5 broken ribs!

Canyon Shawn

Active member
Feb 4, 2023
295
192
Lake Sherwood, California
Yeah, 5. Honestly, I thought I just tore the muscles between my ribs. It happened last Monday, on New Year’s Day. I went this morning for X-rays. I’ve been riding mountain bikes since the late ‘80s and raced pro MX in my 20s and 30s. I’ve had my nose completely reconstructed from an MX accident. But, this is my first broken bone.

I was riding my EXe 9.7. With the mods I’ve done, it just flys. I was literally about 100 feet from the end of my ride to come out at the Felton trail head. There was a nice banked, really tight switchback coming up and I was gonna stick the shit out of it. So, I was focused to far ahead. There was a root knot in the middle of the trail. I’ve probably ridden by it 100 times. You can see the hole left behind, where I knocked it out with my pedal. The root knot is laying to the left in the picture. I was tired, so I had my seat up, I was sitting and I didn’t have my pedals level. My bike app said I was going 20 mph. I hit the front brake at the same time I hit the root. When I came to a rest I was flat on my back up against that first tree/bush. My head hurt and I looked down at my waist and my hips were rotated around clockwise 90° from my upper body. I told myself that’s effed up and just by looking at myself I thought I had broken my back. About that time my friend caught up to me, and told me not to move. I didn’t have much pain until I untwisted myself. I don’t think I hit my ribs on anything. There was no dirt on the front of my shirt and I have no bruising . I think I broke my ribs from getting so twisted up. I’m still in shock that it’s 5 of them. Moral of the story is, don’t get lazy till you get back home and are on the couch.

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Streddaz

Active member
Jul 7, 2022
305
435
Tasmania
That sucks and broken ribs are pretty uncomfortable to put up with. I have found that they do heal quickly enough that the pain at least goes away withing 3 or so weeks from my experience. Remember to still take deep breaths as you can get pneumonia from only taking shallow breaths. Hope the recovery goes well. (y)
 

irie

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
May 2, 2022
2,639
2,704
Chichester, W.Sussex, UK
That sucks and broken ribs are pretty uncomfortable to put up with. I have found that they do heal quickly enough that the pain at least goes away withing 3 or so weeks from my experience. Remember to still take deep breaths as you can get pneumonia from only taking shallow breaths. Hope the recovery goes well. (y)
Have to breath using your diaphragm ...
 

E Bob

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2021
360
359
torfaen
Feel your pain... Did couple of mine, Highside race 2 at anglesey.. Massive doses of ibrufen for weeks, Had to fix the bike for next race 4 weeks later, Total strip and rebuild too, bent the frame. Move slow, Rest as much as you can, Dont laugh, Cough and definately no sneezing...
 

folmonty

Active member
Mar 11, 2021
152
156
NorCal
Get well soon! Sounds like you'll have some healing time but it could've always been worse! Curious as to how the riding is in your area? Grew up riding the back roads all around there but never any off road.
 

p3eps

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
Dec 14, 2019
1,982
2,401
Scotland
Arrrghhh... I feel your pain! I broke 2 ribs in July 2022, and then another 2 in October 2022. It wasn't much fun!
Get well soon!
 

B1rdie

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
Feb 14, 2019
898
1,101
Brazil
Get well soon, mate.
On my first bike trip to the USA, we arrived a little late at the North Star at Tahoe. That was after I picked up a brand new Santa Cruz nomad, so I resolved to give it a go...
Three broken ribs, on the very first day of a two week long mountain biking trip that turned into a shopping center tour nightmare, guiding my non english speaking wife through Victorias Secret shops and the likes... Life can be rude ;)
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
Yeah, 5. Honestly, I thought I just tore the muscles between my ribs. It happened last Monday, on New Year’s Day. I went this morning for X-rays. I’ve been riding mountain bikes since the late ‘80s and raced pro MX in my 20s and 30s. I’ve had my nose completely reconstructed from an MX accident. But, this is my first broken bone.
Hope your recovery is going ok. I've still not worked out what's best with resting and not resting. Obviously some resting, but too much seems to sometimes cause additional pain later. 6 weeks generally seems to be my Rib norm though.

Passing kidney stones is worse.
Hell yes !

I've fractured most of my front ribs, collar bones, sternum, pelvis, skull and lots of other bits MTB. Plus most of the back ribs when double barrelled by a young horse which got a bit excited one day .. Back ribs hurt way more than front ribs .. but Kidney stone - different league ..
 

Mabman

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Feb 28, 2018
1,124
1,854
Oregon USA
A year and a half ago when I had my last rib incident about a week after it happened I was visiting my son and a certain movement made me yelp in pain. I wasn't holding it in and it really wasn't all that frequent but the noise I made was consistent. He has a couple of Shib Inu' dogs and whenever I would yelp they would come running to me and stare up at me like WTF is up with you?

The male ended up getting pretty freaked out by it and wouldn't come to me for about 6 months after and he would just bark at me if I tried to entice him towards me. We have since made amends.
 

Roundbadge

Member
Jan 9, 2022
52
52
Los Angeles
That sucks dude!I broke ribs in July at snow summit bike park.first month was a drag.opioids for the first week..hard to sleep without pain meds.hurt like a bitch and could hear the ribs clicking for like 3 months.finally started riding again in late October.still feel a bit of pain from time to time.Godspeed on healing..make sure to breath deeply to keep fluid out.
 

