Living Car Free - What do you do about injuries?

In the last year i have had a couple of injuries that have made cycling very painful and/or impossible. Luckily they have all been non-serious and it has only been a couple of days off the bike. Without having free access to a motor vehicle myself though, i have to start cycling again sooner than i think is wise in order to get to work.

Do you just battle on through injuries, or find some other means of transport until you recover? I am a little concerned that i am storing up trouble for the future with a body of half-repaired injuries.

when in doubt rest.

see your doctor if neccessary. better to err on side of caution....but don't just sit around and wait . you don't wanna lose fitness and lose your momentum...tough to get back on the bike if you lay off too long. But a day or two of rest never hurts.

Well said, pgoat.

This strategy can only get you so far, but I definitely try to avoid injuries before they happen. I try to be safe on and off the bike. For example, if you ride a bike offroad, it's worthwhile to pick routes that are well within your ability level and do them at speeds that make it easy to avoid crashing, and get off and walk the bike if anything's questionable.

I guess I try for a little extra margin of safety with most things.

I understand your concern. In college I tangled with a tree that had fallen across the road and whacked my knee severely. The injury took all quarter to heal. Even now, decades later, its more sensitive and tends to get water buildup. Like you, there was no alternative transportation. I let it heal for a day or so till I could hobble, and then got back gingerly on the bike and just didn't push it.

All I can say is take care of yourself as well as you can.

I've had a couple times when injuries kept me off the bike for 4 to 5 months. I walked, took the bus, and even got rides from friends during those periods. Your body will of course deteriorate more from underuse than from overuse. If you can't ride, it's important to practice another form of vigorous exercise.

Plan A, of course, is not to get injured. (And the physical conditioning and resilience you build up as a transportation cyclist does make injuries less likely.)

But when plan A fails, I might rent a car for a couple days, rather than risk making the injury worse. If it looks like I'll need a week or two recovery...still rent a car for a day or two, use that time to take care of all the errands, grocery shopping, etc that I can foresee for the next couple weeks, then return the car and commute to work by bus or carpool for a while.

I've never had an injury that kept me off the bike for more than two weeks...but if it was going to be a couple of months or more, I would probably buy a cheap used car, grudgingly tolerate the cost of insuring it for the duration of the injury, then sell the car when I no longer needed it.

The cost, financial and environmental, of any of these options -- rental cars, bus passes, and any net loss I would take on a temporary car purchase -- would still be a small fraction of what I've saved over the years by not owning cars. So I would try not to grumble to much, and concentrate on healing fast so I can get back on my bike. :)

I'm now convinced that if you want to be car-free and depend mostly on cycling to haul your butt around, you have to tone down your riding style a bit.

I had a tough time coming to terms with this reality. As my sig-line reflects, I like the addictive quality of a heart-pounding, pedal-mashing, MP3-blaring ride. But doing that day in and day out, hauling groceries, meeting appointments, running errands will cause one helluva cranky, achey burnout.

I'm now convinced that if you want to be car-free and depend mostly on cycling to haul your butt around, you have to tone down your riding style a bit.

I had a tough time coming to terms with this reality. As my sig-line reflects, I like the addictive quality of a heart-pounding, pedal-mashing, MP3-blaring ride. But doing that day in and day out, hauling groceries, meeting appointments, running errands will cause one helluva cranky, achey burnout.

OTOH mashing it three days a week and riding it gently on the other four days....makes for a strong and happy rider!

OTOH mashing it three days a week and riding it gently on the other four days....makes for a strong and happy rider!

Ya, well... I've gotten myself so that at least 1/2 my weekly milage (around 180 miles/wk) is at a comfortable pace (were I can sing along if I like :eek:).

Experience helps. I notice that I had a lot more accidents in my 20's and 30's and almost none in the past decades.