Show us your biking scars!

[Bicyclette]

Mine hasn't reached scar status yet - it's still in the fresh wound category - too gross to post a pic of

[DeniseGoldberg]

My first memorable biking scar was from my first self-supported tour. It's really dumb to try an catch a loaded touring bike when it decides to fall over. I was just about to get back on my bike after a short rest stop. I grabbed the bike to move it away from the tree it was resting against, and it moved away from the tree but then decided to fall. Dummy here tried to stabilize the bike instead of letting it land on its side (on the panniers, there would have been no damage to the bike!). Instead, the chaing ring put a long and deep gouge into my leg. Ouch! That mark stayed for quite a while, but it eventually disappeared.

My other biking scars are still with me, although they are definitely smaller and more faded than they were originally. They are from my stellar crash back in 2004. Pictures? If you want to see a healing progression, there are photos in this gallery. Note to self: it's not a good idea to flip a bike over and land on your head.

--- Denise

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Mine hasn't reached scar status yet - it's still in the fresh wound category - too gross to post a pic of

Did you need stitches?

[Bicyclette]

Lisa -

Unfortunately - yes - 8 of the little suckers in fact - but I am none the worse for wear and now I have my first cycling battle scar - gotta love it!! I will conquer those freakin' clipless pedals if it kills me!!!

[xeney]

I have a couple. I have three parallel lines on my right shin from a fall I took last year when I rode over some wet leaves and my bike slid out from under me -- I think I must have landed on the pedal. I should have had stitches for that because it took forever to heal and it left a pretty bad scar. I normally don't care about scars and wounds and looking pretty, but it happened right before our "wedding" (the party we threw five months after we got married), and it was still a little bloody and gross on the day of the party, and it showed below my knee-length dress. My niece gave me some princess bandaids to put over it, but it was still not the look I was going for!

My knees have a bunch of little scars from a mountain biking trip we took right around the same time. I fell constantly that day and I kept managing to find rocks with my knee. My right knee has had a big lump on it ever since, and that was over a year ago. I also now have a purple spot on the inside of that same knee, from falling with my clipless pedals. Those are more noticeable than the actual scars.

[velocilex]

I ripped up my right knee good and proper thirty years ago. One summer day, 10-year old me and my best friend were riding our bikes around the neighborhood, heading home to grab our towels and go to the pool. As we passed the basketball court, I spotted my big brother sitting on top of a 12-foot fence-- something he was forbidden to do. I hollered, "I'll laugh if you fall and break your neck!" Then I went home, grabbed my towel, and sassed my older sister (who was in charge of my brother and I while our mom was at work). I hopped back on my bike and charged down the driveway-- the steepest one in the neighborhood-- smarting off to my sister on the porch the whole way.

When I got to the street, she yelled something and I turned around to say, "What? I can't hear you! Neener!" Big mistake. The neighbors across the street had their 1969 Mustang -- you know, the kind with the big round, glass headlights?-- parked on the road facing the wrong way. The next thing I know, there was a crash and I just stopped because I hit something. I laughed and then looked down to see that I had put my knee right through the headlight. Then I cried. It took ten stitches to sew up the right side of my knee and the left side had to be scrubbed with a little brush to get all the glass out. My poor sister fainted and wet her pants as they were stitching me up. I think I thoroughly deserved what I got for being such a brat! I call it my scarma episode.

[margo49]

1968 - broke left arm when I fell off on the way home from school trying to ride cross-hands (left hand on right handlebar and vice versa)
1977 - cracked ribs after falling off in a black frost on a sharp corner after descending (Tinakori Rd for those who know Wellington, NZ)
1982 - broken nose while messenger-ing in London (Soho Square). Raccoon face for 3 weeks in an English winter. Permanent kink. (See below)
1985 - tore up entire right forearm and nearly dislocated shoulder in Brisbane (The road to the University) when a milko opened his truck door as I was approaching at speed.Total endo with no helmet. Was I lucky!!
1996 - mastectomy ( cycle related, just not bi-cyle cycle)
2003 - compound crush fracture of upper right arm and network of scars on inner elbow and a long surgical one (22 cm = 9") where they did the reconstructive metallica (2 plates and 12 screws) but that was a tractor
2006 - the nose broken again when I fell off on an agricultural trail. Straightened out the permanent kink mentioned above.
Also a scar on left knee and 2 not-healed-straight fingers (left hand)

Great idea for a thread!

[light_sabe_r]

Mine aren't pokey outty kinda scars just discolourations... Right leg and knee and right elbow where I hit the pavement three months ago.

[ClockworkOrange]

Hi Knotted

Good thread, if u want advice on putting up pics just PM me and I'll try and help.

Some of you guys have done some really nasty stuff.

2003 March - Skidded on some oil or something while cycling along an underpass (where I should not have been riding), swerved to avoid a group of youngsters and hit the deck. Just badly bruised my leg, not a pretty sight!



2004 October - Cycling home in the dark, misjudged a dropped kerb and fell off, two fractures in wrist, one a scaphoid fracture.



Unfortunately, after each accident, it really has taken me a long while to get my confidence back.

Sally

[jobob]

My two front top teeth are shorter than they were before I hit the back of a station wagon, went over the handlebars and landed face-first on the rear door.

It happened when I was around 15, riding back home with my friend Linda from tennis lessons across town . I had looked back to say something to her and didn't notice the car in front of me had stopped.

I wound up with a lovely inverted V-shaped chip on the bottom of my 2 front teeth so my dentist filed away at the bottoms so that the chip wasn't so noticeable. It doesn't look too weird anymore.