turns until you’re more confident.” I was riding in very dappled light, and one tiny shadow hid a short, fat stick in exactly the wrong spot on a fast downhill turn.
Don’t be scared and don’t quit – I’m certainly not going to! (I had a typo in original post: should say "I do 10-15 mile road rides and some MUNI:
Thanks DavidHood, for the good wishes and link!
I’ve now seen on the web many such items, sold for mt b*king, bmx, snowboarding, longboarding, lacrosse, etc. I would like to get more recommendations on which hip protection people have used and like!
When uni-ing on snow or ice, or in very cold weather when wet spots may become black ice, I wear impact shorts. On ice, the wheel can slip out laterally fast, bringing the rider down on a hip.
I was going to say I don’t need any of that as I don’t generally damage myself when I come off - but actually I did have a painful coccyx for a couple of weeks recently after a bad fall whilst learning to ride backwards, and now often ride with a bit of foam mat stuffed down the back of my shorts. I’m also not getting any younger - it doesn’t matter how fit you are, age still makes recovery from things like this a much longer process (though I’ll bet you can knock at least 25% off the timescale the doctors suggest if you are as fit as most of us). That and I’ve just bought myself a Schlumpf 29er, so speeds are about to get rather higher - higher than I can run out if I do UPD. So yes, some shorts like that do look like a good idea.
Those shorts look like they would be great. I wish I had thought of that before I fell and hurt my hip. I fell a few weeks ago and dislocated a finger. My hip didn’t hurt at the time but a week later it did. I had also fell at work a week before the uni fall, so between the two falls, it started hurting a week or two later.
I was going to look at football shorts or whatever they had at the sports store, these shorts look much better.
I have shin, elbow and wrist guards, helmet, now I’ll get ballistic pants, any other safety gear suggestions? Ankle braces?
When I started practicing free-mounting a month ago, I went down hard on the concrete landing with all my weight on my right hip. It happened so quick I still don’t know what went wrong. What I do know is it has only started feeling better this past week.
I went to the local sports shop and picked up some football pads for around $12.00. One for each hip and one for the behind. I just stick them in my cycling shorts and good to go. They haven’t been “tested” yet which is probably good. My son pointed out football players land on turf, not concrete.
check out my safety gear album. i like POC stuff. my elbow, knee and shin guards are all POC VPD dough. i haven’t tried their hip shorts but, for the ultimate in coccyx protection, there is an attachment for the POC vest that looks really nice. the shoulder pads might come in handy for rolling out of a geared 36er high speed UPD you can’t run out of. if only i had a local dealer where i could go try this stuff on, i’d wear all of the best safety gear. more on the knee shin thing here.
I think I will look up some of this gear to see if anyone local does it - rolled off my 36 last night - bruised my hip and scraped my back a little. I was not going that fast - about 18km/h but the legs were tired and not up to the recovery sprint! (I may just learn to run faster too! )
I’m still looking for recommendations from helpful unicyclists for specific brands and models of hip protection. And thanks davidhood for the last one!
They are light and low profile so they are not that noticeable while pedaling. I have doubts that huge armor like the the Dianese model would be comfortable for unicycling where you have to pedal and sit all the time.
No armor would have prevented that injury, you took a big fall so you got a big injury.
All of the armor out there is for DH biking, BMX, and motocross, it helps to minimize bruising and rash, but an impact that breaks a bone will easilly bend the stiffest nylon and crush the thickest foam.
You had a bad fall, let it heal, then get back to riding.
I’m nearly the same age as you, and I’ve have had my share of hard falls, some finger fractures, but nothing on the scale of your injury, so what happened to you and a few others is rare. Don’t feel that this will happen again, as it probably won’t.
That doesn’t do my self confidence any good! I have some highly padded “Hillbilly” shorts. Maybe I should start wearing them. The thing is, what I would really like to do is wear less gear, rather than more. i just want to pick up the uni, walk out the door on a whim and ride around the neighborhood rather than strapping on knee braces, elbow pads, head gear… And now padded pants that make me look like I’ve gained 40 pounds.
Still, I would rather look funny than end up breaking something!
How many people really wear those padded shorts?
Especially in hot, humid weather?
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