Litespeed

New Member
Dec 23, 2023
19
16
Vista California
Yeah, 5. Honestly, I thought I just tore the muscles between my ribs. It happened last Monday, on New Year’s Day. I went this morning for X-rays. I’ve been riding mountain bikes since the late ‘80s and raced pro MX in my 20s and 30s. I’ve had my nose completely reconstructed from an MX accident. But, this is my first broken bone.

I was riding my EXe 9.7. With the mods I’ve done, it just flys. I was literally about 100 feet from the end of my ride to come out at the Felton trail head. There was a nice banked, really tight switchback coming up and I was gonna stick the shit out of it. So, I was focused to far ahead. There was a root knot in the middle of the trail. I’ve probably ridden by it 100 times. You can see the hole left behind, where I knocked it out with my pedal. The root knot is laying to the left in the picture. I was tired, so I had my seat up, I was sitting and I didn’t have my pedals level. My bike app said I was going 20 mph. I hit the front brake at the same time I hit the root. When I came to a rest I was flat on my back up against that first tree/bush. My head hurt and I looked down at my waist and my hips were rotated around clockwise 90° from my upper body. I told myself that’s effed up and just by looking at myself I thought I had broken my back. About that time my friend caught up to me, and told me not to move. I didn’t have much pain until I untwisted myself. I don’t think I hit my ribs on anything. There was no dirt on the front of my shirt and I have no bruising . I think I broke my ribs from getting so twisted up. I’m still in shock that it’s 5 of them. Moral of the story is, don’t get lazy till you get back home and are on the couch.

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Yeah, 5. Honestly, I thought I just tore the muscles between my ribs. It happened last Monday, on New Year’s Day. I went this morning for X-rays. I’ve been riding mountain bikes since the late ‘80s and raced pro MX in my 20s and 30s. I’ve had my nose completely reconstructed from an MX accident. But, this is my first broken bone.

I was riding my EXe 9.7. With the mods I’ve done, it just flys. I was literally about 100 feet from the end of my ride to come out at the Felton trail head. There was a nice banked, really tight switchback coming up and I was gonna stick the shit out of it. So, I was focused to far ahead. There was a root knot in the middle of the trail. I’ve probably ridden by it 100 times. You can see the hole left behind, where I knocked it out with my pedal. The root knot is laying to the left in the picture. I was tired, so I had my seat up, I was sitting and I didn’t have my pedals level. My bike app said I was going 20 mph. I hit the front brake at the same time I hit the root. When I came to a rest I was flat on my back up against that first tree/bush. My head hurt and I looked down at my waist and my hips were rotated around clockwise 90° from my upper body. I told myself that’s effed up and just by looking at myself I thought I had broken my back. About that time my friend caught up to me, and told me not to move. I didn’t have much pain until I untwisted myself. I don’t think I hit my ribs on anything. There was no dirt on the front of my shirt and I have no bruising . I think I broke my ribs from getting so twisted up. I’m still in shock that it’s 5 of them. Moral of the story is, don’t get lazy till you get back home and are on the couch.

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Wow. Always good advice. Stay sharp. But more importantly, how was the bike?
 

High Rock Ruti

Active member
May 13, 2019
423
331
Massachusetts
Yeah, 5. Honestly, I thought I just tore the muscles between my ribs. It happened last Monday, on New Year’s Day. I went this morning for X-rays. I’ve been riding mountain bikes since the late ‘80s and raced pro MX in my 20s and 30s. I’ve had my nose completely reconstructed from an MX accident. But, this is my first broken bone.

I was riding my EXe 9.7. With the mods I’ve done, it just flys. I was literally about 100 feet from the end of my ride to come out at the Felton trail head. There was a nice banked, really tight switchback coming up and I was gonna stick the shit out of it. So, I was focused to far ahead. There was a root knot in the middle of the trail. I’ve probably ridden by it 100 times. You can see the hole left behind, where I knocked it out with my pedal. The root knot is laying to the left in the picture. I was tired, so I had my seat up, I was sitting and I didn’t have my pedals level. My bike app said I was going 20 mph. I hit the front brake at the same time I hit the root. When I came to a rest I was flat on my back up against that first tree/bush. My head hurt and I looked down at my waist and my hips were rotated around clockwise 90° from my upper body. I told myself that’s effed up and just by looking at myself I thought I had broken my back. About that time my friend caught up to me, and told me not to move. I didn’t have much pain until I untwisted myself. I don’t think I hit my ribs on anything. There was no dirt on the front of my shirt and I have no bruising . I think I broke my ribs from getting so twisted up. I’m still in shock that it’s 5 of them. Moral of the story is, don’t get lazy till you get back home and are on the couch.

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High Rock Ruti

Flexeral for pain not percocet. I learned the hard way four broken ribs on three crashes.

The pain is caused by the muscle contracting trying "splint" the ribs from movement.

Cyclobenzaprine trade name Flexeral is a muscle relaxer, I'm not really a doctor, I just pretend to be one on MTB forums.

Warm Regards Ruti
 

Dave G

Member
Sep 25, 2022
41
20
Sheffield Uk
Get well soon.👍
I came off my MTB on New Year's eve, same thing just lost concentration for a few seconds and the bike dropped trapping me underneath it. I was due in hospital on the Wednesday to have my left knee replaced which did go ahead, but with a right shoulder injury and a damaged left hand makes things more difficult
Main point for you is to get well and get back in the saddle😊
 

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