Cycling Injuries forum
 

There seem to be a lot of cycling related injuries and health related problems and a lot of general health problems that affect ones cycling ability posted on BikeForums.
Would it possible to have a cycling injury type of forum or subforum (maybe a subforum of Training and Nutrition???) so all these questions and problems can be posted in one place for everyone to learn from or add their 2 cents??

If someone was in an "accident" they really should seek medical attention and not rely on a forums for advice. Most of the time, people are surprised that "they" actually had an accident and want to share their experience with their biking family. It seems like it would discourage new riders unless you had to preface your entry with, I rode 3,000 miles in 2001 with one car/bike accident, 4500 miles in 2002 and 7000 miles in 2003 without any car/bike accidents. The more you drive your automobile, the greater the odds you will be in an accident. The same principle applies with cycles. As you gain more experience, you become more aggressive like "taking the road" and placing yourself so car drivers can see you. Just like young people getting their license and making a lot of judgment errors, newbie cyclists make a lot of errors. So even though the skill level increases with experience, high mileage increases your odds of any type of accident. Isn't that why car insurance is lower for lower mileage?

Very true. I'd hate to encourage people to come to the forums for medical advice rather than seeing a doctor. I'm sure plenty of people would definitely seek medical advice, but for the ones that think it's no big deal, you're getting a lot of contradictory, sometimes inaccurate information from lots of different members, and quite frankly, unless someone is there looking at your injuries up close, no one can tell you really what may be happening to you. I wouldn't encourage a separate forum for this, just continue telling people to seek medical attention. Besides, Cbhungry can't be around to answer all our questions all the time! ;)

Koffee

Agreed. A public forum is not the place to seek medical advice.

I'm not taking about a medical advice forum. Just a place where people can talk about things like:
* how changing pedals helped knee pain
* back pain caused by improperly fitting bikes
* numbness in the hands or crotch and what helps relieve it
* leg cramps
* "my feet hurt" problems
* etc.

It seems that there are a lot of folks who post here who are looking for this kind of information.
It would be easier to look in one forum or subforum rather than scour BF trying to find some answers.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. But at the same time, I just don't see how it won't end up becoming the place where people will end up dispensing medical advice. It's almost that way right now in the training and nutrition forum. As of now, we seem to be doing fine the way things are in the training and nutrition forum, so why change things? By pulling out injuries and creating a forum for it, I just think at the end of the day, people will still end up asking for medical advice, and others will be happy to comply with giving out the advice. It may be a forum created with good intentions, but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I would hate to see someone liable when someone gives out some bad advice and someone gets hurt, that's all.

Koffee

i agree that this is no place to give medical advice, but it is a good idea to sound off about things you may be doing wrong on your bike.. that a medical dr who does not cycle.. can not know. not that it should replace a drs. opinion, but give another outlook for the dr to consider. not everyone can see sports drs easily.. and some things like (sore bum) can really turn off newbies... so why not another forum member telling them how to adjust their seat? jmho