Well it finally happened to me. I broke my wrist this weekend in a race. I came up short on a big double, and plowed straight into the face of the landing. My left wrist is in really bad shape, and I am having surgery Friday. The doc says I should make a complete recovery though.


Here is my question. I am sure that my wrist will be weakened once it heals. I have a steering dampner, but I want to know if anyone has any other suggestions of ways to protect my wrist once I am back riding.

Man it took me ten minutes to type all this.

 

Sorry to hear that. Hope it heels allright. I have a friend I ride with that has the same problem. He wears a brace looking thing on his wrist. It Looks like a bowling brace. He got it from physical tharipy when he was recovering. All it does is keep his wrist stiff, no twisting and limited bending. I'd ask the Doc about someting like that for you. Hope this helps.

Bruce L. Hall
99 Soprt 400

 

I broke my left wrist quite a long time ago, more years than I care to remember, but it didn't require surgery to fix other than a cast. I'd have to say though, that it was back a full-strength after a few months, but there are times now when riding that I'll land wrong (or from just aggressive riding) and will aggravate it again--ending up with pain and restricted movement usually lasting for a week or two. The point I'm trying to make is that although it'll heal up fine it'll probably cause problems as you get older, so you might want to ride with a brace for the added rigidity and protection.

 

What kind of bars were you running? I overshot a double last weekend and landed into the face of a uphill grade with my nose down. I jammed a wrist a little (it's already back to about 100%), but smashed the heck out of my bars.

I run a pair of standard aluminum bars (the cheap $30 kind). They offer all the advantages of aluminum bars (reduced vibration & fatigue) but are not as strong as some of the others (eg. Pro Taper's) which I think is important. I would rather the bars squish on a hard landing than my wrist.

Had I used a different set of bars, I would probably had a cast on too.

Whatever you do, stay as far as possible away from carbon steel bars.

Oh yeah, a steering damper would not have helped unless the bars turned suddenly when you landed.

FWIW... I broke my left wrist once, smashed the larger of the two bones (contact with the ground while crashing my ATC200X). I was probably about 13 at the time. It just took a cast to fix. I don't really have any problems with it, but later I did injure both of them weightlifting when I was about 16. It took a very long time to heal, but now they are good for the most part, just have to be a little careful. I am 26 now.

 

StockRacer,
I finally got around to replacing my stock bars on my Warrior last week with Renthals. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to it since I already knew how much less shock is transmitted thru them. Having broken both wrists in the same get-off years ago, I know how you feel after a hard landing or rough ride. I got the chance to try the Renthals out last Sun & they really made a difference. I got the CR bend, which is great if you ride standing a lot or sitting in the attack position. They have a short rise (a tad over 3"), and much less pull-back than stock ATV bars.
BTW, my bike get-offs were 20 years ago and if I take some really big hits, the wrists remind me of that day.

 

I am running KX 80 bend Renthal bars. Amazingly, and unfortunately they are not damaged at all. I sure wish they would have broken instead of my wrist. I imagine that if I had full size handlebars rather than the mini bars they would have broken first. Since the mini bars are shorter, there is less leverage on them. I guess I better switch to a full size set even though I love the control and feel of the mini bars.

 

hey guys I just broke my leg right above my ankle and I was wondering if any of you guys know of a good ankle type brce that I can wear inside my riding boots? ok thanks

 

Oh I did way back in 98 on a cr80.

 

Well I did have my surgery. I had a piece of bone taken from my hip and put in my arm, and I have a steel plate in my wrist, and I have a pin sticking out of my wrist.

OUCH